Nothing to Show for it: The Student Athlete's Rule Book For Success

Mike Daniels, starting defensive end for the Green Bay Packers says, "there are fundamental truths laid out in this book that will provide guidance and direction to incoming male student-athletes. Vernon does an excellent job of describing the many traps and pitfalls that young men learn from their unfortunate experience of unwitting self destruction." Brandon Siler, UF National Champion and veteran NFL linebacker says, "every young aspiring athlete needs the knowledge that Vern Jackson is empowering them with in this book. Having this knowledge will prepare young men for the ultimate game…. The game of life." A strikingly large proportion of the most talented and highly touted prep athletic recruits each year come from impoverished, urban inner cities. For many of the young men from those areas, the opportunity that comes with an athletic scholarship is truly once in a lifetime; they cannot afford to waste it. Unfortunately a number of pitfalls and traps await these young men when they get to college, traps that often cost them their entire future. This is a concise, straight forward hard hitting rule book aimed at providing student athletes the knowledge and foresight needed to maximize their success and avoid ending up with Nothing to Show for their athletic investments. Everyday we hear of student athletes falling into various traps and negative situations which put their entire futures at risk. This book outlines the most common and harmful traps that student athletes fall into and gives warnings on how to avoid those traps.

Vernon Jackson was born into poverty, one of six children in Orlando, Florida. Due to anger and substance abuse issues on his father's part, Vernon was raised primarily by his mother, who instilled in him faith in God and work ethic. Despite growing up in adverse circumstances Vernon developed a love for hard work and for reading. Those two traits helped him to excel in school. Vernon attended Evans High School in Orlando Florida. At Evans Vernon was an all conference powerlifter, heavy weight wrestler and 3 year starter on the football team. Vernon established himself as an all-state defensive lineman known for his extraordinary strength and fierce mean-streak. He graduated with honors and earned a football scholarship to the University of Iowa. After a promising spring football campaign his redshirt freshman year, Vernon suffered a career ending knee injury. Despite the loss of the sport he loved, Vernon excelled in his studies while continuing to help coach the defensive line. Vernon graduated from The University of Iowa with Honors in Political Science. He earned a merit scholarship to Florida Coastal School of Law where he was a Dean's Scholar before graduating with honors. Vernon went on to pass the Florida Bar Exam and began practicing criminal law in Jacksonville, Florida. Vernon has since built a successful criminal and family law practice along with firm partner, Jonathan Ross. In addition to serving the legal needs of his community Vernon Jackson has built a notable and effective community empowerment organization known as Building Powerful Minds. This program provides mentoring, tutoring, life skills training and physical training to inner city minority youth. As a scholar, Attorney and activist, Vernon is often called upon to speak concerning issues of race, class, youth and self empowerment.