The Survival Bible by Jihad
Jihad
Jihad is a writer and motivational speaker. Early in his life, Jihad embarked on a life of crime, which landed him in prison for seven years. He was shot on several occasions and in a car accident, which left him paralyzed.
Miraculously, Jihad regained usage of his legs. He also discovered his love of books and for writing while in prison. Jihad’s books include the autobiographical novel entitled “ Street Life” which was written in 1998.
Jihad has since written five other novels. Jihad’s most recent release is a book of non-fiction entitled “The Survival Bible 16 Life Lessons for Young Black Men.” For more information about Jihad’s works, check out www.jihadspeaks.com.
In addition to his writing, Jihad is also an inspirational speaker and a real estate investor. He is the founder and CEO of the non-profit organization The Wake-Up Everybody Foundation. This company is dedicated to “positively and proactively re-awakening the African-American psyche through self-realization and re-education.”
We interviewed Jihad his work and his ideas for helping and encouraging young people. As far as his novels go, Jihad explained that he gets his ideas from major emotional experiences in his own life. He explained, “I could be running at the gym, and I’ll have a thought that develops and won’t go away. That thought usually comes from something I see or hear that I am a very passionate about.”
Jihad’s new book “The Survival Bible 16 Life Lessons for Young Black Men” has some truly insightful ideas. One of the most important points he strives to make is that youngsters need to intentionally seek out books written by people who share the same cultural identity.
Jihad explained during our interview, “In life, all of our formal education comes from either books or scholars that are teaching from the people and the books that they were taught from. These may not be books or schools of thought that have your best interest in mind, being that you are black and only have the identity that others have told you. So, you have to READ books about your yesterday written by people who look like you and have your best interest at heart. You have to do that in order to establish your cultural identity. This is a must in understanding how you got to be where you are. By studying your ancestors, you can see how to avoid their mistakes and understand how they achieved their successes.”
Jihad goes on to explain, “Your identity is your foundation. There is nothing
that can stand through rough weather or turmoil without a foundation. That
is why our people are in the condition that we are, most of us have no
foundation. See, knowing the past is knowing the future…. Everything in
life revolves, the earth, our bodies, our story. There is absolutely nothing
new under the sun, so knowing your past in essence is knowing your future,
because with knowing your yesterday, you can map out your tomorrow. In
essence, this is what they mean by Know thyself.”
Jihad’s work is self-published. Overall, he feels this experience has been very challenging. He explained that as an independent publisher he never had the same distribution outlets as the major publishers. “It’s like a grass roots movement for life being independent, at least until the media or the people really latch on to your work.”
As far as suggestions go for readers looking to become writers and follow a similar path to success, Jihad’s main words of advice are “ READ, AND JUST DO IT. Begin at the beginning of your thoughts and just write
what’s on your mind, and don’t worry if you are an avid reader, the story will come to you as you are writing.” He explains that it is important for new writers to realize that the hardest thing to write is the first page.
Jihad’s inspiration for new writers is as follows, “How many times do you see a movie that you know you could have done better or a book you could have wrote better? Sit down and just do it… everyday if it’s one word, one sentence, write… and most importantly read. Other books are your school. Don’t worry about stealing anyone’s ideas, as I said before there is nothing new under the sun, so how can you steal what never belonged to the author in the first place… It’s all about your twist on one of the few stories that have been done a million times a million ways.”
Of course, in addition to his books is his motivational speaking career. Jihad described a recent experience at one of his live events. “It was beautiful. The young King had never read a book before but his mother made him read The Survival Bible while he was grounded… After reading my book, he told his mother that The Survival Bible was the greatest one gift he’d ever received and he was going to change the world and make her proud. I spoke with the young King and told me that he was selling his PS3 to help his mother buy books from a reading list put in the Survival Bible. He is 13…. That one King’s words are worth more than any amount of money I could be paid to write.”
Next from Jihad is the sequel to “Preacherman Blues.” He not only plans on writing more novels, but also many more self-help books. In fact, the next self-help book on the horizon is “The Survival Bible: 16 Life Lessons for Young Black Women.”
