Overview

Pressure is Malik Wade's compelling, brutally honest description of his descent into the underworld, his years as a FBI fugitive, his incarceration, and his ultimate redemption. Wade began dealing drugs in San Francisco's infamous Sunnydale housing project at age 15. By 19, his network reached from the Bay Area to Washington, DC. By 22, he had made the FBI's wanted list. By 29, he was serving a 14-year stretch in federal prison. In prison, Wade began a rigorous program of self-improvement. He would emerge from the darkness of prison a changed man. Once released, he enrolled in Stanford Law School's Project ReMADE entrepreneurship program and began speaking about his experiences at UC Berkeley and other universities. Then in 2013, Wade founded the Scholastic Interest Group, a nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk youth. In addition to a gripping personal story, Pressure is also social commentary. Wade chronicles the societal forces that shaped him, and he explodes many of the myths about drug dealers, prison, and growing up in the inner city. A vivid, authentic account of the triumph of the human spirit, Pressure is a revelation with the power to open minds and change hearts.

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9780998616704

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Reviews

Wade explores his journey through crime, punishment, and redemption in this debut motivational memoir. The author started selling cocaine at age 15. A poor kid growing up in San Francisco's Sunnydale projects, he saw it as one of the few lucrative employment options available to him. Instead of leaving school with biology books, Wade remembers, I had a brick of cocaine and a 9-millimeter pistol in my backpack. The author spends the first third of the book describing his life as a young drug dealer, from riding around in a $400 to $500 car with $50,000 in the back seat to landing in juvenile hall--referred to as Gladiator School --to escaping from two kidnappers who snuck up and placed a shotgun barrel on his neck. Wade only fully grasped the consequences of his actions when, at 29, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. That's when his real story began: More than a decade's worth of self-examination and self-improvement that led to a profound transformation. From a drug dealer who spent seven years on the FBI's wanted list, Wade reformed himself into the executive director of a nonprofit organization, a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School and UC Berkeley, and a reflective memoirist: I offer my counter narrative to many of the common conceptions that some people have about drug dealers, people who go to prison, and people who grow up in the inner city. Wade is a natural raconteur, and his account of his life both before and during his time in prison makes for compelling reading. His post-prison success is remarkable, and his musings on the ways in which criminals are treated in this country--and the ways in which disadvantaged youth are tempted into crime--are worthy of consideration. The author manages to embody both the successes and failures of the American experience, and in his life the reader gets the opportunity to consider who society deems deserving of punishment and who remains worthy of rehabilitation. An engaging work by a drug dealer turned advocate. --Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Malik Wade has lived three lives. As a teenager, he was a recourceful drug dealer. As a young man, he was a fugitive from the FBI and eventually a prison inmate. As an adult, he transformed his life to become a mentor, author, entrepreneur, and the Executive Director of Scholastic Interest Group. Malik is a graduate of Stanford Law School's Project ReMade entrepreneurship program and the author of Pressure, a book about his life. When not speaking as a youth advocate at universities, he lives in San Francisco, California.

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