Her parents were addicts. She was homeless by fifteen. By nineteen she was accepted to Harvard.
A few short lessons on goal setting — free, online — to turn “stuck” into a first real step.
Who Liz Murray is
Liz Murray became an inspirational speaker and author after escaping homelessness and poverty through education. Her memoir, Breaking Night, tells her story.
The struggle
Murray was born in 1980 in the Bronx. Both parents were addicted to drugs and had HIV. She often went hungry, missed school, and was teased for being dirty. Her mother died of AIDS when Liz was fifteen. Her father moved into a shelter.
Liz became homeless. She slept on subway trains, in stairwells, and on friends’ couches. She shoplifted food to survive. At fifteen she made a decision: she would finish high school and build a different life.
The turning point
She enrolled at an alternative high school and threw herself into studying. She did homework on subways and in parks. She finished high school in two years while homeless, graduating at the top of her class.
A New York Times article about her caught the attention of readers who helped fund her education. She was accepted to Harvard University. Though she left for a time to care for her father, she returned and graduated in 2009.
“I knew at that moment I had to make a choice. I could submit to everything that was happening and live a life of excuses… or I could push myself.”
The principle
Your starting conditions do not have to be your ending conditions. Murray chose education as her escape route and worked harder than anyone around her. Self-confidence is built by doing what once seemed impossible.
Apply it today
If your environment is pulling you down, identify the one lever you control — school, a skill, a job, a mentor — and pull it with everything you have. One disciplined choice, repeated, can reroute a life.
Ready to turn a story like this into your own next step?
Start our free goal-setting course — short lessons, online, no cost.