You know like I had to be able to read people fast and make a decision right away

whether I think that person was a cab or an enemy or whatever it was.

Again, when you're in the survival mode,

it's sort of like, think of a soldier in a battlefield.

When things happen to you, you have to react quickly and you have to make decision as you go and you cannot stop and think

too much about it. Because if you do, then there's a chance there for you to be in more pain for you to be wounded again.

So you always on a constant move and that's what I've learned very early on as a child.

Hi friends and welcome back to at the end of the tunnel.

So if you've been listening to this podcast for the last few weeks, you may recall the fascinating

conversation that I had with New York City Police Officer Edwin Raymond, who is of Haitian descent, and he told that story of how he began challenging the police quota system in New York, and how one of his closest confidants during that really crazy time was another Haitian

immigrant from his old neighborhood who he referred to as Buffett.

Well today I'm going to be talking to Buffett whose real name is Jim St. Germain.

And Jim has his own incredible story of showing up in America from Haiti at 10 years old

and how he was expecting America to be a lot like that movie Home Alone,

but where he was in Brooklyn, New York, it ended up being more like The Wire.

And on top of that, Jim didn't speak any English. And literally on his first day in America, he got into a fight with one of the most notorious crypts in his neighborhood. So Jim had to learn the ways of the street very quickly and the

street life ended up getting Jim into a lot of legal trouble, but it was through the penal system

that Jim found mentors and other people to help guide him toward becoming a pillar of his community and a role model for what's possible when you give a stone of hope to a young man who has none.

He went on to complete a master's degree in public administration.

He co-founded an organization called Plot with Edwin Raymond.

So Plot stands for preparing leaders of tomorrow and it serves as a

mentoring program for at-risk youth. Jim went on to work closely with Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo in various youth initiatives.

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