Finding Hope in a Hopeless Situation — The Story of Antwone Fisher

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Excerpt: The following is an excerpt from Today Matters by John C. Maxwell. In it, he shares the incredibly powerful story of Antwone Fisher and how he found hope and changed his life for the better in an utterly hopeless situation. I’ll turn it over to Maxwell to lay out the details. Enjoy.

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Antwone Fisher was born in an Ohio correctional facility after his father had already been dead for two months and while his mother was incarcerated.  As a result, he grew up a ward of the state in foster care.  For over thirteen years, he lived with a couple who abused him horribly.  Daily he was beaten down – physically, verbally, and psychologically.  He never received a Christmas gift or a dime of allowance from his foster parents.  For years he was the victim of sexual abuse.  And he was often tied to a post in the basement and beaten.  His foster mother used to brag that she had once beaten him until he was unconscious.

By the time Fisher entered the third grade, he had lost any natural love for learning.  In addition, the constant admonition from his foster mother that he was the worst child in the world had convinced him that he couldn’t learn and had no future.  He failed fourth grade and was scheduled to repeat it.  But then something wonderful happened.  His foster family moved, which put him in a new school district.  His new teacher was Mrs. Profit.  “If there is such a thing as human beings who act as angels in our lives, Brenda Profit was that for me.“

Under Mrs. Profit’s care, Fisher began to change his thinking about himself.  He says, “If self-esteem was what you used to fill up like a tank of gas, the Picketts [his foster family] had siphoned mine out to nothing.  Mrs. Profit helped change all that.”  Despite his gains, his academic progress was still meager by the end of the year.  He was in danger of once again failing fourth grade.  But then Fisher got another break.  It was decided that Mrs. Profit would stay with her class of students and continue teaching them in fifth and sixth grades.  Knowing that, she passed Fisher into the fifth grade.  And it was then an event occurred that would change his thinking forever.

It happened one day during reading.  Fisher, a terribly shy child who sometimes stuttered, was asked to read aloud, and instead of panicking, he read well, including successfully sounding out a difficult word.  Then Mrs. Profit praised him, saying, “I’m proud of you.  I want you to know that I really struggled over promoting you, and I’m so glad that I did.  You are doing very well this year.”  That’s when something clicked in Fisher’s head.  He writes,

“Her honest, careful words are the equivalent of lightning bolts and thunderclaps.  Outside I shyly accept her praise, but inside I’m flying with the birth of a revelation.  It’s the first time I’ve ever realized that there is something I can do to make things different for myself.  Not just me, but anyone.  That no matter how often someone says you can’t do something, by simply working harder and trying, you can prove them wrong and actually change your circumstance.  This lesson is a piece of gold I’ll keep tucked in my back pocket for the rest of my life.”

In that moment, Fisher changed his thinking – and it changed his life.  He had plenty of ups and downs after that, but he knew that he wasn’t hopeless and a better future was possible for him.  He didn’t follow the path of his older foster brother and friends into a life of drugs and crime.

Today, Antwone Fisher thinks for a living.  He is a successful screenwriter in Hollywood.  He learned his craft by writing forty-one drafts of the screenplay that tells his own story.  And he has become the kind of responsible citizen and family man he always desired to be, with a wife and  young daughter.  When asked what message he wants his story to convey, his answer is, “That there is hope even when you have the hardest beginnings, and there is good people in the world.“

I don’t know what kind of background you have.  I don’t know what type of circumstances you currently face.  But I do know there’s hope.  No matter what kind of goals you have or obstacles you need to overcome, thinking can give you an advantage.  And that advantage has the potential to change your life for the better, just as it did for Antwone Fisher.

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