Keynote Speaker, Author & Reinvention Architect
I started writing Blank Canvas when I was in prison. I used those black and white composition notebooks from high school and a cheap Bic pen. I used an iPhone when I was released to the halfway house because it was all I had. When I went home, I used an iPad from 2012 because…
When I worked in corporate sales, life felt one-dimensional. Chase deals, land deals, spend commission checks on a luxurious lifestyle. It was one chase after another, with constant anxiety that there wouldn’t be another deal around the corner – or even worse, I’d lose a client. The luxurious lifestyle was my attempt to give meaning…
What makes life rich and meaningful? Towards the end of his life, an interviewer asked Norman Mailer (American novelist, journalist, playwright, filmmaker, and Pulitzer Prize winner) if he had any regrets. One may think he’d list some common regrets: more time with family, less time working, or more time in nature. Not quite, his reply,…
After prison I landed a job at a gym in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I worked at the front desk at first but eventually moved my way up to general manager. I was grateful for the job, and I met some of my now closest friends thanks to the job. But it wasn’t…
“Craig, you have a blank canvas. Paint whatever picture you want.” I was leaving prison and reentering the real world, a world filled with so many unknowns and overwhelming fear when I heard these words. They came from my mentor, Ed, as I expressed those unknowns and fears. The words reframed my entire perspective; they…
It was around October 2012 when I made the choice that would shatter my life. I was a successful Senior Enterprise Account manager for a large tech firm, working with some of the world’s most prominent banks and hedge funds. The products I was selling were becoming commoditized, profit margins on deals were razor-thin, and…