You Don't Need Permission to Change Your Life

I Interviewed the Secretary of Transportation. Six Years Ago I Was an IT Manager.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of conducting a sit down interview with Sean Duffy, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, for my documentary “The Illegal Highways.”

It was a moment of reflection for me because six years ago, I was an IT manager sitting in my office just beginning to write my first book, “Black Victim to Black Victor,” as a complete nobody who just wanted to do something.

I had no expectations of what might come from it, but I knew that I wanted to write a book. I didn’t care if 10 people bought it or 10 million did; I wasn’t going to wait for someone to give me permission to do it.

Since 2021, when my book was published and when I began building a public profile, I have been blessed with amazing encounters and connections.

I remember when I was writing the book, a friend said that I should submit an opinion piece to the New York Post, which I quickly dismissed as even being possible. Now here I am, writing for the New York Post, going on four years now as a trusted writer for them.

I don’t have a writing background, and I don’t have a college degree. I barely graduated high school. I went to tech school to fix computers, not a four-year university for a Political Science degree.

So, how have I been able to move into this space and make a name for myself? Because I didn’t wait for someone to give me permission to.

This era of technology gives normal people like me an opportunity to change the world, but opportunities mean nothing if you don’t take advantage of them.

Being on Twitter for a year, I gained 100k followers because I didn’t wait for people to tell me the right strategy or how I should conduct myself on there; I just did it myself.

This is the era of the self-starter and self-starting underdogs like me. If you want something, you work hard at it, and if it doesn’t work, then you find another way.

Not everything I’ve done has been massively successful in the traditional sense, but I’ve been enriched when impacting the lives of countless people. One man told me that my book changed his life, which is surreal to hear as a guy who wasn’t supposed to be a writer.

Much of my life, I’ve been a quiet loner and down on myself and my capabilities. When I removed the depression and victim mentality from my life, I realized that there has been so much that I prevented myself from doing because, in one form or another, I convinced myself that I wasn’t capable or supposed to even try.

My life is a testament to God’s blessings and listening to my God-given instinct, which for most of my life I refused to trust.

Lots of people tell themselves that they can’t do something and never try. Or if they try and it doesn’t work, they quit immediately to shy away from the embarrassment of failure.

I fundamentally don’t have that mentality. Throughout the past six years, I’ve been offered public speaking opportunities, television appearances, and writing opportunities in the biggest publications, and I had never done any of these things before; yet I said yes.

I’d rather try and fail so I can learn from it and get better. Failure doesn’t scare me; it’s just another opportunity to grow and get better.

Which brings us to today, making my documentary “The Illegal Highways,” which is another thing I’m not really supposed to be doing. I don’t have a film background, but I have a background of trying and learning from my mistakes.

Two years ago, I barely understood what ISO or focal length meant and would mess up interview footage. The first three of my four episodes of sit down interviews were unusable, yet I kept attempting to learn what I did wrong.

Screenshots from the documentary “The Illegal Highways”

And here we are today; I am able to make beautiful imagery and tell a compelling story through film because I didn’t wait for someone to give me permission to do it.

There is a phrase online: “You can just go outside and do things.” That’s been my life in a nutshell. You can build something out of nothing if you don’t let yourself limit yourself. It doesn’t mean everything you do will work out, but there is always something you can learn from it.

Success is subjective. I’m not rich monetarily, but I have memories money can’t buy and have positively impacted people who I never would have been able to if I sat in my office convincing myself that I can’t do something.

It’s only you that’s stopping you. You don’t need anyone else’s permission.