After serving time in those early, formative years, after all those struggles at home and in the streets, "I hadn't been in no trouble since," he says, until his arrest and conviction, also on nonviolent charges, a couple of years ago, of which he claims to be innocent, for which he's currently doing time.
Ever since his late teens, during his first prison sentence around that time, and afterward, Z has read and educated himself on building things, repairing things, real estate, business, personal finance, and economics. He also reads about history, current events, particularly mass incarceration, and frequently reads and rereads the Bible.
"I've always read stuff, and I was always knowledgeable about cars, [and] fixing stuff " even before" his first time in prison. I always wanted to buy houses. And, from taxes, I always knew about it [as a teeneger], but just never really studied on it," Z recalls.
Following his release from his first prison sentence decades ago, he went legit, continuing educating himself on finances, business, real estate, and mechanics. He soon opened a repair shop, bought properties, rented to several tenants, became a father.
Around the time Z was first in prison and after his release, he says, back "around when there was a lotta millionaires " I used to asked them questions, just write it down, and when I got home, I just started studyin, reading books" and learnin how to buy houses."
He'd buy houses at low cost that need fixing, "and then I just get somebody to fix them up, wire em up. Like, that be the main thing wrong with them. You strip the wires up. The windows, you might have a few people threw rocks and stuff through the windows, stuff like that " But other than that, just sheetrocking the house, wirin, paintin, replacing the windows. Somebody'll have to come put some carpet or somethin like that down, and that's about it."
Around the same time, he "learned the stock market also, how to day trade."
He had just started "to learn how to do all that before I got locked up," he says.
He recalls that, when he got out, he was able to establish the two small businesses, which ran smoothly, and he had moderate but consistent success at day trading as well.
Z reflects on his work, and some aspects of investing that he'd like to change and improve when he is released from the sentence he's serving now. His goal is to become a millionaire when he's released from Ventress, and he reads prolifically on how to go about doing so.
He says he was usually most successful as an investor when dividing his investments into lower amounts and putting them into around a dozen companies simultaneously "and, whichever one's losing, I'll cash out of them, and ride the one that's winning." His biggest mistake and loss came, he says, when he once didn't use that strategy, and "had all my money in one company," along with a couple other factors. "That's the first time I did that, and I really don't do it like that, and I spent my money up that way," he says.
"So, you're basically entirely self-educated."
"Yeah," Z answers.
"And never went to college?"
"Nah," Z replies, "I went to a technical college for " to be an electrician, but I ain't finish " (pause) because I felt like, man, I ain't wanna be around - when I started going to college for that, it was a school where after five years, they'll certify you. But I used to work around all them power plants, transformers, and they're talkin bout the stories of people dying, or fell off something that was real high that they was on. I'm like, 'Man, I can make more money workin for myself anyway.'"
He was still in the process of fulfilling his old dreams and building new ones, financially and in the rest of his free world life, when he learned he'd be doing time instead.
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