Born in India, Sumant S. Pendharkar has lived in the United States since 1985.  As a hiring manager, he noticed that many of the choices his associates had made as teenagers were catching up with them. They had very little savings; were often caught in a cycle of debt; they attended night classes to fill in educational gaps; and were, basically, making up for lost opportunities—all because of the poor decisions they had made during their teen years.

Sumant noticed that teenagers in the US often ignore the wealth of opportunities available to them (education, libraries, computers, institutions of higher learning, etc.). In fact, in most cases, they don’t realize the advantages they have until after they have made poor choices in their critical teen years—choices such as dropping out of school, getting involved with drugs and gangs, bowing to the peer pressure, getting pregnant or starting a family too young. 

Wishing to give back to the country he now calls home, Sumant, an accomplished author, decided to write this simple book.  Sumant hopes readers will think about how they are approaching their lives, and what decisions they need to make, as they take on the challenging task of “raising themselves” in a complex world where clear choices are not always easy.

Sumant has also co-authored eight technical books, which have been published by Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill and Random House.