Prison Professors' Website Updates

May 20, 2026: Tuesday

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

May 19, 2026: Monday

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Please help me draft a message based on lessons I learned from the book Won’t Get You Here Won’t Get You There. I read that book while incarcerated, and it had a big impact on my thinking.

The author of the book helped people who aspired to advance from one stage of their career to become the CEO of the business. I always learned lessons from leaders who built great businesses. They had to be intentional, always thinking about the opportunity costs that accompany every decision.

While incarcerated, I had to make intentional decisions. In the beginning, I had to start by defining success. As a person who would serve multiple-decades in prison, I had to think about ways that I could make my time useful. I’d pondered questions such as:

• “What could I be the best in the world at doing?”  

I anticipated that I’d served multiple decades. For that reason, I hoped to leverage the experience to work toward reforming the system. My hopes were to bring ideas that would lead to changes. Instead of measuring justice by how much time a person served in prison, I wanted to advance a different idea.

Society should encourage people to work toward reconciliation, and prepare in ways that would lead to their success upon release.

Building in Phases:

To succeed, I’d have to build in phases. The first phase would be to develop academic and professional credentials. With academic credentials and communication skills, I hoped to persuade people to think differently about justice. Rather than seeking vengeance, I wanted them to consider the merits of incentivizing the pursuit of excellence–getting people ready for the job market.

The second phase would begin after my release. I had to build income streams that would allow me to become financially independent. With financial independence, I’d have freedom of time. I could deploy my resources to build programs, write lessons, and begin building systems that would allow me to measure the progress of people who’ve gone through our system. After building equity of a few million dollars, my wife and I decided that I didn’t need to focus my time on earning more money. The investments I’d made would support us and grow on their own. I could transition my energy to work full time on impact–striving to help as many people as possible use time in prison to prepare for success upon release.

The third phase was to build broader support. One of the world’s leading impact investors, Bill McGlashan, became a believer. Bill is the founder of TPG Capital, and also The Rise Fund. He invests in people with expectations of building sustainable ventures. He spent 100s of hours teaching me on the principles of impact investing, and he also donated resources that would help our nonprofit grow.

The fourth phase was to scale. I shared my vision of working to transform America’s prison system with other wealthy individuals, including Changpeng Zhao. To succeed, I anticipated that we’d need a multi-year commitment, with a budget of $2 million per year. I did not have sufficient resources to fund that initiative alone, but I would work without compensation. Those resources would allow us to develop better relationships with government officials. They could help us build a transparent platform, showing people who were working to prepare for success upon release. We’d collect data that we could use to advance conversations on reforms that would encourage people to work toward earning higher levels of liberty, through merit.

The fifth phase will be to build transparency. We’ve built our platform, and more than 7,600 participants are using Prison Professors to memorialize the steps they’re taking to prepare for success upon release. Those people have published more than 12.1 million words on our website. They are building assets, a body of work that they can leverage to advance arguments for a higher level of liberty upon release, and income opportunities.

The next phase will be to build our community. As a result of CZ’s memoir, Freedom of Money, a team of Web 3.0 developers launched an initiative to support our mission. They created a website to describe a token project that has resulted in donations for our nonprofit that are currently valued at more than $400,000.

https://prisonprofessorstoken.com/

Members of the community even drafted a graphic to help others understand the Web 3.0 community, showing how they are using the #BNB platform to support the mission of our nonprofit.

https://x.com/kolosxbt/status/2052474488818741742?s=20

In the months to follow, we’re going to develop the next phase, which is to grow our community. We want to reach athletes, celebrities, influencers, and others. We can show them how Prison Professors works to improve outcomes for all people in the criminal justice system. Through these initiatives, we can work to end intergenerational cycles of recidivism and poverty, while simultaneously improving the culture of confinement.

Step by step, we’re always going to build and build.

February 19, 2026; Thursday

Deliberate Steps

Last week, I had the privilege of sitting in a regional office of the Bureau of Prisons with five other formerly incarcerated men. The Deputy Director of the agency invited us, asking us to participate in a meeting with the wardens of every high-security federal prison in the nation.

We were not there as representatives of the agency. Instead, he asked that we share our stories and offer insights into our experiences. He thought the other wardens may want to use our stories and message to contribute to the agency’s mission of improving the culture of confinement.

Few people will understand the significance of that innovative leadership. From where I stood, it represented a meaningful step forward. While I served my term, the agency did not put any emphasis in listening to people who had once served time.

Under the new administration, which I admire, each warden acknowledged the value of hearing directly from people who had served long sentences. That is a function of leadership. Since that meeting, I’ve remained in contact with many of the wardens. They’ve extended warm invitations for the other men and me to visit their institutions.

For that progress, I am grateful. I thank God for opening doors that I never could have opened on my own. When I was in a cell decades ago, I could not have imagined sitting at a table with leaders of the very system that once confined me. Yet here we are.

Building Before the Visit

The most encouraging development I want to share is that we’re making it possible for anyone to participate in our free programs at any time. No one has to wait for me to make a visit to a prison to participate in the Prison Professors programming.

Several wardens have already offered to introduce Prison Professors’ resources inside their facilities before I visit. That head start will make future presentations more engaging. It will also give people an opportunity to begin documenting their growth immediately.

Change begins with leadership, and I’m grateful for the leadership I saw while on my tour to prisons last week.

While on the East Coast, I visited prisons to make two presentations in Virginia and five in New Jersey. Between those institutions, I estimate I spoke with approximately 1,000 people serving time in federal prison.

I told them what I always say:

• Define success.
• Set clear goals.
• Create a plan.
• Execute daily.
• Document progress.

Our nonprofit will continue to distribute free, self-directed resources people can use to work toward better outcomes. I invite each participant to become an ambassador for the message, showing his commitment to preparing for success upon release. It’s a pathway to improving the culture of confinement. The harder we work on ourselves, the more likely others will notice.

Federal Correctional Institution at Fairton

After my presentation at FCI Fairton, I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Acting Warden Martinez. In my experience, people who serve in acting roles often go on to become permanent wardens. Leadership shows in how a person listens and responds.

I appreciated Warden Martinez’s openness and his support for programs that encourage self-improvement. During our conversation, he asked if I was familiar with Earl Nightingale.

I was not.

He seemed surprised. He told me about a message Nightingale delivered in 1956 known as The Strangest Secret. The following morning, he sent me a link to the recording. Anyone can find the link on YouTube.

What I heard in Mr. Nightingale’s 30-minute audio clip astonished me.

The Strangest Secret

In 1956, Earl Nightingale recorded a talk for sales agents at the Combined Insurance Company of America. The message later became the first spoken-word recording to earn a Gold Record.

His central thesis was simple:

We become what we think about.

He explained that most people drift through life without defining what they want. They measure time by circumstance rather than intention. But those who succeed do something different:

• They define their destination.
• They fix their minds on that destination.
• They take consistent action aligned with that vision.

When I listened to that recording, I felt inspired. I also felt gratitude. More than 50 years before I wrote the Straight-A Guide in prison, Nightingale was teaching the same foundational lesson: define success and set clear goals.

Parallel Paths

The first two modules of the Straight-A Guide suggested that people:

1. Define success.
2. Set clear goals that align with that definition.

Those who read or listen to Nightingale’s message will find identical instructions. I did not know his work when I began writing in my cell. I did not have access to YouTube, podcasts, or business seminars while I served my sentence. I had books to read, a yellow pad, a pen, and time.

I have always said that I cannot take credit for what I produce. I learned from many masters. I learned from leaders. And I believe that God guided my thoughts during those 9,500 days. When I began writing about defining success and setting goals, I was simply trying to survive with dignity. I was asking:

• “What must I do today to prepare for a better tomorrow?”

Listening to Nightingale reminded me that timeless truths surface in different generations, through different voices.

I am grateful to Warden Martinez for introducing me to this literature. His leadership extends beyond policy. It reaches into the realm of ideas, encouraging people in prison to think differently about their future.

Sowing Seeds

No one can change the past.

But any of us can begin sowing seeds today for a better future.

• That was true in 1956 when Nightingale delivered his message.
• It was true during my decades in prison.
• It was true during Biblical times.
• It is true for the 1,000 people I spoke with last week.

And it is true for every person who wakes up this morning inside a federal prison.

If you are serving time, do not wait for calendar pages to turn. Start by creating strategic plans:

• Define success.
• Set goals.
• Act deliberately.
• Document your progress.

God willing, doors will open. Progress begins the moment you decide to think intentionally about the life you want to build.

Last week’s meeting with the Bureau of Prisons did not happen by accident. It happened because thousands of people inside are documenting their growth, building profiles, writing journals, and proving through measurable effort that they are preparing for higher levels of liberty. That is the culture shift we are working toward.

I am grateful to Warden Martinez and others for opening opportunities for me to contribute, even in a small way by sharing lessons that I learned.