A good, good, girlfriend of mine, Nickie, sent me an article over a year ago that talked about hustle.  Not the deceitful kind, but the get-up-and-do-something kind.  It so moved me that I emailed the author, Steven Ivory, and thanked the brother for such poignant words and let him know how they impacted me.  I told him about the book I have been putting off writing and that I just needed to get my hustle on.  Amazingly he wrote back and thanked me for appreciating his work and promptly told me to “get busy” writing that book.

A few days later I was thinking back on the days when I really was “getting my hustle on.”  When I was in high school, I thought I’d be a great writer or singer or actress or hold public office or something.  The point is, I thought I could do or be anything.  That’s just how my Mama raised me.  

After reading Steven’s article for the fifteenth time, I started thinking about the book I always wanted to write and a lot of the other things I had left undone.  I started thinking back to my high school days and the people I admired most.  There were many people in my life that possessed that same type of hustle I used to have.  One was a guy named Terry Powers Jr.  I had what I thought was an insatiable crush on him in high school.  He was cute, freckle-faced, and could bring a sister to her knees with his beautiful voice.  

As is common, we lost touch over the years and I often wondered what became of him.  I went to college for a few years, joined the military, married, had a child, divorced, re-married, left the military, and had another child.  Along the way, I finished my degrees and got a good government job.  I lived a typical suburban life, nice neighborhood, good schools, one kid in college, and the other in pre-school.  Life was good, but it didn’t require much hustle on my part.

So, I decided to try to find some of my high school friends.  I was already registered on one of those websites that reconnects you with former schoolmates, so that’s where I started my search.  I had gone to a couple of high schools so I started with the first one to see if I remembered anyone listed there.  I came across Terry’s name.  I sent him a quick note, hoping he’d even remember me.  A day later, he responded and his note sounded as if he was glad to hear from me.

After a series of emails and missed phone calls, Terry and I finally got a chance to talk.  I found out that Terry is still getting his hustle on; not only is he a singer, but he also has his own recording studio, he produces other artists, and he learned to play a few musical instruments along the way as well.  He is also in the process of forming a multimedia production company to produce films, computer-generated imagery and anything else you could imagine.  To top that off, he is the minister of music at his church.

When we talked, it was really Terry talking.  I was just listening and beaming with pride because he was just as excited about his dreams in 2003 as he was in 1977.  When I asked him how he ended up in L.A. (we were both raised in the D.C. area), he replied, “I had to go where the music was.”  It was just that simple.  One day in 1986, he and his best friend packed up a U-Haul and a dream and drove across country.  And the rest, as they say …  

I thought a lot about what it took for him to make a move like that and then it dawned on me; he didn’t have a choice.  For Terry, there was only one option, and it wasn’t failure.  I remember him saying he wanted to get in the music business when we were kids.  But kids say lots of things.  He’s traveled all over the world, networked with lots of influential people, and most of all he’s happy doing what he was meant to do.  I’m sure there were lots of sacrifices along the way, but he’s lived life and continues to do so with passion.  

For Steven, the brother I didn’t even know, it just amazed me that he would take the time to write me back to just say “thank you” and to give a sister he didn’t even know some much-needed encouragement.  For the sisters who think there are no more “good black men” out there, I just named two!

Somewhere along the way, between my mother’s faith in me and my fear of failure, I lost my “hustle.”  I somehow misplaced the drive, the fortitude, and the sheer hunger for doing what I know I was ordained to do.  Inexplicably, these brothers, one I never met and one I knew growing up, have helped me to “get my hustle back,” whether they know it or not.  Steven and Terry will probably never know how they have motivated me.   All I know is that I feel like I owe it to them, and Nickie too, and all the people over the years who noticed that I had a little “hustle” in me and tried to encourage me to use it, and especially my Mama (who’s up there showing the angels “how it’s done”).  More importantly, I owe it to myself to do what I was sent here to do.

I talked to my friend Terry again.  We actually spent an hour and a half on the phone and it felt like five minutes.  He told me of the many blessings he has received in his life in the last ten years or so, and what has motivated him to be so focused on achieving his goals in the music industry.  He was stricken with kidney failure when he was 34 years old that was brought on by high blood pressure that he didn’t even know he had.  He was on dialysis for well over a year and eventually had a kidney transplant.  The kidney he received was from a guy from Louisiana who had been in a car accident.  One of the kidneys was lacerated (the one they gave to Terry) and the other was given to another gentleman.  The lacerated kidney is working fine to this day.  Unfortunately, the other person didn’t fare as well.  In God’s infinite wisdom, he knew exactly what my friend needed.  

We finally saw each other at our class reunion and it was as if time had stood still in many ways.  I’m not sure what it was that made me feel so comfortable with him.  I guess it was the fact that we had similar backgrounds.  He was my homeboy and it felt good.  Terry was very attentive and protective.  It was comforting to know he was there.  It was like I didn’t know what I’d missed until I had it again.  He looked the same to me.  I guess I had a different way of looking at him since we had been in contact and he had shared so much about what he’d been through.  We spent a lot of time together that night and the next day having brunch.  I realized how much he had grown spiritually.  His life is focused on God and using his talents to serve Him.  He hadn’t lost his sense of humor or his compassion for those in need, he only added to those qualities by inviting God into his life.  I was awestruck and motivated by his commitment.  

I also had the opportunity to meet some of his family and he shared some of his family “stories” with me.  Even through the tragic parts in his life, Terry had a way of making every family member feel as though they were the most precious thing in the world to him and everyone wanted to be around him.

A month or so after my class reunion, my father passed away.  The hardest part for me has been the feeling that I’m disconnected somehow.  With both parents gone, there’s no bridge to my past, my history.  It’s been difficult to discern just what my father left behind in terms of a legacy.  Maybe part of it is me.  I know I don’t want my children to question or wonder if their mother did anything to make the world better.  I want them to know without a doubt that their mother contributed to the world in a positive way.

Yes, I’ve been busy — writing the book I was meant to write and drafting an outline for the next one.  A literary agent and independent publisher have expressed an interest in my work.  I know I have at least three people to thank for helping me get my hustle back: Nickie, Steven, and a sweet and tender soul of a man named Terry.  

In The Fray Contributor