"How many masks are you wearing? And why?" Dr. José Quezada asked a room full of teenagers that question, and the room went still. Not polite stillness. The deeper kind, the kind that happens when someone finally names the thing you have been carrying alone. By the end of the night, a young man in a dress uniform took his hand and said, "From this moment on, I refuse to live my life wearing a mask." That young man is who this book is written for. And so are you. Your brain is wired in ways no one ever explained to you. It makes decisions before you can think. It floods you with emotions so intense they sometimes frighten you. It is still, literally, under construction, and yet you are being asked to navigate a world moving faster than any generation before you ever faced. No wonder so many capable young people quietly get lost. Wired to Lead hands you the map. Drawing on his journey from a dirt-floor home in the Dominican Republic, to the streets of Washington Heights, to twenty-two years as a Marine Corps officer and a Doctorate in Leadership, Dr. Quezada explains what is actually happening inside you. You will learn how your brain works under pressure, why your emotions are information instead of weakness, and where anxiety and depression really come from. You will understand the masks you wear at home, with friends, in the classroom, and you will learn how to set them down. Most of all, you will discover that emotional intelligence is not soft. It is the single greatest advantage you can build, and it is learnable. Every part of it. Written for teens and for the parents, teachers, and coaches who believe in them, this is a direct, honest guide to becoming the leader you already have it in you to be. Leadership does not begin when someone gives you a title. It begins the moment you decide to stop letting other people write your story.
