Don Samuels has lived a fascinating multi-faceted life as a toy designer, immigrant, executive, pop singer, public servant, pastor, activist, husband and father. He has deliberately chosen to live in the most challenged urban neighborhoods of the cities he has called home, and has focused on serving and steadily improving his local communities, including the last decade as a council member for the city of Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA).
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In this episode of A Congruent Life, Don shares compelling stories from his life journey, including:
- growing up as a pastor’s son, and tangibly experiencing “being wrong for being poor.”
- receiving a national chastisement for simply asking uncomfortable questions,
- tasting fame from recording the #1 pop hit in Jamaica, but deciding that “I don’t want to live off that.”
- how a poor kid from Jamaica inexplicably found himself with an opportunity to go to college,
- deciding to immigrate to the United States, despite the obvious social inequities that he observed,
- why he has always chosen to live in the most “dangerous” neighborhoods,
- “Politics? Absolutely not!”
- the brief phone conversation that dramatically changed the trajectory of his life.
Links
- Don’s website
- Don Samuels for Mayor on Facebook
Audio Excerpts
Audio excerpts from ACL 027: Don Samuels