In a clip circulating on social media, Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, described a question he once asked a young candidate from Harvard. Griffin asked him, “If you made $10 million, what would you do?” The candidate answered that he would quit and climb the highest peaks around the world. Griffin said the answer helped him conclude that Citadel was not the right firm for that person. He was not only testing intelligence, credentials, or ambition in the conventional sense. He wanted to understand what success meant to the person sitting across from him. (LinkedIn)
Griffin’s point offers a useful framework for any person or organization. Money can reveal values. For some people, financial success represents an endpoint. They reach a number, stop working, and withdraw from responsibility. For others, financial stability creates an opportunity to do more meaningful work. It becomes a platform for service, contribution, and a larger mission.
I understand that distinction from personal experience.
From Prison to Purpose
I finished serving my sentence on August 12, 2013. When I walked out of federal prison, I had already served 26 years. I had entered the system as a young man, and I returned to society in my late forties. I carried the consequences of my decisions, but I also carried a commitment to use the rest of my life differently.
During my first decade of liberty, I worked to build financial independence. I wanted to create stability for my family. I wanted to rebuild after decades of confinement. I wanted to prove, through disciplined work, that a person could emerge from prison and contribute in meaningful ways.
That work gave me choices. Once I reached a point where I no longer needed to work for a paycheck, I had to answer a version of the same question Ken Griffin posed:
What will I do now that money is no longer the primary driver?
My answer was to go deeper into the mission.
Mission Alignment
I devote my full time to Prison Professors Charitable Corp. because I believe we could improve outcomes for people in the criminal justice system. We build free educational resources for people before, during, and after prison. We teach the importance of self-directed learning, personal accountability, documented growth, and preparation for success upon release.
Our work does not exist as a business strategy. Our website offers all educational resources free of charge. I know what it feels like to live inside a prison cell without a clear path forward. For that reason, I founded our nonprofit, hoping to show others how to build a path, one decision at a time.
We provide this self-directed guidance through our free courses, including Playbook: Become the CEO of Your Life.
We want to help people understand that they do not have to wait for the system to change before they begin changing their own lives. They can start today. They can define success. They can set goals. They can develop the right attitude. They can aspire to more, take action, hold themselves accountable, build awareness, live authentically, document achievements, and express appreciation for those who support their growth.
Those principles guide our Straight-A Guide framework. They also guide the way we operate as an organization.
Gratitude for Supporters and Collaborators
I am grateful to every person who supports this work. Donors, volunteers, institutional leaders, defense attorneys, educators, family members, formerly incarcerated people, and people still serving sentences all contribute to this movement.
We do not take that support lightly.
When people contribute to Prison Professors, they should know that we intend to be good stewards of those resources. We use donations to create and distribute free coursework, books, videos, audio lessons, and profile-building tools, and also to visit federal prisons so that we can make in-person presentations. We want more people in prison to document the steps they are taking to prepare for success.
That documentation can help individuals build records that may influence stakeholders, including judges, case managers, wardens, probation officers, employers, and community leaders. More importantly, it helps people see themselves differently. Instead of waiting passively for time to pass, they begin using time as an asset.
Ending Cycles of Recidivism and Poverty
Our aspiration is larger than any single course, book, or presentation. We want to help end intergenerational cycles of recidivism and poverty.
That goal requires action. It requires tools. It requires a framework that people can use regardless of where they are confined, how much time they have to serve, or what resources they had before entering the system.
By providing free coursework to people in prison, we are doing our part to be the change we want to see in the world. We cannot control every policy decision or institutional practice. Nor can we eliminate the obstacles or collateral consequences that follow a person after release.
But we can build resources. We can create pathways. We can encourage people to memorialize their growth. We can show stakeholders that many people in prison want to prepare, contribute, reconcile, and return to society as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.
Success as a Platform for Service
Ken Griffin’s interview question resonates because it asks something deeper than, “How much money do you want?” It asks, “What does success make possible for you?”
For me, success makes service possible.
Financial independence did not end my work. It made this work more urgent. It gave me the freedom to devote my time, energy, and resources to a mission that began while I was still in prison. Every course we publish, every book we distribute, every institutional presentation we make, and every profile we help someone build reflects that commitment.
I want our community to know that Prison Professors is mission aligned. I do not draw any income from our nonprofit. In fact, we urge people in our community to learn how to generate their own income streams. They can do so by living as the CEO of their life.
We are driven by the belief that people can change, and that society benefits when more people return from prison with stronger values, better plans, and documented records of growth.
That is the work I chose after prison.
That is the work I choose now.
And with the continued support of people who believe in second chances, education, accountability, and human potential, that is the work we will continue advancing.