Watch Me Rise Introduction By Doug Luffborough

As I heard the president of Northeastern University say, “Ladies and gentlemen, your student speaker, Doug Luffborough,” the world slowed around me. My heart beat like a strobe, flashing intense memories before me: using newspaper instead of toilet paper in the bathroom; helping my mother clean rich people’s houses and seeing first-hand the condescending way she was treated; staring down the barrel of a gun. I considered my life without a father or strong male role model by my side. I remembered the tremendous sacrifices made for me to be on this platform. Finally, I recalled being told that I was not college material, that I should stay home and continue working at the local factory. As I made my way to the podium at the Boston Garden, a heat wave of excitement shimmered for the student commencement speaker who would precede the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, live on national television. Some believe that everyone will have their fifteen minutes of fame—and for me, those fifteen minutes would shape the next twenty years.

Since that day, people have asked why I have not written a book about my life. At first, I thought it was my enduring insecurities with writing that stopped me. Then I told myself that engaging help would be too expensive—not that I even knew where or how to start. Now I realize it took me so long because, month by month, year by year, and decade by decade, the story of my life was still evolving. I was still seeking answers to two questions: Who am I? And why am I here?

My mother used to say, “The me I see is the me I will be.” In other words, the way you see yourself in life is what you will become. For many years, I saw myself as the child of a housekeeper, a boy who grew up in poverty without a father or a place that felt like home. Becoming homeless during my senior year of high school was, poetically, an outward manifestation of my deep inward struggle to find a home. People say that home is where the heart is, but when you live each day with a broken heart, “home” is self-doubt, depression, and unfulfilled dreams. Home is a shattering loss of hope. At eighteen, my heart’s homelessness led me to the edge of a bridge overlooking rush-hour traffic. Jumping seemed like the only way out, but God had a different plan for me, a plan that would eventually lead to the prestigious academic halls of Harvard University—and beyond.

In the end, though, this book is not just about being homeless or graduating from Harvard. It is my journey to find meaning in times of deep sorrow, a personal account of transforming negative situations into moments of strength and triumph. The pages that follow will explore some of the lowest times in my life but also my highest moments of victory. I hope that my story will inspire you to see that quitting is not an option. If what you are doing is not working, change your approach, but never give up on your dreams. Hard work, persistence, and a positive attitude will always pay off.

I believe in measuring success through the stories of lives we change. It has taken me over forty years to build the courage to tell this story, but I believe that relationships will be restored and destinies fulfilled because of it. This book is for everyone: the pregnant teenaged runaway looking for meaning and the Ivy League-educated executive seeking to rediscover humanity in a world full of greed, arrogance, and power. This book is for you.

“The me I see is the me I will be,” and today I see myself as an international heart-inspired speaker, author, leadership consultant, nonprofit executive, coach, husband, and father determined to become a world changer. 

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