Greg Lindberg on Turning Anger into Productivity
Compassion and hormesis as a path to transformation
As explained in his new book 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life & Leadership, Greg Lindberg emerged from prison almost two years after his conviction for bribery was unanimously overturned by an appeals court. He walked out the door of Federal Prison Camp Montgomery (Alabama) determined to help anyone incarcerated to live a better life. As he explains in Chapter XX - My Charity:
“I am eager to launch a prison charity to supply welcome kits for Federal inmates... I am thinking the kits can contain the following:
* high quality shower shoes (two sizes for the kits...large and extra large)
* a small book of positive affirmations and quotes
* a list of pro bono legal resources for inmates
* a list of FSA eligible [federal Flexible Spending Account} classes via correspondence schools
“On the last day I was in prison, the camp called me down to R&D which is what happens when inmates are going to be released. This was a signal to the inmates that it was safe to ‘scavenge’ my cube. I walked out the door and then came back a very short time later to find that someone had already taken my shower shoes. They went first :)
“I also will never forget one of my fellow inmates who said to me as I was walking out: ‘Don't forget us. You are one of the few people who can do something to help.’
“I won't forget them.”
Lindberg lived up to his promise with the publication of his book and a new series of videos on YouTube. The company he founded, Global Growth, has an outreach program for prisoners that began even before Lindberg was incarcerated. When he first went to trial and realized how difficult it would be for people without his level of financial resources to get a fair trial, he donated $1 million to the ACLU. "This contribution is meant to help people who don't have the resources to fight injustice," he said in a press release.
Once locked up at FPC Montgomery, Lindberg accepted his fate and his drastically changed living conditions. Later, he would see an angry fellow prisoner sent to a “hard time” prison for angrily fighting his sentence at the prison camp, but Lindberg kept his cool, chastened by circumstances from the beginning.
“The very first day in prison, you can't bring anything,” he describes in a new video. “You're stripped of all your belongings. You're given a prison uniform, and you're given a cube and your life is barren. And the biggest mistake that inmates make, unfortunately, is they get angry at the BOP. Now, there's a lot of reasons, don't get me wrong, to be angry at the BOP. But the Bureau of Prisons didn't put you in prison. The Bureau of Prisons is handed an order to imprison you, incarcerate you. They're not responsible for your imprisonment.”
A generally positive and optimistic person, Lindberg saw that his fellow prisoners could use some good energy, so he gave it to them, teaching classes and freely providing advice. He found being a mentor to be one of the most rewarding things he had ever done, and called teaching “absolutely the best part” of his life.
Hear Greg Lindberg and a fellow prisoner discuss the experience:
While helping others transform, Lindberg worked on himself, specifically using the concept of hormesis, which included fasting and putting his body under stress he had never experienced before prison.
“I took freezing cold showers in prison because that improves your mitochondrial biogenesis,” he says in another new video. “One of the best things you can do besides starving is freezing. That took some getting used to, getting in prison in the middle of January and turning on the shower as cold as it'll go. And taking a three or four minute shower. It'll be a very quick shower. That's pain. You don't shop shivering for a couple of hours because prison's cold. That makes you stronger on a genetic level on a mitochondrial level.”
Pictures of Lindberg prove his point. As shown in his book, he looks ten years younger than when he became incarcerated. Knowing how his personal transformation came about, he has continued embracing the pain he learned to endure and use to advantage.
“I continue to live like I did in prison,” he explains. “I work out an hour and a half, two hours a day. I do my 114 hour [per] week fast. I sleep on a tiny little cot, and I'm never gonna look for the cushy, luxurious life because that ultimately makes you weaker. The concept of hormesis is very simply what doesn't kill you makes you stronger…. The word I use is transformation… You know, a butterfly transforms, right? A caterpillar transforms. And so that's what really happening. It's not overnight. There's no reset button. The caterpillar doesn't reset and become a butterfly. It transforms.”
Listen to his talk on Hormesis as Transformation:
There can be a “butterfly effect” from Greg Lindberg’s prison story and subsequent efforts to share his self-improvement methods with the world. Before his unfortunate legal troubles, he built a worldwide billion-dollar company with 7500 employees, starting with a newsletter he created in his college dorm. If you like what you’ve read and heard here, or seen in his videos, pass it on - it might help someone who needs it.
The ebook of 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life & Leadership can be found on Amazon, GooglePlay, Apple Books and many other major outlets. The paperback is available at Barnes & Noble and, via IngramSpark, around the world. Through his website www.greglindberg.com, he is making digital copies available to any currently incarcerated inmate or their family member. Even more to the point, his company, Global Growth, has a stated policy of not turning away potential employees because of a criminal conviction.