08/29/2026
I remember my first trip to Europe. I was 24, visiting a girlfriend who was a very famous model. She was living with an extremely wealthy entrepreneur in Paris, and I was their guest for a month in this extraordinary home on Avenue Foch, one of the most fashionable and prestigious areas in Paris. I had never seen anything like it in my life. The apartment was covered from top to bottom in this beautiful pinkish marble. Everything was extraordinary. The building, the apartment, the lifestyle, the furs on the beds, the restaurants, their circle of friends, all of it was beyond my wildest imagination. Eight years earlier, I had been living in the projects with my mother and brothers. I didn’t even know a life like this existed, let alone believe that I could ever have it. But once I saw it, something changed. I believed I could have it. I believed anything was possible. And most importantly, I knew in my heart that I deserved everything I desired. When that belief becomes palpable in you, when it engulfs everything you think and everything you do, (fill in your word) has no choice but to show you the path.