Ripping Off The Mask

From Hustler, Entertainer To CEO

by Joseph Lee

Determined to Succeed Against All ODDS

Imagine leaving a life behind where you grew up as a young boy in the 9th Ward ‘Desire Housing Project’ in New Orleans, Louisiana. Where life was about the survival of the strong, ambitious, and someone who wanted better for themselves and no longer wanted to be a Hustler by the way of the streets during the early 1980’s – 1991 when he left home. A young man who could not imagine what life would bring next once he made it out.

Relocation – A new life was born with a new lifestyle and way of living years later after moving to Fort Washington, Maryland just outside of Washington D.C. in 1991. This was a time when crime; gang violence and corruption were at their highest in New Orleans.

A mother, the late Carolyn Lee made a hard decision to contact relatives to come and visit New Orleans with an agenda to take the oldest of two boys away from home. Little did he know his uncle, the late Roosevelt Lee and his living wife, Aunt “Mama” Joan Lee were there to pull him from the hood life at his mother’s request. A mother who truly did not want to see her oldest son found dead in some project or to be another statistic black young adult ending up in the infamous place known as the “Tint City” jail in the city of New Orleans of the infamous ‘Booth’ state of Louisiana.

This youth would then move to Maryland and take on multiple jobs as stepping-stones to a career with a secondary alternative lifestyle as an Exotic Male
Entertainer a few years later while pursuing a lifetime dream of attending college after sacrificing to stay home and take care of the family after high school.

This new life and events that took place in his life from this time forward provided a vehicle to meet some of the most interesting people from different walks of life and career backgrounds.

Later in life, as he elevated his education, began to develop his career, and defined his passion while pursuing college degrees, he moved on to become the CEO of a commercial and government contracting firm specializing in Information Technology and Cybersecurity solutions.

He also has found himself the father and girl dad to a beautiful princess that was born in 2017, while battling the life hurdles of shared custody that continues today.