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Welcome Back
Issue #125 – March 10, 2026
Here’s to a special welcome if you are joining us for the first time.
If this is your first time here, G.R.O.W. stands for Guidance Redefines Our Way. Every Tuesday, we deliver practical guidance rooted in character, leadership, and community for boys, young men, parents, mentors, and everyone invested in raising the next generation.
March is National Reading Month. And this week, we're making the case that reading isn't just an academic habit. It's the foundation of every leader you've ever admired.
This is also Month 6 of AFGM's S.H.I.E.L.D.S. program year, and our theme is Development. Reading is development.
Let's GO!
Growth Spotlight: The Leaders Who Read
Show me a leader, and I'll show you a reader.
That's not a motivational slogan. It's a pattern. Across industries, generations, and backgrounds, the people who lead at the highest levels share one consistent habit: they read, and they read on purpose.
March is National Reading Month. Most people treat that as something for kids, a school campaign, a library poster, or a School book fair. But you all know better. Reading is not a childhood activity. It is a leadership discipline.
Here's why it matters for development:
• Reading builds vocabulary, which builds communication. Leaders who can articulate ideas clearly move people.
• Reading builds empathy. When you step into someone else's story, you expand your capacity to understand people who are different from you.
• Reading builds strategy. The best decisions are made by people who've studied problems, not just reacted to them.
• Reading builds patience. Sitting with a difficult book trains the same mental muscle you need to sit with a difficult problem.
If you know a young person who isn't reading, he isn't developing. It's that direct.
The question isn't whether reading matters. The question is: what's in his hands right now?
Bridge Builders: Books That Shaped Leaders | This month, we spotlight two leaders whose reading habits shaped who they became and what they built.Oprah grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. Books were her first way out. As a child, she read everything she could find. As an adult, she built one of the most powerful media empires in history, and she credits reading as the foundation of it all. Her book club, launched in 1996, is the most influential in American history. She understood that reading wasn't personal development — it was social development. When you give someone a great book, you give them a new lens. The book most cited in her story is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. A Black woman writing her own story, in her own voice, refusing to be reduced. Oprah has called it the book that made her feel, for the first time, that her story mattered. "Books were my pass to personal freedom." Oprah Winfrey Frederick DouglassDouglass was enslaved. Teaching enslaved people to read was illegal. When he was approximately 12 years old, his enslaver's wife began teaching him the alphabet. Her husband stopped it immediately. That moment told Douglass everything he needed to know about the power of reading. He taught himself anyway. He traded bread for reading lessons from white children in the neighborhood. He studied every scrap of print he could find. And what he read made him understand, as he later wrote, that literacy was the path from slavery to freedom — not just physically, but mentally. He went on to become one of the most powerful speakers and writers in American history. He advised Abraham Lincoln. He wrote three autobiographies. He built a newspaper. All of it started with the illegal act of learning to read. "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." Frederick Douglass One woman. One man. Different centuries. The same conviction: reading is not passive. It is power.
“It gets lonely when you start growing” President/Founder Michael Morgan |
Michael’s Hot Take: What I Learned From 36 Years of Watching Readers vs. Non-Readers
In 36 years of federal service, I worked alongside hundreds of people. Some were smart. Some were average. Some were barely keeping up. But when I look back at the people who advanced, who led well, who made decisions under pressure that held up, most of them were readers.
That's not a coincidence.
I've been reading consistently since I was a young man, and I can trace almost every major career decision, every leadership lesson, and every pivot I made back to something I read. Not because books gave me the answer, but because they gave me a frame. A way to think. A way to see around the corner.
Right now, I'm working through materials on nonprofit leadership and community development. Not because someone told me to. Because the job I'm doing at AFGM requires me to keep developing. I can't lead young men toward development and show up undeveloped myself.
That's the model. Read first. Lead from what you've learned.
Here's what I want to hear: reading isn't about being smart. It's about staying sharp. And sharp leaders raise sharper kids.
What are you reading right now? If the answer is nothing, that's the place to start.
Parent Insight of the Week
This week, sit with your son and ask:
"If reading is power, what do you want power over in your life?"
Let him think about it. Don't rush the answer. Then connect his answer to a book. Show him the direct line between what he reads and what he can do.
Development modeled at home sticks.
Try This With Your Mentee
Ask:
Ask your son: "If you could know everything about one subject, what would it be?"
Then find him a book about it. Not a YouTube channel. A book. Let curiosity lead him in.
Upcoming Events
Click the image to register!
MUSIC BINGO NIGHT IS HERE!!
Pull up for a night of good vibes, great music, and an even better cause
Join A Few Good MENtors for Music Bingo Night, where great music, nostalgia, and friendly competition meet, and the community comes together!
Saturday, March 14, 2026
6:00–10:00 PM (21+)
Mulligan’s Pub on the Green | Fairfax, VA
AFGM Engagement Hour | 6:00–7:00 PM
Arrive early. No pressure. Just good conversation, light apps, and a chance to connect.
Tickets are available now.
Can’t attend? Donations & sponsorships welcome!
AFGM Signature Events for 2026
These events mark our year of movement and momentum.
AFGM Youth Financial Workshop — April 11, 2026
Includes dedicated sessions for parents.AFGM 5K Run/Walk — June 27, 2026
AFGM Brotherhood Awards Luncheon — November 7, 2026
Sponsorship Opportunity
We are seeking sponsors and partners for all 2026 signature events.
If you know a business or organization that invests in boys, families, and mentorship, connect them with us.
Email: [email protected]
That’s it for this week.
This is the Year of Movement and Momentum.
Every step matters.
Thanks for moving with us. Please share this newsletter with friends and family.