Jeff Henderson - If You Can See It, You Can Be It: 12 Street-Smart Recipes for Success

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Also by Jeff Henderson

Cooked:
My Journey from the Streets to the Stove

Chef Jeff Cooks:
In the Kitchen with
Americas Inspirational New Culinary Star

America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook:
Over 130 Soul-Filled Recipes

Please visit the distributor of SmileyBooks: Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com;
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au; Hay House UK:
www.hayhouse.co.uk; Hay House South Africa: www.hayhouse.co.za; Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Copyright 2013 by Jeff Henderson

Published in the United States by: SmileyBooks, 250 Park Avenue South, Suite #201, New York, NY 10003 www.SmileyBooks.com

Distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published and distributed in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Interior Design: Cindy Shaw/CreativeDetails.net

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following organizations for their permission to reprint previously published materials.

The VIA Classification of Character Strengths. Copyright 2013. VIA Institute on Character. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

The Nine Types in Brief. Copyright 2013. The Enneagram Institute. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The opinions set forth herein are those of the authors, and do not necessarily express the views of the publisher or Hay House, Inc. or any of its affiliates.

Library of Congress Control Number: 201 394 7424

Tradepaper ISBN: 978-1-4019-4060-7

16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
1st edition, November 2013
Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my wife, Stacy
and our children Jamar, Jeffery Jr.,
Noel, Troy, Nicholas, and Grace

Authors Note

Some names in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of those who graciously consented to share their experiences and life stories. I am grateful for their willingness to participate.

Every great dream begins with a dreamer.
Always remember, you have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion to reach for
the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman

N o matter what stage Im on, what detention center I visit, or what book signing I attend, someone will always ask: Jeff, how did you do it, man?

After all, I could easily have been a statistic. I could have fallen back into a trap with some of my boys in the hood doing the same ole hustle the same ole way. I could still be in the jointor I could be dead.

People want to know how a youngster from poverty who failed his way through public school, got caught up in the 80s crack epidemic, got indicted and sent to federal prison, then didnt hit the streets again until he was 32 wound up working for five-star hotels. They want to know how he became the author of four books, a celebrity chef, a top inspirational speaker, and finally a mentor-coach who travels the world teaching and preaching about the power we have within us to transform our lives. In short, they want to know how I changed my own life.

The answer is simple: I made a choice to change. To go from being one of the have-nots to being one of the haves. I decided that I wanted more from my life, and I found the way to get it. Though I had wise and unexpected mentors along the way, I still had to find my own way.

Heres where you just got lucky. Too often I didnt have anyone to show me the way up, but Im here to show you how, right now. I didnt always take the fastest or the easiest route, but because real life became my boss and teacher, I can offer you a road map and some life-saving shortcutsi.e., the fast pass to real freedom.

When I was first locked up, I felt my life was over. Done. Finished. I blamed everyone but myself for my imprisonmentmy mother who raised me, my father, the police who arrested me, the informant who testified against me, the prosecutor who prosecuted me, the judge who sentenced me, anyone I could think of. When the reality sank in of the many years I would have to endure alongside 1,500 other men, I felt uncertain of myself and very alone, isolated from those who I thought would never leave me no matter what. Sometimes when I would awaken in the night, it all seemed like a dream. Thoughts of escape crept into my thinking at timeseven thoughts of death.

Change will not come if we wait
for some other person or some other time We
are the change that we seek.

President Barack Obama

The first cubicle I was housed in was a stones throw away from the Pacific Ocean, where large rocks bordered the miles of barbed-wire fence on the prison perimeter. Just hearing the water crashing up on those rocks helped keep me sane. It kept me thinking about the outside world every night. It helped ease the bitterness I had toward some of the women and homeboys in my life.

Just a few years earlier, it seemed as if I had it allthe house on the hill, the Mercedes, the Rolex, the cash, the respect. Id started selling weed in high school, and I liked the money and the status that came with itgirls liked me, guys wanted to be cool with me. Then I moved into selling crack cocaine, and by the time I was 19, I was a millionaire. I treated it like a business: I never took the drugs I sold, and I never took part in the violence that plagued life on the streets where I lived and worked. But after five years my illegal business caught up with me. When I look back now, I guess I always knew my bad choices were going to take me down, I just didnt know when or how.