Arel Moodie

Featured in USA Today, Young Money Magazine, and on ABC, NBC, and Fox News affiliates, Arel Moodie, author of the bestselling book, Your Starting Point for Student Success, is an expert on helping this generation of students begin taking action to achieve their goals. Arel is living proof that, no matter what your background is, we all can have the life that we deserve.

Arel began his life on welfare in the projects of Brooklyn, New York, where he witnessed those around him being murdered and imprisoned. Yet he went on to attend college where he started his first successful internet company and was named the most outstanding graduate of his school. Arel shows students how to achieve their dreams by teaching them how to believe in themselves and by giving them the know-how that inspires action today. As a professional speaker, he has reached over 60,000 students in 37 states and two countries. For his work with young people, Arel was named one of the Country's Top Generation Y Leaders in the book, Millennial Leaders; and he is featured in the book #1 New York Times Best Selling book, Who's Got Your Back.

Always the entertainer, Arel likes to dance and has opened for the Grammy Award winning R&B group, 112.

More about Arel

Biggest obstacle overcome...

When developing the idea for the placefinder.com, neither myself nor my business partner knew anything about web site development, which became a huge problem. To make a long story short it took us 2 ½ years to build a functional website. We went through numerous sub-par programmers and designers who did not produce a product that was sufficient.

Biggest business mistake...

One of the biggest mistakes I've made in business was launching our business before the site was ready. I heard how important it was to just "jump right in" and figure it out as you go, but this strategy resulted in a lot of angry customers, and my business was a major focal point of a lot of stress in my life because of it.

Biggest vice...

Sugar. I love sweets and I have to work on cutting down on them.

Biggest advice for others...

Remember that every overnight success took at least 5-7 years. What people from the outside don't see, is all the sacrifice it takes to succeed and make a business work.

What I do for fun...

Dance, watch movies/youtube clips, work out, play basketball or random sports like miniature golf

Most embarrassing business moment...

This one time, I'm ashamed to admit, I was showing an apartment at a place that wasn't in the best area. And as I was showing it with the handyman present, a neighbor ran up to the handyman to let him know that last night someone broke into his apartment and stole all of his stuff. As the neighbor said this I looked at the prospective tenants and felt so embarrassed. It's safe to say that those tenants did not move in and I felt like poop.