Goodbye Homeboy
How My Students Drove Me Crazy and Inspired a Movement
by Steve Mariotti; Debra Devi
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Pub Date 06 Aug 2019 | Archive Date 22 Sep 2019
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Description
“Steve Mariotti’s moving memoir is a call to action for anyone who dares to dream.” —Erin Gruwell, author of The Freedom Writers Diary
***
One sunny afternoon in 1982, a young businessman experienced a terrifying mugging in New York City that shook him to his core.
Tortured by nightmares about the teens who roughed him up, Steve Mariotti sought counseling. When his therapist suggested that he face his fears, Mariotti closed his small import-export business and became a teacher at the city’s most notorious public school--Boys and Girls High in Bed-Stuy.
Although his nightmares promptly ceased, Mariotti’s out-of-control students rapidly drove him to despair.
One day, Mariotti stepped out of the classroom so his students wouldn’t see him cry. In a desperate move to save his job, he took off his watch and marched back in with an impromptu sales pitch for it. To his astonishment, his students were riveted. He was able to successfully lead a math lesson for the first time.
Mariotti realized his students felt trapped in soul-crushing poverty. They saw zero connection between school and improving their lives. Whenever Mariotti connected their lessons to entrepreneurship, though, even his most disruptive students got excited about learning.
School administrators disapproved of Mariotti discussing money in the classroom, however. He was repeatedly fired before receiving one last-ditch assignment: an offsite program for special-ed students expelled from the public schools for violent crimes.
The success Mariotti had with these forgotten children—including coverage in the Daily News, The New York Times, and World News Tonight—inspired him to found the nonprofit Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship to bring entrepreneurship education to low-income youth.
By turns tragic and hilarious, Goodbye Homeboy shares Mariotti’s flaws and missteps as he connects deeply with his troubled students, and woos the most influential people in the world into helping them--saving himself in the process.
Today, Mariotti is widely recognized as the world’s leading advocate for entrepreneurship education. More than one million young people from Chicago to China have graduated from NFTE programs, and NFTE counts Sean Combs, Chelsea Clinton, Diana Davis Spencer, and many more business, entertainment, and community leaders among its staunchest supporters.
As Goodbye Homeboy powerfully illustrates, a spark of hope really can empower us to overcome life’s greatest hardships.
A Note From the Publisher
GOODBYE HOMEBOY is available to read now! We'd love to hear what you think on Goodreads, Amazon, and everywhere else you share feedback. Thank you for checking it out!
Advance Praise
“Steve Mariotti’s moving memoir is a call to action for anyone who dares to dream.” —Erin Gruwell, author of The Freedom Writers Diary
“Goodbye Homeboy truly captures Steve Mariotti’s amazing journey as a teacher and an innovator. It’s engaging, heartbreaking, hopeful, and ultimately triumphant. This is the story behind the entrepreneurship education revolution!” —Jimmy “Mac” McNeal, founder of Bulldog Bikes Worldwide
“Steve Mariotti is one of the great teachers of our time. In this deeply personal memoir, he describes how a bunch of high-school dropouts in the South Bronx helped him discover the power of entrepreneurship education. Goodbye Homeboy is a page turner—once you open this book, you won’t be able to put it down.” —Verne Harnish, author of Scaling Up and founder of Entrepreneurs’ Organization
“I’m so inspired to finally read the inspiring, intense, and hilarious story behind the organization that helped me so much as a high schooler. NFTE taught me entrepreneurship skills that I still use to this day, as the CEO of a company that employs thousands and is transforming the real-estate industry.” —Robert Reffkin, founder and CEO of Compass
“So many personal stories today are described as ‘inspiring,’ but Goodbye Homeboy is the rare true story that genuinely transcends the word. Steve Mariotti’s memoir conveys the heart, soul, and determination that have catalyzed the lives of so many young people.” —Ray Chambers, World Health Organization Ambassador for Global Strategy
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781948836005 |
| PRICE | $16.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 224 |
Links
Featured Reviews
Jennifer J, Reviewer
I could not put this book down. I was crying, laughing, and learning throughout the book.
This book should be required reading for anyone thinking of going into business. HECK, everyone should just read this book because it is so inspirational.
I loved the writing, the stories, the people, and most of all the kids. The children who society had thrown away actually began to believe in themselves.
I cried when they wrote their obits and it was all gun shots and mugging. This is not the world in which we want young people to grow up in.
I am so thankful that Mr Mariotti decided to teach after his mugging and not only that...but to learn what actually got through to the students.
There are heroes everywhere and Mr Mariotti is one of them.
Jeffrey C, Media/Journalist
I found this book to be incredibly moving = what Steve has accomplished and even just his intentions were beyond noble. I found myself tearing up more than once.
That being said, I do think that he fell into a bit of a trap where the editing was covered. There were moments where I felt could have been cut down, but that I imagined felt very personal to the author, which is probably whey they were still in there.
Overall, I think this should be required reading for any educator - its important to treat your students as individuals, but more importantly as people with potential for greatness.
Cristie U, Book Trade Professional
I am an Instructional Aide in schools and have worked in Alternative Schools for students that are behaviorally challenged and have found the students at these schools thrive when they are offered personalized attention and when someone genuinely believes in them. The author of this book took caring about those students that others write off to a whole new level. The fact that the author entered teaching to help these students after being attacked at knifepoint by teens is just awe-inspiring. Sometimes bad things happen for a good reason and the attack on the author by those teens set him up for a lifetime of assisting others to succeed.
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