Alive Time or Dead Time?

An Inspiring Story about Malcolm X Told by Robert Greene.

American author Robert Greene has this beautiful concept he writes about called “Alive time or dead time.”

It’s an idea that came to Mr. Greene, after studying civil and human rights activist, Malcolm X, whose original name- Malcolm Little, was an American Muslim minister, activist, and spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964.

Given his rough upbringing and circumstances, Malcolm was imprisoned for robbery from 1946 to 1952, from which he endured the most critical time of his life, leading to the African American movement and human rights.

Until that point, Greene noted, “The world took everything away from Malcolm X except for one thing; his ability to turn his jail sentences into an alive time.”

In his Autobiography, X explains that, the defeat, the heartbreak, and the losses he’d experienced, contained in them the seeds and lessons on how he could improve as a human being.

“To have once been a criminal,” X stated, “is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace.”

With his newfound moral virtues, X ended up turning those six years of agony and despair into what Robert Greene later recalls, as “Alive Time.” He had nothing else to do with his…