Hello, my friends and welcome to the Live Inspired podcast Monday morning moments with John O'Leary.

We're going to begin this episode with a quote

from Mother Teresa who wrote, The Poverty of Being Unwanted, Unloved, and Uncared for is the greatest poverty.

Jason Watson was born with a knack for connecting easily with others, influencing those around

him, and exhibiting a resourceful mentality.

The youngest of 10 siblings to an addicted mother and a deceased father, Jason grew up in an impoverished neighborhood.

Nearly every single one of his neighbors shared the tragic bonds of being completely broke

and of having incarcerated family members.

As a young boy, Jason remembers not having Christmas presents under the tree

and not feeling bad about it because neither did most of his friends.

But what Jason does remember more

poignantly from childhood wasn't a lack of material possessions. It was a profound lack of hope.

At 13, in a perverse lesson in self-reliance, his mother's drug dealer taught Jason the ends and out of the business.

While it seems cruel to most of us, Jason refers to it now as just broken love,

noting that these individuals appeared to be stabilizing as a force for good in his life that was far too often lacking in

that stabilizing force.

By 15 years of age, Jason was already using drugs.

He'd already dropped out of high school.

He was already getting into trouble.

And he ended up incarcerated.

The rest of this story could be and probably should be the end of his story.

Except that upon release, Jason started on a path that allowed him to parlay his gifts of

...