The Resurrection Plant

If, like Carlos Ricard, your past is riddled with trauma, you may have learned to tough it out and to pretend you have it all together. Meanwhile, you're hiding the mental and emotional mess inside, and your life is more controlled by fear than anyone knows. That's a lonely place, and what's worse, it's a place where you can't access your potential for growth and change. Instead, you keep tripping yourself up, leading to failure, heartache, and hitting bottom over and over again.

It's easy to believe you're stuck where you are, that you're doomed to this life. But Ricard's bracing and inspiring story proves it's not true.

What if your ticket to freedom were found within the very walls that imprison you? What if hidden within the experiences that plague you lies the cure to save you? Would you risk the chance of dying many more deaths to earn the right to live the life you were meant for?

The Resurrection Plant tells of one man's mission to see clearly the truth about his troubled past and to reach the source of his self-destructive behaviors. Ricard began life as a homeless immigrant, spent time on the streets gangbanging, and wound up in prison. Though the streets, his schools, his workplaces, and sometimes his own family told him he was worthless, he held to a belief that he deserved better. After dying many deaths, he fought his way from the hood to the woods, from the ghetto to greatness.

Carlos Ricard was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico where he lived until the age of three when he migrated to the United States. From the hood to the woods, he spent most of his life growing up in the streets of New England. Today he's a resident of Eau Claire, WI where he lives with his fiancé Martha Benitez, mother of his three children - Castelo, Camila, and Carlos Jr. and owner of The Dapper Man Barbershop. As an author, public figure, speaker and coach, he continues to broaden the power of his message and influence by writing, directing and producing digital media content through his aptly named company, GTG (Ghetto To Greatness) Media., a GTG Consulting, LLC company. He's author of The Resurrection Plant: Your Pain Is Your Path To Greatness. Lately, his work has been featured as a reflection essay published in a University of North Carolina peer reviewed journal for the Dialogues in Social Justice: An Adult Education Journal focusing on adult learning and mass incarceration.