FOR MAXWELL
When I was eight, my big brother Maxwell would chase after me every night with a big smile. One night while at boarding school, Maxwell started vomiting blood. The hospital refused to treat him without payment. My dad had a car but couldn't afford repairs due to being poor and a huge lack of auto parts in Ghana. After they finally found a borrowed car, my parents took three hours to get there, but Maxwell had already died. Poverty took my brother and changed my family forever. I carried that when I immigrated to the US and joined the Air Force. When I left the service, life felt like a path with no destination—no money, no vision. I found a community that invested in me and realized God was using this space to give me direction. I told my story at a pitch night and raised $50,000 to found LD Auto Parts, sending parts back to Ghana and using the profits to build training centers where people can learn a trade and provide for their families. Maybe families don't have to lose their loved ones like my family did.