What does friendship mean to you?

Friendship means being able to accept & support one for what they are, what they could be, and what they are not, while championing their cause.

How much control do we have over our own life choices?

If control is the child of choices we make, then we have 100% control. It's the choices available to us that have been filtered due to circumstance. A commitment to another is based upon the facts as we know them. We cannot control the misrepresentation of facts that may have been communicated to us.

So, I believe, we have 100% control over our own life choices, while control over a commitment to another is proportionate to the truth in the "facts" presented.

How do you find ways to keep going and persevere?

I have "manufactured my own money" since I was 25, when I decided to be self employed. Three children and a wife, and she was a stay at home mom. The only butt I could kick was my own, and many times I kicked way too hard. Looking into the eyes of my children, petting their little backs while they slept at 2 or 3 am literally saved my life a few times. As trite as it may seem, I haven't started a New Year in 20+ years without watching "It's a Wonderful Life".

As the children grew older, poverty that had always existed, became magnified. Poverty angers the hell out of me. While I know I cannot provide an overall solution to it, I can, and do find strength to help little segments of the community, directly, to faces I can see, people I can touch, and lives that I can influence in a small way.

I'ts rather ironic, there have been many times that I cursed the thought of having so many dependant upon me that I couldn't die, but they are also the reason for any success I have had, and for my perseverance.

You have a 10 minute speech to give at a high school, what is it about?

That every single student can be anything that they want to be. There are no restrictions - NONE. The key is in the management of their own daily, 24 hour clock. Nothing of value is ever really accomplished by sleeping, gaming, texting, MTV, or partying in excess.

To simplify, the time left over after your 8 hours of rest and 8 hours of school/employment will be the time in your young lives that will determine the quality of the rest of your life.