Book excerpt: This book is written for the young and hopeless, for the misguided, misled, misunderstanding, and misunderstood. It's a book of growth to promote growing. A book to reveal that someone understands, can relate, and cares. This book is written out of love and by faith. It's inspired by life and the discovery of the power of choice to shape that life. It's about choosing to know, love, and be yourself. Being a thug or a man is about accepting your humanity, mortality, and individuality; and respecting your own mind enough to trust that you are perfect. Acknowledging, accepting, and respecting that you are always a work in progress serves as a revelation into so much more. It ain't gotta be the way it is, but it is what it is until you choose to do and be different. This book is written with the hope to give both thuggin' and manhood a broader perspective. The hope that we will discontinue the traditional trade of innocence for ignorance. The aim of this book is to break one cycle and begin another more constructive one.