“Yes, I stole a credit card. Yes, bad things happened to me. A lot of it was my choice. Once I accepted that, things started to change.”
For Joshua Lucero, accountability was the turning point. Today, he owns one of Salt Lake City’s most inclusive and successful salons, but the path there began in poverty, family conflict, and a year behind bars.
Lucero grew up in Phoenix, raised mainly by his grandmother. “We were lMormon, kind of Jack Mormon, but I was the perfect kid that followed every rule.” His relationship with money was shaped by scarcity. “I never got an allowance. A hundred dollars felt like a lot, but when I had it, I’d spend it, and then I’d feel guilty I spent it.”…