One sunny afternoon in 1982, a young businessman experienced a terrifying mugging in New York City that shook him to his core. Tortured by nightmares about the teens who roughed him up, Steve Mariotti sought counseling. When his therapist suggested that he face his fears, Mariotti closed his small import-export business and became a teacher at the city's most notorious public school--Boys and Girls High in Bed-Stuy. Although his nightmares promptly ceased, Mariotti's out-of-control students rapidly drove him to despair. One day, Mariotti stepped out of the classroom so his students wouldn't see him cry. In a desperate move to save his job, he took off his watch and marched back in with an impromptu sales pitch for it. To his astonishment, his students were riveted. He was able to successfully lead a math lesson for the first time. Mariotti realized his students felt trapped in soul-crushing poverty. They saw zero connection between school and improving their lives. Whenever Mariotti connected their lessons to entrepreneurship, though, even his most disruptive students got excited about learning. School administrators disapproved of Mariotti discussing money in the classroom, however. He was repeatedly fired before receiving one last-ditch assignment: an offsite program for special-ed students expelled from the public schools for violent crimes. The success Mariotti had with these forgotten children—including coverage in the Daily News, The New York Times, and World News Tonight—inspired him to found the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship to bring entrepreneurship education to low-income youth. By turns tragic and hilarious, Goodbye Homeboy shares Mariotti's flaws and missteps as he connects deeply with his troubled students, and woos the most influential people in the world into helping them—saving himself in the process. Today, Mariotti is widely recognized as the world's leading advocate for entrepreneurship education. More than one million young people from Chicago to China have graduated from NFTE programs, and NFTE counts Sean Combs, Chelsea Clinton, Diana Davis Spencer, and many more business, entertainment, and community leaders among its staunchest supporters. As Goodbye Homeboy powerfully illustrates, a spark of hope really can empower us to overcome life's greatest hardships.

Describes the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur, explains how to start and run a business, and offers tips on costs, investment, market research, and negotiation.

What you are about to read is the first part of a multipart story about my life, parts of my life that involve gangbanging and not just any kind of gangbanging but gangbanging of the deepest type. Gangbanging on the notorious streets of South-Central Los Angeles. Moreover my life evolved from gangbanging to a leading role in America’s drug culture. While these things are true about my life, I want to make one thing very clear: nothing that you are about to read is meant to glorify either gangbanging or drug culture; in fact, it is my sincere hope that the telling of my life story will steer the youth and others away from both paths as they literally lead to dead ends. So if you are reading this, know that if I had it to do all over again, I wish that I had been dealt the kind of cards in life that would have prepared me for an Ivy League college like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. rather than state and federal prison.

If you hate your job and want change, the starting point is with you! Get unstuck, move past boredom, and discover how to flourish at work. This book is for anyone stuck in a rut, burned out, or just plain tired. Has your career plateaued? Do you sometimes dread starting work? Are you bogged down by frustration, tedium, loneliness, or uncertainty? There’s hope. Find Your Happy at Work, the latest book by acclaimed executive coach Beverly Jones, gives you a road map to quickly create more joy and meaning in your work, even if you don’t love your job. Yes, aspects of your career are beyond your control. But Jones says you have more power than you realize. Throughout 50 fast-paced chapters, Find Your Happy at Work offers practical strategies to help you feel more enthusiastic and gratified on the job, whether from in the office or from home. These include: A simple model for creating career engagement that will improve your performance at work and help you develop deeper relationships with others. Techniques for addressing workplace challenges like difficult colleagues, boring tasks, daunting projects, and gloomy environments. Strategies for strengthening your network, building expertise, and laying other groundwork for a resilient career. This book will provide encouragement, inspiration, and useful advice for those who want to be happy in their work, and throughout their lives.

A comprehensive dictionary of blues lyrics invites listeners to interpret what they hear in blues songs and blues culture, including excerpts from original interviews with Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, and many others.

Anthony Woodz Diaz has dreams of Hollywood, but his dreams will be more like nightmares as he struggles to overcome adversities living in the slums of New York City. With just his single mom, disconnected siblings, and no positive father figure, Anthony takes matters into his own hands and turns to the streets of Spanish Harlem for guidance and shelter. Just when the troubled teen seems to be getting his turbulent life in order, his dreams of Hollywood are shattered for good, and he is forced to say good-bye to Hollywood.