We've all been through something that would give us adequate justification for being a lifetime victim.

Or we could say we now have adequate motivation to become a victor.

I used to stutter as a kid. I grew up poor. I was sexually abused as a kid.

My best friend was killed when I was in college.

My wife had a late-term miscarriage. My son was born blind.

My dad died from Lou Gehrig's disease.

And those are not my justifications or my excuses.

We could all check the victim box or we could check the box that says,

Victor. Today's guest grew up in a home where he was raised by an alcoholic father.

And yet he became the number one public relations consultant of all time.

Today's guest grew up severely dyslexic and was called dumb.

Yet he became a multiple time New York Times best-selling author.

Today's guest grew up in New York.

Yet he moved to California where he knew no one.

And he went on to become the public relations consultant of choice.

For Nike, for Prince, for President Bush, for Michael Jackson, for Nancy Kerrigan,

for Barbara Strison, for 58 Academy Award winners, 38 Grammy Award winners.

And 43 New York Times best-selling authors.

And so we had the honor of having Michael Levine attend our last in-person throttetime show workshop.

And when he spoke about why you need to decide whether you want to become a victim or a victor,

I was taking notes, I was wowed by his intensity,

and I was making sure that our editors were editing a few of the colorful metaphors

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