As a child, I was labeled a “bad kid.” I had ADHD before anyone had really considered it an ailment. But people want to know more about how I got here … to this point and a part of that story is how I came to relate and empathize with the little guy, the outcast and you can’t understand that part of me without knowing about my youth.

I’ve said that defending the little guy is in my genes, my blood and in my DNA. People have asked how did I get here? How did I become an advocate for the accused, disregarded and ostracized? To those who want to know and those interested in how someone like me ends up being constructed — how I get here and what makes me tick — this episode is for you.

In this episode, I share some painful stories about my youth. My unpopularity, my feelings of being an outsider and my diagnosis of ADHD in the 70’s! To those parents whose children suffer from ADHD or ADD, I’ve offered an opportunity to reach out to me. To those kids, suffering from it, I make the same offer. Reach out … you can overcome and even in some ways, harness the condition and achieve.

Dr. Fagenbaum (the doctor that diagnosed me), Mrs. Snow (my first grade teacher at Pasteur Elementary in Detroit), Mrs. Carlton (a teacher of mine at Pasteur Elementary in Detroit), my mother, who dutifully packed my Ritalin pill every day for me to take a lunch, this episode is for you, and all the parents of kids who are on the fringe, this one is for you.