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Contact: Elvin J. Dowling
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www.ArchitectOfChange.com
Faith In God, Hope for the Future Inspires Remarkable Tale of Survival and Success
February 10, 2011, New York, NY— Former National Urban League chief of staff, Elvin Dowling, The Architect of Change, recently released an awe-inspiring and God-centered self-help book, License to Live: A Manual for Getting Past Life’s Roadblocks; a story of faith and courage in a world sorely in need of good news. Already garnering critical acclaim and global recognition, having won a coveted “Book of the Week” award on The Michael Baisden Show, a nationally syndicated, popular radio program with millions of daily listeners, License to Live is “Heart of Darkness meets Chicken Soup for the Soul.” It is a compelling narrative that sheds light on the truth that your past does not dictate your future!
In many ways, Elvin Dowling’s experience is quintessentially Christian, as the story of his life jumps off the pages in gripping detail, and resonates within the hearts and minds of those who root for the underdog. Born the second child of an unwed teenage mother, Dowling came from a background rife with poverty, violence and hopelessness. By all odds, he shouldn’t have made it out of his neighborhood, much less achieved a level of success that defies conventional wisdom.
When he was six years old, Elvin’s favorite aunt was brutally murdered as her mentally impaired children looked on. At fourteen, his cousin was kidnapped, killed and dumped along the side of a road because of the poor choices that he made. By the time he was nineteen years old, Elvin had lost brothers and other loved ones to the scourge of street violence in his gritty South Florida neighborhood. In spite of these setbacks, however, Dowling’s successful and storied career found him on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and board rooms on Wall Street—rising to the pinnacle of leadership in some of America’s most historic institutions. Even still, he never gave up on his faith and held steadfast to the belief that God would see him through.“I refer to God every now and again in my book when reflecting upon my life and where He has brought me from. He has been too good to me to not afford Him the credit He so richly deserves,” Dowling declared.
Despite the challenges of his earlier years, Elvin’s experiences infused within him a profound commitment to ministry and to service above self; a consistent and overarching theme throughout the book. When he was fifteen years old, for example, Dowling answered the call to ministry, spending countless hours uplifting the lives of the “least of these,” under the sprawling shadow of an old oak tree in the worst neighborhood of his hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida. He also spent his teenage years actively working in prison ministry, inspiring offenders to turn their lives around and become productive members of society. For his efforts, Elvin was recognized by the Palm Beach Post Newspaper with its highest honor, The Pathfinder’s Award, for exceptional community service.
Throughout License to Live, Dowling frames the harsh realities of his upbringing as Red Light Challenges. The way he dealt with these obstacles he calls Roadside Responses and the life lessons that can be learned by each of us become Universal Road Rules. Each chapter also has a Real Life Road Map that readers can use to navigate the highways of their own lives successfully, as they attempt to Map Quest their future. Finally, the structure of challenge-response-life lesson, carries through-out each chapter of this superbly written work.
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Elvin J. Dowling is the former chief of staff for the National Urban League. An internationally acclaimed inspirational speaker and certified professional coach, Dowling is a frequent contributor to WNYC and serves as chairman of the Destined for Greatness Foundation. He is the author of the newly released License to Live and also writes at his website ArchitectOfChange.com and on Twitter.
