---Dr. Richard Assad was born and raised in Boston’s South End, a poor yet ethnically rich neighborhood. He learned early that poverty, prejudice, and unfounded hatred knew no ethnic or racial boundaries. The streets taught Assad to view the world as an adversary creating a “mind set” that allowed him to view all opportunities as a potential trap created by the establishment! He wasn’t going to be a “SUCKER” He fought with a furious anger at any attempt to alter his view.

---It is not surprising that Richard was expelled from five (5) different high schools by the time he was sixteen (16). A sorrowful waste of potential given that his I.Q. scores allowed him to be accepted into the well known High I.Q. society., MENSA; and the lesser known Intertel, which requires a score within the upper 1% of the populace.

---Bright, but an uneducated drop-out living with his divorced mother, Assad took to the streets to make his way. He followed the example of his father, a local organized crime figure in the neighborhood. By the age of nineteen (19) he was driving a Mercedes Benz and earning a minimum of $2000.00 a week operating an after hours poker game and an accompanied loan-sharking business, allowing Assad to enjoy his misspent youth in style. Sex, drugs and rock n roll, along with easy money! Simultaneously, at the behest of his best friend, Robert “Bobby” Hansen, a University of Massachusetts student, he took the GED exams and earned his High School Diploma.

---Bobby was convinced that Richard belonged in college. Even with his GED in hand, Assad continued to live his life of crime until one fateful day an associate of Richard told him about a government program called “Model City” which paid under privileged kids to go to college.

---He signed up, was accepted and entered the University of Massachusetts in memory of his best friend. (Bobby never saw that day. He died three (3) months after Assad received his GED.)

---Entering U. Mass gave birth to “Dr.”Assad. He found college the perfect place to exercise his inherent aggressive intellect. Professors found him both exhausting and exhilarating, and he found them profound and pompous. Like a duck to water, Assad swam in the sea of knowledge, finding his way and his calling. Studying psychology and education, Richard completed his Bachelor of Arts with honors, went on to earn his Masters at Suffolk University, and his Doctorate at the prestigious Boston University.

---Since his transformation from hoodlum to doctor, his resume includes teaching at high schools, and colleges; director of a youth offenders program; a successful private practice in psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, even a stint as a professional actor and award winning director. From coast to coast he is transforming the lives of those who experience him. Why? Because Dr. Assad changes the “mind-set” of his audience, for life, in as little as 180 minutes!

---“It takes more than an attitude adjustment, more than a motivational ‘pep talk’, to transform a life, such things are mere colorings; nor is it the Four T’s (Take Time To Think)” says Dr. Assad. “It’s not the time you take to think, it’s the ‘way’ you think! Lawyers think like lawyers because their mind has been trained to think like a lawyer. Same applies for educators, and for administrators, that’s why they clash!! Their mind-sets have different priorities. They ‘see’ things differently! Students need to ‘see’ the opportunities available to them. That ‘vision’ is only available through the proper ‘mind-set’. I create that ‘mind-set’. That’s why Test Scores go Up and Disciplinary Problems go Down. That’s what saved me! I changed my mind-set!!”