Ahmed Madey Jd

I was born on the floor of a mud house in a village in Africa not a villa in Tuscany, nor a house in the Hamptons. My parents divorced when I was two weeks old, and my mother left. My father passed away when I was 12 years old. I was homeless at 13 and living on the streets because I could not get along with my stepmom’s husband. When I was 14 a man I revered and trusted told me I will not amount to anything.

I migrated to the United States when I was 19 years old and was put in jail. I went to jail for my dream. I went to a county jail (DeKalb County) and a municipal jail (South Fulton) in Atlanta. A counselor in college told me I could not take engineering physics and calculus by just looking at me. A professor once told me I didn’t have the aptitude to pass his class and graduate. A law professor told me law school was not for me.

In the summer of 2007, I decided I wanted to go to law school, even though I didn’t have any lawyers in my family and friends. At the time I didn’t know any lawyer in Texas and the only lawyer I knew in the world was in another state and he would not pick up my phone, so I gave up on him.

For three months I researched about law and lawyers in general and the more I knew what lawyers do, the more I fell in love. I made the decision to pursue a career in law in June of 2007 and took the LSAT in September of 2007 but did very bad on the exam but still started to apply to law schools all over the country.

I applied to 15 schools. I even applied to all the law schools in Minnesota and Texas. Of all the schools I applied to only one admitted me. I put all my belongings in the trunk of my car and drove from Texas to Michigan in the fall of 2008. Law school was difficult for me because I came from a science background, or so I thought was the reason.

I was way behind than most people and I struggled so much during my first year. I remember a professor telling me “Maybe law school is not for you.” I responded, “maybe teaching is not for you.” I almost got kicked out. I contemplated quitting law school more than 20 times the first two years, but I persevered and stayed the course. I was always the last one to finish exams in my class because I was reading in one language, comprehending in another, and then responding. Most of the exams I never finished on time. My last semester I did an externship with Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis for three months, and then I fell in love with Minnesota. Eventually I graduated and decided to move to Minnesota.

In February 2012, I took the Minnesota bar and failed. Took it again in July 2012 and failed it. Took it again in February 2013 and failed it. Registered for the bar in July 2013 but self-doubt kicked in and I withdrew because I didn’t trust myself anymore. Took a year off to reevaluate myself and realized I was so much invested to give up now. I took the February 2014 bar and failed again. I decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree in law and moved away to attend the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.

Graduated and took the Oklahoma bar in July 2016 and then failed it. At that point, I was at the lowest point in my life, and I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was broke and broken and life had the best of me. I started questioning everything. I was 35 years old, married to the woman of my dreams, attended few of the best universities in America and five degrees to my name and had a job that paid me more than most people in the world, but I felt like a complete and utter failure. That day I decided to change my life.

I was willing to learn and became a willing student. I decided to research and to find out what failure and success meant to me as an individual. My quest took me to studying everything from behavioral science, psychology, leadership, business entrepreneurship and money. From December 2016 until I wrote my first book, I had read 289 books. In the beginning my goal was to self-educate myself and I had read 250 books in five years.

By the end of 2017, I knew who I was, and I knew what I wanted from life. I knew the purpose for my existence and the reason I wanted to pass the exam and become a lawyer and it had nothing to do with me. I registered for the Minnesota bar and took it in February 2018. I found out that I passed the Minnesota bar in April of 2018 and was sworn in May of 2018.

When I understood myself, my passions, my strengths and my gifts, the easiest thing for me was passing the bar but the hardest was changing my mind. Shakespeare said, “nothing is good or bad except that thinking makes it so.” I say nothing is difficult or easy except that thinking makes it so.

For those young professionals, prospective students and dream chasers, many things will be thrown at you whether by divine Providence or by people who don’t believe in your dreams or don’t understand human potential and are only reflecting their limitations on you. If you don’t learn anything from this, just know one thing and that is, if I did it then you can do it. Albert Einstein said, “adversity introduces a man or a woman to himself or herself.”

No matter the adversity or the obstacle, you must believe that what you want is possible for you. Failure is never final but only feedback, therefore don’t be scared to fail. Henry Ford said it best, “success is on the far side of failure.” If you haven’t failed, it means you have not tried anything worthwhile.

If I told you my childhood story you wouldn’t think becoming a lawyer was possible for me. Many of you will use your circumstances as an excuse. Some of them are valid but they will not get you anywhere. Here is mine, I was born under a tree in an African mud house and two weeks after my birth my mother left. My father died when I was twelve years old, and I was homeless at thirteen. I have been discouraged and discriminated against but none of it ever stopped me from pursuing my dreams.

Now, I am a family man, loving father, lucky husband, lawyer and author. I am not trying to impress you but to impress upon you that what is possible for you is limitless. Never stop dreaming!