Business
JT McCormick isn’t your typical startup CEO. He was born in the 1970s to an orphaned, impoverished mother and a drug-dealing, pimp father. JT struggled since day one. Abused and overlooked by society, he was expected to fall into the poverty trap and fail, but JT persevered. After barely finishing high school, JT took a job cleaning toilets but determined to change his life for the better. JT ended up getting a job at a software company, where in a few years he went from the lowest paid position to President, overseeing a multimillion-dollar operation and 100+ employees. JT details his life story through his book, I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream. Currently, he is the President and CEO of Scribe Media, helping thousands of authors tell their own stories. We talk about how to set up a winning mindset, how to push through obstacles and achieve success -- whatever that means to you -- and why it’s important to tell your own story.