I SPENT
THREE YEARS
IN PRISON.
Ok, that’s a little misleading, but it's not inaccurate. And it’s definitely important for my story.
I worked in prisons around 2010, teaching re-entry skills to inmates. If they ever got out, these were the skills they’d need to navigate a world they hadn’t seen in 20+ years. One of those skills was writing. Yeah, I went to prison to teach writing skills.
Let’s be clear. These guys did not have writing skills. At least not in the way I’d been taught. Their grammar, terrible. Vocabulary, basic. Sentence structure, nonexistant.
But damn if they weren’t the best writers I’ve ever met. They could spin stories and flow argument better than any professor I had. So up at Otisville and Greenhaven State Penitentiaries, I learned a valuable lesson: writing ability doesn't matter unless the story’s worth telling.
So that’s what I’ve been up to since. Trying to make the choices that make my life a story worth telling. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
From 9 to 6, I make stuff. And then from 6 to 9, I make stuff. Guaranteed, whenever you're reading this, I'm making something. Ask me about it, because it’s what I want to talk about.
I grew up as a carpenter. Raised on a peacock and miniature donkey farm. Worked with hardened criminals. Performed in a circus for four years. Played saxophone for ten. Published for electrical engineering. Studied psychology. And somewhere along the way, was bankrolled by the US State Dept to learn Arabic to fluency.
I jumped into advertising because an agency in Jordan needed a Western face to get clout in meetings. They called me a copywriter, a term I had to Google. I stayed there for a while and was snagged up by JWT Dubai, where I won some metal and was gone before the awards showed up. Then, I was hire #4 at Nomads Dubai, and helped grow that place to 50 folks.
I moved with them to Amsterdam, then left a year later with my CEO to start a new agency, Zerotrillion. In the next 4.5 years, we grew to 3 offices, a few dozen people, and a list of client wins and industry honours that’ll make me blush if you ask too much about it.
Then, I left. The full “why’s” are better saved for a coffee or a beer, but the main reason? It was time for a plot-twist. A predictable story isn’t much of one.
And I’m here to find the story worth telling.