Chairman Of Jordan Brand Speaks On Being Formerly Incarcerated

Chairman of Jordan Brand says his daughter inspired him to share his story of being formerly incarcerated.

We share the latest episode of “When It Clicked”, from Lemonada Media and The Just Trust, featuring in-depth conversations with business leaders, artists and unexpected changemakers who share the moment when their thinking about justice and safety changed.

Hosted by Ana Zamora, founder of The Just Trust — “When It Clicked” offers listeners inspiring and deeply moving conversations about prison reform and the personal experiences that inspired these guests to join the fight to transform our justice system.

In today’s episode, Ana is joined by Larry Miller, chairman of the Jordan brand at Nike and author of the book “Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom”.

Larry shares how he went from a second degree murder conviction at age 16 to becoming a top executive at one of the world’s largest companies.

He also details why he kept his past a secret for so long, and how his daughter inspired him to share his story with the world.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [10:29] Larry on How a Professional Rejection Inspired Him to Keep His Past a Secret for Forty Years

LARRY: “I start telling him my story, and I can see his face changing. He said ‘wow, that’s an amazing story and I’m sure you’re going to do well…I have an offer letter here that I was ready to give you, but I can’t give it to you now. I can’t take a chance. I wish you the best, but I can’t hire you.’ And at that point there were a couple of feelings that I was dealing with. The first one was, ‘This is a waste of my time. They’re never going to let me build a professional career because of my background.’ The other thing was that I wasn’t going to share this information anymore. I wasn’t going to lie about it, I wasn’t going to deny it if it came up, but I wasn’t going to volunteer the information… And for forty years, that’s how I built my career. People I consider family had no clue about my background because I was that diligent in trying to keep it quiet. It was challenging, it caused me to have recurring nightmares. I would wake up in a cold sweat, dreaming that I was on my way back to jail for something that I didn’t really understand or know about. I had migraines so bad. I ended up in the ER a few times and it was all because I was always anxious and nervous that somehow this would come out and I had that feeling for close to 40 years.”

• [17:27] Larry on How Sharing His Story Has Changed His Life

LARRY: “The migraines have stopped. The dreams have stopped. I feel so much freer now. I used to feel like when I would go and speak to young people or people in general about my career success and stuff like that, I always felt like I was cheating people because I really wasn’t telling the whole story. And to me, I wasn’t telling the most impactful part of the story. Since the book has come out, it’s allowed me to do that. It’s allowed me to be able to share the story. I feel a sense of freedom now that I don’t have to carry this burden around of being afraid that something’s going to come out that’s going to negatively impact the career that I’ve built up to this point.”

Lemonada Media and The Just Trust’s “When It Clicked” podcast is also available to stream on all major digital streaming platforms