Troy's Times - August 1st, 2006
Hi Friend! (Some ch^racters in th1s newsletter have been altered to keep it from being filtered out as spam) IN THIS ISSUE
“It is not important How we come to the events in our lives, but how we Deal with those events”- Troy
This week’s article: Public Image of an Inmate “A man is not finished when he is defeated; he’s finished
when he quits.” For those of you who have been following these string of articles you
know I was now cruising along, things were good. I was making my mom and
dad proud. I was making my brother and sister proud. I was making my son
proud. And I was making my scholarship committee VERY happy. I was two
classes away from completing my second degree and already making plans
to start on my Masters when a new warden came to FCI Florence. He immediately
took a dislike to me. He didn’t like the fact that I was allowed
extra computer time, he didn’t like the fact that I was allowed
extra library time, and he in particular did not like the fact that I
was allowed to receive videotapes via the mail so that I could take my
courses by correspondence. He told me that it was all coming to an end
immediately. I understood that the warden was new and had no way of knowing how hard
I had worked to accomplish the things that I had, so I turned to the association
that was funding my schooling to plead my case for me. I figured that
they had better ground to stand on, not being convicted felons themselves,
and they happened to be very well connected in the political arena. Over the next several weeks over two-dozen senators and congressmen called and wrote the new warden demanding to know why I was not being allowed to complete my second degree. Needless to say he didn’t appreciate those calls. In retrospect, I’m sure that he felt like his authority was being challenged in his own prison by a convicted felon. He was not used to answering to anyone and now he had his back up against the wall. So he trumped up charges on me, put me under investigation and threw me in the hole as a risk to the institution’s security. All it took was his signature on a couple of forms. All he had to do was make one false accusation and suddenly I was facing up to 90 days in the hole without any justification. To the hole I went. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve dedicated my life, this article, my books, to inspiring people
to ask more of themselves and more of the world. I have asked you to claim
your past, hope as a child, embrace change, steel your determination and
believe in yourself. These are the steps along the path to becoming the
person you want to be. I would be doing you a great disservice, however,
if I did not take a few moments to warn you about the obstacles that you
may still have ahead. Unfortunately, they often pop up when you least
expect them. I think that might be where I was going wrong in the warden’s eye. In Australia they have this saying. If the guy down the street starts
acting above his station or gets too big for his britches, they’ll
say, “ole so and so is being a tall poppy.” Basically what
they mean is that if someone sticks their head up above the crowd, they
are just begging to get cut down. I think that is what the warden thought
of me. In his eyes, I was the same addict and bank robber that my file
told him I was and he wanted to remind me of it. Bank robbers don’t
get extra computer time or special privileges, they get hard time. Drug
addicts don’t get video courses and college degrees, they get all
of the punishment that the system can dish out. And, prosecuted felons
do not, I repeat, do not question wardens about how they will run their
prison either directly or through a bunch of fancy suits on the outside.
I was a tall poppy and he was going to mow me down. People will try to sabotage you. Do not let them. It generally has nothing
to do with what you are actually trying to accomplish with your own life,
but rather, what it represents to the person who is trying to take your
power away. For the warden it was a way to assert his authority in the
prison. For others, sabotaging your successes can be a way to make them
feel better about their own failures. A friend once told me about an Oprah Winfrey show that she saw when Oprah
first lost all of her weight. Here Oprah had finally accomplished this
goal that she had set for herself and what did she get in return? Bags
of mail from people who said that they wouldn’t watch her show any
more. She had changed. She was no longer like them. These people did not
hold her up as a role model, a winner of a tough battle. They lashed out
in bitterness in an attempt to make their own failures her fault. She
had risen above her place and they were going to try to make her feel
like less of a person. It was because she had a personal chef. It was
because she had a personal trainer. It was because she had money. She
was not better than them. She should not get to be happy about her success.
She hadn’t earned it. She was just rich. They took it as a personal
affront that she had succeeded where they were failing when, in reality,
her weight loss had nothing to do with them. They just used it as justification
to stay miserable in their own weight issues rather than do anything about
it. “I could do it to if I could afford a personal chef and a personal
trainer.” There may be those who will lash out at you for bettering yourself as
well. They may try to sabotage your success, try to make you feel like
a traitor, or attempt to take you down a peg. On the bright side, such
criticism probably won’t come in quantities like Oprah had to deal
with, however, a single rejection can carry just as much weight and more
if it comes from a friend or loved one. From a friend or relative, someone you trust, someone who is supposed
to treat you with love, being denounced as a “tall poppy”
simply for reaching for a dream can be absolutely devastating. If, rather
than lashing out, they use your relationship to try to sabotage you, it
can be downright heart breaking. I have been in drug rehabilitation three times in my life. All three
were before I went to prison and all three times I failed to be rehabilitated.
A couple of times I bought into the program and thought, “This is
it. I’m really going to try to do it this time.” Each time,
I would walk out of rehab clear-headed, a new man. And, each time, all
of my wonderful drug addicted friends would throw me a great big congratulatory
party filled with enough drugs to kill me dozens of times over. My friends.
My “friends.” When I was younger, I was out with a group of my “friends”
trespassing at a local reservoir because we were high on LSD and decided
that we wanted to go swimming. My friend, Paul, was decked out in his
usual cutoffs and favorite Aerosmith belt buckle, life of the party as
usual. Just for the fun of it, he decided that he was going to climb an
electrical tower. When he reached the top, he extended his arm out and
deliberately touched the transformer. In an instant, a bolt of electricity
shot through his arm and came out three gaping exit wounds that were instantly
cauterized by the lightening. The electricity stopped his heart and he
fell 60 feet to the ground in front of all of us. He lay there on the
ground in front of us, eyes rolled up in his head, flopping like a fish
on the ground. Most of us ditched the scene. We called the paramedics and sent them
over to see if they could help Paul but none of us stuck around to go
with him to the hospital. One of the group, a guy named Jack, absolutely lost it and ran off into
the woods. He ran around for four hours before finding his way to the
police to tell them what had happened. By the time that they investigated,
Paul had been taken to the hospital and the scene had been cleaned up.
For quite a few hours, Jack didn’t know if he had actually seen
his friend nearly fried to death or if he had hallucinated the whole thing.
In the end, Paul only survived because when he hit the ground after falling
60 feet, the impact restarted his heart. At the time, that wasn’t enough to stop a single one of us from
using drugs. Instead, we tried to sneak some pot into to the hospital
for him so that he could take a few hits while he recovered from his near
death experience. In 2004, I did a speaking engagement in Colorado and tried to look up
some of my old friends. Two were dead, three were in prison, others had
been lost in the wind. Out of the entire group, only three of us had turned
our lives around – the three who had ditched the group and the drugs. So right about now, you may be saying, “Troy, what are you doing?
I was so excited, I was so motivated, and you’re telling me that
the world is against me.” My reply is that, if I didn’t tell you these things, I’d
be selling you a bill of goods. I’ve told you about the steps that
you can take to become the person you want to be. Let’s just consider
this chapter a sturdy pair of walking boots to protect against sprained
ankles. Hopefully, you have surrounded yourself with people who want the best
for you. If so, you’ve just gained some added strength in your fight.
If not, here’s a chance to do some weeding of your own. There are
people who are going to see your head rising above the others in the poppy
field and not like it. If they are your “friends,” be prepared
to leave them behind. They are not your friends. Steel yourself, stick to your path and march forward with determination.
This is the point where some people will want to give up and lay down
lest they be cut down. Me? I took one of my books with me to the hole.
Read a letter from a
recent client - Click hear to read! I often had a hopeless feeling knowing that all I could offer were words of encouragement and support and the sharing of my own downfall....that was until I became partners with a company called DrugTALK. DrugTALK is a v1rtual life coach dedicated to helping families, parents and young people overcome the threat and dangers of drugs through the privacy of their home. They do this by delivering the insight, tools and activities needed for parents to protect their children by putting vital protection principles into practice, often without parents even realizing it. Their programs and tools are based on decades of research and supported by a dynamic team of communication experts, family intervention specialists, treatment professionals, narcotics intelligence officers, life coaches, parents and---most importantly---teens who have faced the world of drugs first-hand. The CEO of DrugTALK happened to attend one of my speaking engagements
and after talking I skeptically took one of his Drug Reference Guides
and a DVD. Having lived through the hell of drug abuse I had my whole
adult life been conv1nced that nothing short of expensive in-patient treatment
centers could break the hold that drugs have on our young people. After
thoroughly studying what DrugTalk has to offer I was blown away- I can
honestly say that h^d these tools been available to me during my teenage
years that I most likely would have avoided the hell I put myself and
family through.
Featured product for this issue! MY FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK- " From Desper^tion to Dedication: Lessons You Can Bank On"…Click
here to order
Download a free chapter of my book, The Preface is available here - Click to begin! If you live in or near one of the following cit1es where Troy will be speaking over the next few months, please contact The Ev^ns Groups for details on an opportunity that does not come around often- see Troy present for free!
Sign up for my affiliate program and earn money while you sleep! Click here for details! Commission for booking me - I offer a comm1ssion of 10%-20% ($750.00-$1,500.00) for anyone who refers me for speaking engagements and/or bulk product sales. Please contact The Evans Group for details. Subscriber opinions and impressions of this electronic newsletter: I invite subscribers to write me with their quest1ons as well and I will answer them in the next issue. Also readers, I invite you to send in profiles of yourself and how you have used the inform^tion from my electronic newsletter, products or speech in your personal and/or professional lives. Once a month I will feature one individual for all others to read about!
Note: You are free to reprint any portion of this electronic newsletter as long as the portion remains complete and unaltered, and the “About the Author” section is included. About the Author- Troy Evans is a profess1onal speaker and author who resides in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Pam and his dog Archibald. Troy travels the country delivering keynote presentations, and since his release from prison has taken the corporate and association pl^tforms by storm. Overcoming adversity, adapting to change and pushing yourself to realize your full potential- other speaker’s talk about these issues, Troy has walked them.
|
| |||||||
         | |||||||
