By Nyesha Stone
Xecutive Way Transportation, is the logo and name of Nicholson’s semi-truck company.
Black Boy Magic is real. Our Black men bleed excellence and once they realize their worth, they become unstoppable. And, a Black man with knowledge is America’s biggest fear.
Deiryon Nicholson figured this out a few years back and now he’s the owner of his own semi company: Xecutive Way Transportation LLC.
Nicholson fell in love with trucks and cars during his youth when his mom used to buy him toy cars. It helped that his stepfather used to drive semis.
He’s been to Texas and the West Coast to transport goods, and he hopes to one-day transport luxury cars with his line of Xecutive Way semis.
“It’s all about doing what you love,” Nicholson said. “I love driving and the freedom of the road.”
Owning a business was always in his mind since he comes from a family of business owners. However, this business isn’t just for him, he said. Through his company, he’ll be able to help others by providing them with jobs.
But, for Nicholson working for someone else was never an option because, he always wanted to tell the people he worked for how to do their job, and one day he decided enough was enough. After saving up for a few months, he bought his first semi.
At the age of 26, Nicholson turned his life around unlike what society says a Black man can’t do.
With nothing to do in Milwaukee, Nicholson and his two friends rode around robbing and jumping people. Well, their fun only lasted so long. After robbing two people and burying a gun, the police began looking for Nicholson and his friends but ended up only arresting one. That friend then made a deal with the police to shorten his time if he showed them where Nicholson hid the gun and where Nicholson and the other friend were.
Nicholson’s bail reached a staggering $100,000 for armed robbery, and without the funds to pay, he sat in prison for 26 months at the age of 18. During those months, he self-educated himself. He couldn’t believe that the other prisoners were wasting their time doing nothing when they could be reading to gain knowledge to become a better person.
He also was a part of the Early Release Program (ERP), in which he almost was kicked out of at the last minute. To graduate, he needed a Plan A and a Plan B, but the plans had to be different. Nicholson had the same plan: to own a semi-company, but to get out he changed Plan B to say that he would attend school, which he might.
Now, years later Nicholson’s Plan A became a reality.
“Stand for what you want, but sometimes you just gotta [sic] play the game,” he said.
Reflecting back, Nicholson believes he needed that time locked up to discover the greatness that was within himself, and now that he knows, he plans on spreading that knowledge to the youth, especially Black boys.
“No matter what you’re going through, you have the responsibility to make the best of it and know you have options,” he said. “We have to educate ourselves.”
Nicholson hopes to start a group of business owners with trades to teach the kids that there’s more than just going to college, but it’s hard for him to find people that see his vision. He believes one of Milwaukee’s biggest issues is our lack of unity, but if we came together like New York or Atlanta than we’d all be better off.
Through Xecutive Way, Nicholson plans on changing the way the youth see themselves and how they live their lives.
“Don’t let nothing or no one hold you back,” he said.