The Power of his Story
In his book 'Hopeless to Harvard: A Father's Story of Winning the Battle of Teen Addiction' Mike talks about a new paradigm for turning the most impossible situations around with children, and ultimately, with any problem. The traditional model of viewing the teenager in crisis as something outside our lives causes us to unknowingly surrender our power to the problem. The anger and frustration go through the roof when a parent is caught in this cycle.
By viewing the situation as an opportunity to revolutionize our own lives on the inside, we can then view our teen in crisis from a higher level, thus restoring our hope in their potential. This allows us to respect the world of possibilities in our teenager and not get caught in an endless cycle of disrespect, anger and (often) violence. When stuck in these lower internal "worlds", our actions and outcomes are not unlike nations at war.
The transition from an utterly hopeless and bitter young man, to a youth connecting with his potential to work for a better world, and changing his association from people who were drifting aimlessly to those who could genuinely be called "good friends", the ultimate result of achieving his graduate degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education became an unbelievable reality.The author stresses over and over that this would not have been possible without his own inner reformation.