How to Make Crime Pay: Holmes Will Get You Home

CHAPTER 1

Who are you?

You may be anyone from a high school student or dropout to a college graduate or a professional with an advanced degree. You may have been born on the wrong side of the tracks or with a silver spoon in your mouth. Nearly half of bail bonding companies are owned by women, so young ladies, don’t let that hold you back. You don’t have to be bigger and badder than all your clients (but you will very likely need to have at least one big tough guy you can call on.)

I hope there are some people who will pick up this book and read a little about becoming a bail bondsman and say, That’s not for me! That’s OK! Bail bonding certainly is not for everyone – or even very many. You might say we are like the Marines – the few, the proud. So, this chapter is for every young person who may be confused about their future, maybe thinking that school is not worth the effort – maybe even considering dropping out.

After all, you can make more money right now working at a minimum-wage job than you can if you’re only working part-time while you go to school. But you’ve got to think out farther than today. Today becomes next week, next month, next year, and before you know it, you’re still making just about what you started out making, and your friends that sacrificed short-term money for long-term success are pulling further and further away.

If you are still in high school, please do me and yourself a favor and stay in school and graduate. It is near impossible to make a decent living, or climb out of poverty without a diploma. You may need to work to help your family get by and you may even have a baby, but millions before you have gone on to graduate, and they will tell you that the best jobs go to the people that stuck it out and stayed in school. But if you’ve dropped out, it’s not too late. You can still earn your GED and get back on the right track.

My mother never made it to high school graduation, and her first son didn’t make it either (and life has been very hard for him), but my older sister did, and she has worked her way up to taking care of patients as an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse). She runs a clinic in Society Hill, South Carolina, and is also a minister, so she cares for people – body and soul.

If you’re wondering whether this is the right field for you, you can speak to your high school guidance counselor about a career assessment test. If you’re already out of high school, or if you’d like to see what your results would be now that you’ve had some years out in the work force, contact the community college closest to you about taking the test. Bail bonding is certainly not for everyone! But they can help you discover the best fit for your own personal brand of success.

Don’t settle for the second-best life that you can lead. As Oprah says, Live your best life! Oprah is a perfect example of what a poor black girl can make of her life with good studying and hard work – and never giving up. Oprah has done more with less than any person on earth! Next to her faith in God, she says being a big reader was the key to her success. Reading biographies and inspirational books about people who have worked hard to pull themselves out of poverty is the best way to keep yourself moving to your goals. I sincerely hope my story will inspire you to give life your best shot.

Even if you read about famous sports players and you’re thinking you don’t have what it takes to be a professional, learning about what they overcame to become who they are today can motivate you. Go to your library and check out books about people you admire. If you can’t find anything on anyone you are looking for, ask the librarian to recommend some books that are a good match with your interests. They are happy to help you find what you need. They might not have the books you’re interested in on the shelf, but they can find good books for you in other branches of the library and have them sent over. So be sure to ask for help.

Just keep in mind that for every rich and famous ball player, there are a million who think they’re going to make it to the top, but they don’t. I’m sure you know one or two people like that. They always talk about how great they could have been. You’ve got to have a Plan B in case you never get that big break, or if you do get a big break – but that break is in your body and you can’t play ball anymore.

It is also helpful to read books about people who are faced with physical disabilities – either from birth, or caused by accident or illness. Even if your body isn’t up to pro ball standards, you can give gratitude for the grace and wonderment of a body that can do just about anything you need it to do. I promise you an attitude of gratitude will attract success to yourself and make your life a better place to be.

Keeping a journal

Writing in a journal is not just for little girls! If every night you write in a notebook five things you are grateful for, you will find your sleep deeper, your dreams sweeter, and your life growing closer and closer to the life you want (and deserve.) Many people find great success with writing (scripting) in a notebook every day about their life just the way they want it to be.

You write things as if they are already true. Some find it’s best to start small and gradually work up to your biggest dreams, but some shoot for the moon from their very first page. I am the President of the United States! I wonder when Barack Obama started cherishing that hope. You may want to start with:

I am so grateful to live in a loving family.

I have lots of great friends and we have fun together.

I am glad I have a roof over my head and food in my body.

I eat the right foods and exercise the right amount to be fit, healthy and attractive.

People enjoy helping me achieve my goals.

Then, push yourself a little:

My work is always done on time and to the best of my ability.

I love to be organized so I can get more done faster.

I wear stylish clothes that make me look and feel good.

I drive a nice car and live in a beautiful house.

My life is getting better and better.

One of the biggest roadblocks to future success is for you young ladies to have a baby or you young men to get a girl pregnant. Being a teenage parent will almost guarantee that you will be pulled down your whole life. Most teen mothers don’t graduate from high school, so that leaves you doing low-paying jobs with little opportunity for advancement for the rest of your life.

Young men, even if you have the maturity and love in your heart to stay to help raise that baby, I promise you they aren’t little dolls that you can just put down and go out and do whatever you want whenever you want. A lot of guys try that and it causes real problems in your relationship, so before long, you can’t take it anymore and you leave.

What’s different now is that the government is in financial trouble, just like the business world. The state is low on funds, so they are getting really strict about who the real responsible parties are. It’s not going to continue the way it was that girls can just have babies and stay home and the boys can just keep on playing. When I was young, a guy could get a girl pregnant and just walk away and say that it wasn’t his baby. Today, they will run a DNA test and know for sure whose baby that is, and they will garnish your paycheck. And if you’re out of a job, they will come after your parents for not supervising you enough.

Then you could be in a situation that you’re having to send money that’s supposed to go to your kids, but it might go to their mama’s new boyfriend – the one that’s addicted to crack. And you read every month about some poor girl who trusted that guy to babysit so she could go out and make some money. She comes back home and it’s always the same: The baby wasn’t breathing, so I called 911. And he’ll make some excuse like he fell off the sofa.

You don’t want to be that guy. And you don’t want to be that girl. You want to make a success of yourself. Get your education in and get going on a career before you have children, so when the time is right you can be a part of raising good people to take your place when you’re gone.

Do you know that Zig Ziglar did a study on death-row inmates and every single one of them – 100% – hated their fathers! What kind of world does it create when you leave behind angry, frustrated kids? I personally know the hurt that comes from being abandoned by my father. I saw the burden it placed on my mother.

This doesn’t even take into account how unfair life is for the little ones who are being raised by kids who