To Parents and Professionals
Who Pick Up This Book
Over the past 25 years, Ron has sold over 40,000 copies to alternative, charter, and public schools for kids ages ten to sixty who are struggling.
Read this book at your own risk
I guarantee that you will find something in these pages which will insult your morality, and challenge your sense of what is proper. Just know that my writing style is not meant to sensationalize or shock - it is meant to maximize communication with kids. Please don't close your mind before your heart has an opportunity to experience the true message.
Crime, violence, and death have become commonplace to the kids of America. Between 1983 and1992, the arrest of adults for violent crimes increased by 21%, while juvenile arrests increased 11%. Juvenile murder arrests rose 128%, aggravated assault arrests rose 95%, and juvenile arrest for other assaults increased 106%.
Now, I don't know what that says to you, but it tells me that we are raising a generation of frightened, neglected high-risk kids who are isolated, depressed, and out of control. These kids are in crisis, and are crying out for help. They have turned to drugs, crime, and violence to numb their pain and provide them with a sense of value and identity.
When you're young, crime can look like a short cut to the good life: money, power, sex, and prestige. It's easy to get caught up in the deadly game being played out across our country today.
Criminal gangs are no longer just a big city thing. There's hardly a town that doesn't have a problem with juvenile crime and violence. What the hippie culture was to the kids of the sixties, the subculture of the gangster gang is to the kids of today
Federal studies indicate that if trends in violence continue as they have over the past 10 years, juvenile arrests for violent crime will at least double by the year 2010. Unless we have the courage to stand beside our kids, and support them as they fight for their lives, we will continue to lose them.
I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or professional educator. I am currently a retired businessman who survived an abusive childhood by creating a reputation for being a danger to society. By the time I was 15, I had a felony record consisting of armed robbery, strong-armed robbery, assault and battery, and car theft. For ten years I ran one of the largest drug networks in Milwaukee.
At age 34 I was tired of the gangster life I was leading. I had lost my family, and most of my friends were either dead or doing time. I wanted out. But I knew that I would never be able to do it on my own. I needed help.
It started on a dare. Help came from a very unlikely place: a group of super-straight professional men who belonged to the men's group I attended. These men became my new best friends. They encouraged me and cheered for me. They dared me to see myself through new eyes.
I escaped death and imprisonment to learn that I did not have to remain a victim of my past or present circumstances. I discovered that my only real limitations are those I place upon myself.
It is my intention for this book to be a message of hope for kids today.
I invite kids who read this book to dare to believe that they have options other than dying or doing time - and to have the courage to reach out for help expressing their personal power in positive, life-sustaining ways. It is meant to be a small personal contribution toward solving some very frightening, complex problems.
If you don't like what I've done, or how I've done it - good. Then maybe you'll get off your butt and come up with something better. This is not a time for cowardice, ambivalence, or inaction. If we are to reach even a few, it will take a concerted effort of the many.
Ronald J. Glodoski
Ron speaks from the heart of real life experience. He has lived and thrived on both sides of the law. He's a dynamic businessman who survived an abusive childhood by escaping to the street.
At age 12, he was a gang member. By the time he was 15, he was a gang leader with a felony record consisting of armed robbery, strong-armed robbery, assault and battery, and car theft. In his twenties, he became one of the most successful drug dealers in Milwaukee commanding an extensive criminal network.
He built this extremely successful criminal business by developing and following a series of rules for success rules which, he discovered later, also apply to most straight businesses.
After 20 years as a criminal, Ron hit rock bottom and finally woke up. He had lost his family, and most of his friends were either dead or doing time. He wanted out of the gangster life.
His decision to change his life led him on a path to self-discovery. He stopped dealing and using drugs, and began successfully applying his skills to a series of legitimate businesses - including a teddy bear company he grew from a home-based business to a company employing 35 people and generating $1.8 million a year.
Today he is an author and motivational speaker; leads workshops and support groups on gang life, violence prevention, and drug and alcohol abuse; is a volunteer counselor for social service agencies; and a popular speaker in schools, prisons, and detention centers.
As someone who has been there and made it through, Ron reaches out to kids with respect, and teaches them how to take back their right to choose a better way of life. He shows them how to use street smarts to improve themselves and escape their personal hell.
