The easy answer on “About Me”, is I’m a man of God, who loves his family and appreciates the value of hard work. But I’d like to take you back to how I got here.
I was born in 1971 and grew up in Los Angeles, CA, in the inner city of South Central LA, not the beautiful pictures you see of Southern California in travel magazines. I was 1 of 1 children to my mother and father Earlene and Walter Mitchell, but I was raised with my 3 older siblings Cynthia, Anthony, and Mishel; from my mothers first marriage who are 10, 12, and 14 years older than I. I was both spoiled and teased being the youngest, but always watched over. My household had a lot of love, but also much dysfunction. My father who had stepped in as father for my 3 siblings passed away from a heart condition when I was 2 so I didn’t really know him, and that left my Mom to raise 4 kids as a single mother. This was a tough time as my Mom navigated raising 3 strong willed teenagers in a city full of violence, drugs and gangs. I wish I could say she successfully navigated it, but unfortunately all 3 of my siblings and much of my extended family where pulled into that life.
I was the kid that always asked “why”, I’m still always asking “why” and I think its one of my best assets. I think this may have come from seeing so much contradiction in my world. My Mom is a church woman, she loves God, she sang in the church choir, had me singing in the church choir, could recite passages from the bible, I was at church on Sunday, Wed, and Thurs, but as I mentioned I had gangs, violence, and drugs all around me including in my Mom’s house. I watched my Mom work hard to complete college in her 40’s typing one finger at a time to finish her papers at night. She graduated college when I was 9, but then never went on to work, instead was tied to the government welfare system for our every need. She bused me to school in the valley up until high school, where I got to see a different life. People who’s parents worked, had a nice home, had nice things, a calm to come home to. When I asked my Mom “why are we poor”, the answer was “we’re just poor”. It didn’t make sense to me, I didn’t see these other kids as much different and definitely not better than me.
Fast forward a bit to my senior year in high school. Life at home was still difficult, my best friend had just been murdered in gang violence. I was looking for something outside my world. I had developed of love for pushing weights, thanks to my brother that always modeled that and taught me about being physically strong from when I was young. There was a Bally’s Total Fitness up in Hollywood, so I had my Mom take me up there to sign up. I drove the 30 min to get there practically every day after work, practice, classes, whatever I had; I made it a priority. There I met some incredible people, black, white, hispanic, everything, all in there with the same goal…to get strong. We were equal, the older guys of course wanted to help out a young man going for his, so I wound up with some accidental mentors there. Mentors became a theme in my life. There was no social media back then, so I had no idea who these guys were outside the gym, but I noticed that after working out many of them cleaned up and walked out in some pretty sharp suits into some super nice cars, some I had never even seen before. In getting to know them, turns out they were lawyers, actors, doctors and the like. I started to see something bigger…it’s possible, for anyone, no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like. We weren’t “just poor”, it was a choice and I was going to make a different one.
My Mission:
How much can I give? How many people can I help have a fulfilled life? Simply put I’m a helper, I want to serve, I love to see people win, and I like hanging with winners (Eagles)…I’m a winner too!! I enjoy being around folks that have opened themselves up enough to understand and believe that dreams do come true! You have to believe in the things you can’t see…faith; this for me is defined by my belief in God and more importantly I Believe GOD. Success is our birth right, it’s His promise to us all!
Officially Persistent 