Moe Ways was on a mission to start a trend that had never happened before in his hometown of Detroit.
 
A wide receiver for the Golden Bears after arriving as a graduate transfer from Michigan, Ways and his childhood friend, Trent Shelby, are motivated to inspire youth to dream big and turn those dreams into realities.
 
Their mission originated from trips they took to Los Angeles. Ways traveled across the country for football training purposes, while Shelby was there to work on his music career. During their time in Southern California, they felt that unlike in Michigan, the youth in Los Angeles were more driven and many already knew what they wanted to do with their lives.
 
"We came back after being in L.A. for a couple weeks and started talking about why things feel so different when you go there compared to back home in Detroit, especially with young people our age, and younger," Ways said. "In L.A., they are very into entrepreneurship - whatever they want to do whether its fashion, music or art."
 
Ways and Shelby created a nonprofit organization called the L.A.B. – Leadership, Attitude, Brotherhood. The mission statement of the L.A.B. is to develop a process of creating "new" that will cultivate and empower young men to achieve their goals and unite as brothers, instilling a long-term and life-changing foundation for success. The organization started in Detroit, but after some early successes last spring, the founders are hoping to extend it to a national level in the future.
 
When they started their organization, Ways and Shelby found some initial adversity from members of the local community. They struggled to find speakers and venues to host events because locals in Michigan had never seen something like this before. They said it mirrored the exact stagnant mindset of youth in the area that Ways and Shelby were trying to change.
 
The naysayers had their doubts because it was different, which is exactly what Ways and Shelby were trying to accomplish.
 
"One thing that I really appreciate about Moe is he is a guy that knows how to handle adversity," Shelby said. "Moe and I say all the time that there's so much in life, and we are different people too, but one trait we share is knowing how to handle adversity, and knowing how to channel it. When somebody tells us no, that creates even more reason for us to do it."
 
Eventually, Ways and Shelby locked in a venue and confirmed speakers to contribute to the experience.
 
On May 5 of this year, the first L.A.B. experience was held at the Burning Bush International Ministries church in Westland, Michigan, with approximately 300 people in attendance. Ways and Shelby's innovative experience featured interaction and engagement. Diversity could be found, not only from the different groups of people present but from the variety of activities, seminars and workshops featured to make it as hands-on as possible.


 
Ways, Shelby and pastor Robby Emery each spoke about the three main themes of the experience – leadership, attitude and brotherhood.
 
But it was the activity at the end that really stood out to Ways.
 
"After Trent spoke, he had everybody come up to the stage and join everybody with the L.A.B. team," Ways said. "We all locked arms and we told them they were brothers with us now and locked in with us. Anything you need, we got you. You're not alone anymore. That was very powerful."
 
At the conclusion of the experience, Ways and Shelby received nothing but praise and adulation from the same naysayers who originally told them not to waste their time.
 
"We impacted a lot of lives that day," Ways said. "We had a lot of parents and grandparents come up to us after and say how amazing it was, and how they see us as a mentor to their son or grandson. We felt like we definitely fulfilled the purpose, and we want to continue to make it bigger and better each year."


 
After the experience, the attendees were asked to share their experience on social media. Ways and Shelby were pleased with the large number of responses they received. The social media posts went viral to parents in other cities who are sharing it with their children, and now the L.A.B. has spread beyond the city of Detroit.
 
One attendee has already felt the benefits of the experience according to Ways.
 
"He text me right after the experience and told me how much that changed his life," Ways said. "He gets bullied at school, and we gave him confidence to be ok with who he is. He's a really smart kid and loves playing tennis, and people picked on him about those things, but after the experience, he became proud of who he is. That made me feel really good to see we made that kind of impact."
 
Shelby was proud to share the experience with Ways, and added how much he witnessed Ways thrive in his opportunity to be a leader and an innovator.
 
"I'm grateful to even be connected to him," Shelby said. "When I see him, I really see someone who is going to be one of the greatest in what they do, because of the kind of spirit, determination and hard work he embodies. Without him, the L.A.B. wouldn't be anything."



A source of Ways and Shelby's motivation to start this cause is their parents, particularly their fathers who are both pastors in the community.
 
Ways' father, Marcus, couldn't have been prouder of his son on that day – not only for coming up with this idea with his lifelong good friend, but overcoming adversity and his drive to keep fighting to make his vision come into fruition.
 
"I told him that this was probably his greatest accomplishment," Marcus said. "He went from having a concept to making this actually happen. I think this was his greatest accomplishment because of what he did to problem-solve and get around the obstacles in his way. He used great interpersonal relationship skills to convince people to make this happen. He brought the whole team dynamic from playing football to this team, which really helped."
 
Marcus believes that one of Moe's greatest attributes is his patience listening to people. His football background also helps him identify with children.
 
"With Moe being a football player, that's a magnet drawing card for many kids," Marcus said. "He really talks more about life lessons and life experiences with his struggle and his journey, and they can really relate to that."
 
The plan is for Ways and Shelby to continue with another experience in the summer of 2019. They're thinking on a grander scale now, as the goal is to turn the experience into a three-day event with guest speakers from all over the country and more seminars and workshops.
 
Regardless of what the future holds, Ways will always be proud of what he achieved in the first experience.
 
"We pushed them to be better, and explained that we are from where you are from and we have similar stories," he said. "We told them we made a lot of good things happen in our lives because we pushed through, and you can do the same. That's our message for everybody."