Context Before Content

A direct account of the background, decisions, and consequences that shaped the systems discussed on this podcast. No motivation. No redemption narrative. Just function. 

                                  What This Episode Covers

• Adoption and upbringing under a single, highly disciplined educator
• A childhood centered on education, structure, and accountability
• Forced independence at nineteen with no safety net
• The realities of cost of living, responsibility, and decision consequences
• A decade of destructive behavior, incarceration, and lasting outcomes
• Why this podcast focuses on function over motivation

You’re listening to Self EMS™ - Personal Operating Systems.
This isn’t motivation. It’s function.
Operate better.

Transcript

This episode exists for one reason: context.

Before you decide whether this podcast is worth your time, you need to understand who is speaking, where the framework comes from, and what lived experience informs it.

I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and given up for adoption early in life. At age four, I was adopted by Mr. Haywood, a single man, and flown across state lines to San Jose, California, where he lived and worked as an educator.

He was highly educated, disciplined, and exacting. He never missed work, always paid bills, dressed well, and believed deeply in structure, education, and accountability.

Church attendance was non-denominational, consistent, and formative. That environment is where I established a personal relationship with Jesus, which I carry to this day.

My childhood was stable and intentionally structured. Museums, academic enrichment, math and science camps, summer programs, there was very little unstructured time. If I wasn’t enrolled in something, I was reading. Education was not optional, and performance mattered.

By high school, I had more than enough credits to graduate early, but that option was intentionally denied. The expectation was not speed. It was readiness.

At nineteen, I forced a confrontation that ended my childhood abruptly. I kicked myself out of the house. Permanently.

My adoptive father made a decision many parents avoid. He held the boundary. No return, no safety net, no continued guidance.

From that point forward, he ceased to be my father in function. He became Mr. Haywood, someone I no longer had a relationship with. From that moment on, I was fully responsible for myself.

Living on your own at nineteen accelerates maturity whether you want it or not. Rent, food, work, time management, trade-offs, no one tells you when to eat, sleep, or pay your bills.

That pressure cooker is where the early frameworks behind my books began to form. Not theory. Not inspiration. Survival logistics. Cost of living. Decision consequences. Delayed gratification.

I did not handle that freedom well.

Over the next decade, I made destructive decisions. I broke the law repeatedly, accumulated twenty-four felonies, and spent thirty-eight months incarcerated across multiple sentences.

I have been on probation, on parole, homeless, and functionally sidelined from conventional opportunity.

Those outcomes were earned. There were no excuses. No third-party blame. No mitigating narratives.

Poor judgment, lack of foresight, and impulsive behavior produced predictable results, and I continue to live with those consequences today.

This episode is not about redemption arcs or emotional appeal. It is about transparency.

You should know who you are listening to. You should be selective about where you spend your attention. You should understand the operating history behind the systems being discussed on this podcast.

This show is not about motivation. It is about function, about how people operate when conditions are imperfect, when permission is absent, and when consequences are permanent.

This episode establishes the baseline.

Everything that follows builds from it.