Breakdown:

The story goes It all started when the young man’s dad caught him and his friends smoking weed. He was only eleven, and instead of punishing him or hitting him like he expected, his dad did something he didn’t see coming. He sent the young man’s friends away and sat him down. He said, “I want you to spend the next 24 hours thinking about whether you want to keep doing that.”

At first, the young man didn’t understand. he was like, what does he mean? But he looked him dead in the eye and said, “You told me you wanted to be like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. But if you’re doing what the boys on the corner are doing, if you’re following what the gangsters are doing, then you’re going to have their life. So, I want you to think about whose life you want: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, or the gangsters in the corner.”

The young man opened his mouth to speak, but he held up his hand and said, “No, no, no. We’ll talk tomorrow. You need to sit with it first.”

And that was it. He let the young man sit in it for the next 24 hours, just thinking. The young man thought about what he said, about my dreams, about what I really wanted out of life. It was heavy, but he gave me the space to figure it out on my own.

The next day, Dad sat the young man down again and asked, “So, what do you want? Whose life do you want?” Without hesitation, I told him, “I don’t want to do that. I want to be disciplined. I want to be like Michael Jordan.”

And here’s where the young man’s dad did something genius. He didn’t give him a lecture. He looked at the young man and said, “You know what? You’re a leader. And you’re such a leader that even if everyone else is going left, but something in you says to go right, you’ll do it anyway because that’s who you are.”

Then, he just left it at that. He didn’t say anything more. He left the young man to sit in that truth.

Looking back, it was one of the most powerful lessons his dad ever taught him. Instead of forcing him to choose a path, he gave him the power to decide for himself. He helped him see who he was deep down—a leader, someone capable of making choices for his future, not based on peer pressure but on his own vision. That one moment shaped how he see himself and his ability to make tough decisions ever since.