Invest in Yourself

When Michael Santos visited the prison camp where I served my sentence, he spoke about the importance of preparing for success. As a person who had served 26 years in prison, and built multiple income streams after he got out, I paid attention to what he had to share. 

The BOP allowed me to transition from the federal prison camp to a halfway house in May, 2025. Once I got there, I reached out to Michael and I’m thrilled that he opened an opportunity for me to work with Prison Professors.

Prior to my criminal conviction, I had a distinguished career. I had earned multiple degrees from a great university. Then I became a licensed financial advisor, worked for some big firms, and then launched a business to assist others who wanted to invest. Bad decisions led me to prison. While I was there, I interacted with multiple people who did not know how they would earn a living once they got out.

During his presentation, Michael spoke with us about the importance of preparation before getting out. Unfortunately, many people inside didn’t get this message. Instead, they focused on serving the time, saying they’d worry about what they'd do on the other side of the sentence once they got out. In his presentation, Michael warned us all that we should anticipate a job market that would not be too welcoming to people with felony backgrounds. For that reason, he urged us all to develop strategies that would lead to income streams, just as he did while serving multiple decades.

If people return to society without an income stream, they will have a hard time integrating. In this era of technology, artificial intelligence and robotics will displace people who do not have a criminal record. That makes the burden even harder for people with a felony record.

It’s tough to get jobs. Without a job, a person can’t get stable. Without stability, a person cannot get credit. To live in society, a person must think about the obstacles ahead. In the self-directed courses on Prison Professors, Michael writes about the importance of being the CEO of our life. To adjust, a person must:

1. Define success as the best possible outcome, given the circumstances.
2. Develop a plan that will take a person from crisis to opportunity.
3. Prioritize the steps that a person should take.
4. Build tools, tactics, and resources that accelerate the path to success.
5. Adjust as necessary.
6. Execute the plan every day.

What I like about Michael’s message is that he makes three promises. He consistently tell us that:

“One, I will never lie to you. Two, I will never ask you to do anything I didn’t do, and three, I will never charge anyone a penny for anything on Prison Professors.”

That authenticity made me believe in his message. It’s the reason that I’m glad to begin working with Prison Professors. When I asked Michael how he could build his nonprofit, he told me that he used his time in prison to prepare for success. Then, once he got out, he used those preparations to begin building a pathway. Since he considered himself unemployable, instead of searching for jobs, he began creating businesses and multiple income streams through real estate and investments. He advised that if a person learned how to invest, he would accelerate a pathway to financial independence. 

First, a person had to invest in himself. 

He gave me an example of how he invested in himself. In late May, he invested more than $15,000 to attend the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas. 

Why? 

Because he believed in the importance of learning more to advance his future. 

Any person could invest in himself to advance his future. A person doesn’t have to go to an expensive conference. Instead, a person can read a book. By reading the book, the person may learn to think differently. By thinking differently, a person may learn to increase earnings. By increasing earnings, a person may want to invest larger sums to open more opportunities, such as attending a conference.

The little steps we take today put us on a path for bigger opportunities tomorrow.

While at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, Michael wrote about what he learned from attending the seminars of influential leaders. Even Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at the conference, he talked Bitcoin going mainstream, and policy reforms that will help the industry grow. Both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. spoke at the conference, telling the audience about their family’s support of the cryptocurrency industry. 

Many opportunities will open in the years to come. Given the complexities and collateral consequences that follow for all people who get out of prison, it makes sense for people to learn more about investing. For that reason, the team at Prison Professors creates self-directed courses that will make people more fluent in the language of investing. We all must sow seeds today for the success we want to build tomorrow. In the alternative, we must pay the consequences.

There is a risk to investing, but there is also a risk to not investing.

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