Damon West: If We Lose Hope, We Lose All | E52

is a long time to live. People don't see what you do, right? Well, they don't see you get up early in the morning. For years and years and years to get to this life you have today. They just see the glitz and the glamour of it and they want that you got to do want to put in the work

childhood. It's It's very sad. Take us through one day you're playing hoops and what happened out there and how that also changed your experience in prison.

Randall. And everything in that prison is about race six weeks into prison. I get up on a Monday morning. The only thing I haven't used at this point is my athletic ability. And remember from earlier and we talked about how great of an athlete I was blessed to be growing up and a man sports in prison is a very big deal. I've avoided the rec yard up to this point because the rec yard is one of the most intimidating places on the license Birdman, the rec yard

Randall. Every sport was segregated by the color of your skin. Mr. Jackson said prison was all about race. The dude was spot on that rec yard. The most segregated place I've ever seen before or since every sport by the color of your skin, sand volleyball, whites and Hispanics only. No blacks are well handle. All the races could play handball. But if you wanted to play doubles or partner up with somebody to play a game, your partner had the same skin colors you you couldn't mix the races

out there. The White said same thing just like you see in prison movies. Everybody in prison wants to push that out. Everybody wants to lift weights and all the races can lift weights. But you want someone to spot you, someone to work out with you. Your partner, your spotter has to be the same skin colors you you can't mix the races out there. You can't even sit down and eat a meal on the license built in with someone of

a different race. You can't sit at a table with someone of a different race and break bread. That's how serious race is out there. That Monday morning, six weeks in the prison. I faced my fears. Remember, Jackson says fears aren't real but danger is real. I faced my fears and some real danger that Monday morning and I go out to the rec yard. I pass up all the sports that day. And I had just straight to the basketball court. Now, Randall, who do you think runs that basketball court? I'll tell you

it's the blacks. It's the brothers and they run it. No white boys allow the basketball court. But I grew up in Port Arthur man, I've been the only white guy on the basketball court many times growing up. I've got to get myself in this game. The problem is because the color of my skin I can't get involved in a basketball game. But man, I've been watching these guys play for a couple of weeks. And after every game they play, they're gonna do this thing called shoot for teams.

That means the first guy that makes them a free throw needs to be a team captain. And then just keep going to a two guys make a free throw. So I've thought to myself, You know what, that's how I'm going to get to this game. So I'm watching this game on Monday, Monday morning play out so lopsided game one what teams win way over the other team. I get on the side of the court where I know the game is

going to end. And man as soon as the last basketball goes to the last basket for the last point that I shot when I went and went to lunch over there and I fell into basketball and wrapped it up like a fumble drill football. I come up and I got this basketball in my hand. And man the entire basketball courts suck up around me just to see if angry black faces and they are pissed, man. They're like give us our ball back white boy if you lost your mind, and random my voice is

squeaking a crack. Oh my man I want you to Frito today I'm gonna shoot my shot. Man. They're like Dude, we're gonna kill you today. You're not shooting anything man. You've lost your mind why boy. Biggest dude out there man. This this blood from Houston named J blood. T blood gets up in my favorite job was a massive do Randall I think he's gonna knock me out but he's not getting this ball. Man. I'm I can't let this ball go. He gets up in my face. He says you know what, white

boy? He said get up on the line, and shoot your shysters. Man, I hope you can make this basket why boy, man about that time the basketball court party, the free throw out appeared Randall the free throw line looks like the equator thing was huge man. And I'm stepping up to this basket. This is just a basket. Man. This is the normal free throw. But in your mind, this is where fear starts coming in. I've got to, I've got to

calm myself down. And one of the things I told myself right there, when I played college football, there was a coach. He said this the sentence, the sentence always stuck with me it was 20 letters. 10 words, it was one of the most powerful sentences I've ever heard in the English language. It was an action statement. And he said this, he said if it is to be, it is up to me. If it is to be it is up to me. And then I repeated that my head said a quick prayer, breathe in and breathe

out. And I'll let my free throw go. Nothing but net. I'm a team captain man. Today but steps up Jim what makes his shot he's a team captain, too. So we stepped back. We're gonna, we're gonna pick our teams. Now. I'm gonna pick my four guys. He's gonna pick his four guys. So we can play a little five on five, right? Wrong. It's not a one man. My own teammates don't want me out there. And this is basketball in the life sentence building of a maximum security penitentiary in Texas. There is

no referee out there. There's no such thing as a foul. You can punch kick, scratch, bite, poker, whatever you want to do. There's no guard in the tower that can save you on this. You're on. You're on. I'm on an island out there. That first day that Monday, I've got a blackout and a busted lip. But I survived. The next day, Tuesday morning, I look at myself in the mirror. And so I look I get been

hit by a truck. But you know what I like looking at that guy in the mirror because that guy in the mirror face those fears yesterday. And it gave me the courage to go out there. The next day. I tell people all the time I do things I'm afraid of so I can do things I'm afraid of. The next day I out there and I'm playing basketball those guys. And man they they make sure I'm gonna be on the court now at this point and no one coming back every day they pick me first in every game and

Randall. I'm not first pick caliber on the basketball court man. I'm like eighth or ninth pick. I'm really not that good in basketball. But these guys want to make sure I'm going to be out there because they're going to punish me. I learned two things about adversity that we're going to record. I learned that adversity is never as bad as you think it's going to be. And you are always capable of way more than you think you are. Because as human beings we can allow overthinking to get in the

way of overcome. And that week on the wreck er, I overcame all of those fears. And after six days of playing basketball, those guys on Saturday, J Blige comes up to me, the guys are circling around me after the game we played wreck was over. Give us as you know, a white boy. He said you pull some off out here. We've never seen any bike well before. He said you took everything we had. You gave it back when you could and that took guts. But you never once got racial with us the entire

time. He said listen, white boy. You don't have to worry about the blacks. Arrest him in your prison. You're good with us. And that was it man. The violence is finally over the threat to my physical states was gone. Like I say, I had to figure out how to be a coffee bean at that point because inside I was becoming the egg.

funerals on Friday. No clue whatsoever as to why parents are beside themselves kid of the perfect kid never complained loved his parents gave him a hug every time he walked in the door. Never had a single bad moment with a family or friends was while white work was in college. Did you ever think about committing suicide while you were in the cell thinking you're never gonna get out? You've really fucked up your life forever. No one's gonna

like you. You have a life sentence and what's your message to all the people out there who are really suffering mentally and are thinking about committing suicide?

killing myself. You bet. It was right. It was the weekend before the basketball game. on that Monday morning when I went up to the rec yard. The Friday before that, I got jump I've been jumped by four guys it was bad. I got my got my ass kicked really bad. And it broke me because that was the whole point of what they're trying to do. They're trying to break you and then when they try to break you, they want to break down the person you are and they can use

you up. And when I mean use you up in prison I mean every cent So the word use a human being up. That is prison man. It's a very predatorial environment. And Friday, before that basketball game of the rec yard, they broke me. I was done. Saturday morning I woke up and I had my plan. I was going to go to church that started while I was going to be Catholic masses Saturday morning and after mass, I was going to come back to my cell and hang myself an hour I

had it figured out. I knew how to hang the sheet off the bed. Off the top bunk and so I go to the go to the servers in chapel service that Saturday morning. I'm standing there by 200 inmates just facing forward. I get a tap on my shoulder. And I look down and the top of my shoulder is his volunteer chaplain. They miss D. Doucet. Miss D is about 80 Some years old, little bitty lady with a cane like Yoda, and she hits you with a cane. Miss D comes up to me that day, she tapped me on

the shoulder. She says Mr. West, can you come to my office need to talk to you? So I'll go to her office with her in the middle of the church service. She sits me down her office. She said Mr. West, what's wrong with you today, I can see that something's bothering you. And immediately ran, I'm thinking to myself, how the hell does she know something's wrong? I mean, I'm in a prison, man. Something's wrong with everybody inside. You're right. We're all dealing with intense personal

struggles. This is a prison. But she picks me. So I loaded Misty. I tell her everything is going on a crime crime breakdown and told her I said can't take it anymore. Ms. D, and I'm going to check out and I told her I was going to kill myself. And Steve was really calm. She said, uh, you can't you can't kill yourself, Mr. West, she said, because you can't give up on God. Man, the minute she mentioned God, I got so mad random. Oh, my God. What do you

mean, God? How can God create a place so wicked and evil and sinister, has this prison of sitting in right now. She's calm, completely calm. She says you're not the first person to get angry with God. But she was she said, The Bible's full of people that got angry with God. She said, but they all came back to God, because they learned the secret to faith. And I might miss D. I really need to know what that secret is. She said, Here it is. She said if you're

going to pray, don't worry. And if you're going to worry, don't pray. She said you can't have it both ways. She said, you're either going to let God do his job or you're gonna try to do his job for him. He said she said you're gonna let God throw the car and you're gonna drive the car. She said the last time you drove it. You parked it inside of a maximum security prison. So choose who gets those keys today, but choose wisely.

She tells me what she's learned about suicide over the years because she is in a maximum period prison. A lot of men kill themselves in a in a prison environment like that. She said what she learned about suicide is that when you subscribe to a world that is seemingly hopeless, and she said seemingly, is the key word because nothing is ever truly hopeless as long as you have

faith, right? She said but when you get sucked into the seemingly hopeless world and you can't see the road, the reality is the world around you get into an unreal place where there's no hope. And when you live in a place where there's no hope anything including suicide is a viable option. And that's what she's doing that she's pulling me out of this seemingly hopeless world because Randyll human beings have to have hope if we lose hope we lose it all. You ever seen the

Cohen. He wrote Friday Night Lights he wrote the American underdog Kurt Warner movie so we were talking about you know, Shawshank and I was like hey you know what I was Shawshank I don't think a lot of people watch Shawshank and they think it's a movie but and to do frame which is okay it's a correct answer there's no right or wrong answer here. But when I watched Shawshank I don't think it's a movie about Andy do frame it's red Red's character is narrating

this thing. Morgan Freeman's character is narrating and he's talking about this guy and you do frame Tim Robbins character. But now that I've been in prison when I watched Shawshank I don't think the story is about a new friend at all. I think it's read story Morgan Freeman's character and here's why. Because red is dead. Red was long ago a dead man inside that prison because he gave up hope you also hope Randall he had no hope anymore.

Remember when Brooks got out of prison after like 50 years and he goes out in the last about two weeks and he hangs himself. He writes a letter back to the boys and Shawshank to tell them that he couldn't make it up there. Read turns to Andy and he tells Andy I'm an institutional man and I don't think I can make it out there either. He even says to Andy, he says the words Hope is a dangerous thing.

That's why no, this is read story because when you when you feel like hope is a dangerous thing, you're in a very bad place. But what did he tell read? And he told read, get busy living or get busy dying. And that's what read did. He got busy living reds telling the story about this guy he made to do frame that came to Shawshank Prison and saved his life saved the lives of a lot of other men. Because even after he escaped, what did they do? They sit around all day and told stories

about Andy. It's read story. It's read story about the guy that saved his life because they brought hope back to his life.

What's your message to them, if you had one minute or less to talk to them speak to them right now as if they were right in front of you.

is your actions. These are the things that you do that people see what you think what you say, what you feel and what you do. That's really the only four things you have control over. If you will give up the other control of all this, they won't around you because you can't you can't change that, you will start to gain back your sanity and your sense of proportion. And the world around you. Your sense of proportion is everything. Because we are

disproportionate. And as people when we feel like we control those other things. And when we feel like we control those other things that we can't do anything with it, it beats us down. And we get this feeling of like, of hopelessness. And the other thing I would tell them is like, once you step back, and you start applying your time to things you can actually change because your time most precious resource you have once it's

gone, it's gone for good. All the money in the world won't buy one more second, this stuff called time. Once we are focused on the things we can control, we have to be able to apply perspective to the days around US perspective what a bad day looks like. Because too many times and I'm saying this from experience, we can get sucked up in our days that aren't going well and think maybe this is terrible. This is bad. What if we really step back and ask ourselves? Is this really a bad

day? Because, you know, by my definition, a bad day is days, someone dies, a marriage fails, a job is lost a child is hurt or killed, like you were talking about your friends get. Those are bad days, man. Most of your bad days aren't that and if we can step back and apply that perspective, you can pull yourself out of that real quickly and say, You know what, despite what's going on right now, this is not something I can overcome, because overcame that.

And now upon perspective and a lesson of what I've overcome in life, it's like traffic, Randall. Some days you sit in traffic, and it drives you insane drives you crazy. Been there done that. Then there's other days you sit in traffic and it didn't bother you at all. Is it the traffic? Or is it you? It's always you. It's always you and how you see this situation around. Work on how you see the situation on

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a five star rating. Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of bliss speeches by clicking the link in our show notes. I want to talk about cold calling which a lot of people out there gonna wonder how All those cold calls fit into this story. And I want to talk about how people are afraid to cold call, they're afraid to go up to

strange people. And I imagine after coming out of prison having a record, being a notorious criminal, being a felon and serving time in a max security prison, I want you to tell your story about you get paroled, you're out. You're wondering what to do. Talk us through a football coaches conference. And the fear you had going up to people who are at that conference, what happened? How did you get over your fear?

And then the hope you had that something positive was gonna come out of that where the odds of success were probably one in 10 million.

firms in Texas. You know, I've got my life back together sorts of I'm starting to rebuild my name. But I've got this dream of sharing my story with college football programs, Randall because I played college football back in the 90s. And I know that I can impact these student athletes lives. But the problem is, I don't know any college football coaches. They don't know me. It's been 20 years since I've taken a stab at

college football. But a buddy of mine in Houston calls me up on January 12 2017 14 months out of prison. It's in the middle of the day. He says hey Damon tonight, in Houston, Texas is the bear O'Brien Coach of the Year War. They're gonna name the best college football coach in America. He said the eight best coaches in the country are going to be in this room tonight. I'm going to extra press pass, if you want to go he works in the media. And then I'm like, You

better want to go. So I drive the 90 miles from Beaumont to Houston after work all that Tim. And I get to the Toyota Center. He sneaks me in, he hands me a press pass tells me I'm a mom. So there I am in that room that night. All the best coaches out there. I'm on the floor. And I'm walking up to all these coaches. I mean, USC, Wisconsin, Penn State, PJ flag, they're all

there. And I go up and shake the hands of every one of these coaches and I give them this elevator pitch that I've been practicing for an hour and a half on a 10 minute drive over there. And man, every coach I've meet that night, slammed the door my face, Randall, everyone hope man, it was a no, no, no, don't call us. We'll call you it was a bloodbath. Randall. In one hour. I've been told no, seven times. Seven of the eight coaches have told me no, that's a no every eight minutes,

Randall. I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center. And I'm licking my wounds. I'm feeling sorry for myself. I've just pissed through the room in one hour. And the voice in my head is telling me go home. It's over. Man, that was a dream way too big. You failed at that. You know, but you know what I quit doing a long time ago, Randall listening to myself. And you shouldn't listen to yourself either. Because the voice in your head can be fear. It can be all kinds of different things.

You don't know where that voice is coming from. So instead of listening to myself, I talked to myself I do it all the time. And I'm in the corner Toyota Center and I'm telling myself no damage. You're not going anywhere. The last coach in this room is going to tell you know your face before you walk out that door and Randall the last coach in the room. Hardest guy to get to in the room. His team had just beat Alabama two nights before for the national championship. Everybody wants a

piece of this man's time. But I'm telling myself, you survived prison Damon, you survived something way worse than this. Now my perspective perspective, what a bad day looks like man, no matter what's going on inside until you understand this is a prison. I made it through that and we'll make it through this. So I stopped Dabo Swinney around that room that night, and I look like a nut man. I mean, I'm hiding behind fake plants. I'm

hot behind people. Every conversation devil has out there every Congress read I think at some point security may take me away. Man, I finally get my chance up pounce on Devo. I've gotten blocked off he can't go anywhere and for about a minute and I'm talking 90 miles an hour given Dabo my pitch of why she bring me in to talk to his team manager a minute of speaking I come up for air devils like dude, you got a card on your

song. So I given this little business card I had made up he snatches it up he says I'll check you out. And he's gone. Gone. It's a no. Looks like a no feels like a no. But you know what I felt okay about Randall that no, because I left it all on the field that night and that's what we tell people when they're younger playing sports we aren't. We leave it on the field. Sometimes you're going to come up short, but give your best effort. Sometimes you win.

Sometimes you lose. Or in sales, sales man we knock on every door. We make every call and that's the end of our day. Or as Mr. Jackson said, you don't have to win though. You don't have to win all your fights. But you do have to fight all your fights and that night I fought all my fights Randall. I went at home and slept like a baby, I forgot all about that night. Four months later, I'm working the law firm. And I get an email from the director of football operations at Clemson

University. Got a mic do it. Mics do we might do he his email says, Hey Damon. Coach Sweeney mentioned award show in Houston. He'd love to have you come talk to the team. Do you have August 1 open? Dude might do. I got every first open. I got nothing going on in my life in 2017. So man, August 1 2017. I go speak to the Clemson Tigers, the defending national champions of

college football. And when I get done with my presentation on night, devils got me up against the wall and that was a very high energy guy and he's in my face. He's like Damon, I've never heard a story like that before in my life. I've never seen my players respond that to a speaker. He said, Have you been to Alabama yet? And I'm like, No. Dabo I've been to Clemson man. I haven't been anywhere dude. He says I just texted he said I'll just text Nick Saban from the back of the

room. We'll see what happens. The next day I landed in Houston for my trip to Clemson turn on my phone. I've got a voicemail on a text message from the director of football operations at Alabama. We'll see in Tuscaloosa in three weeks, you're on just like that random Dabo Swinney is kicking open the biggest doors coach football, he

didn't stop there either. Man, Kirby smart started calling me Lincoln, Riley, all these coaches in America, they're all calling my cell phone, because Dabo has given my number out. But the real magic in my life happened one year after my presentation to Clemson It was August of 2018. I was still working in a law firm, but I don't work at the law firm anymore. And I'm an entrepreneur now. But I was still working the law firm, and my cell phone

rings. And on the other end of my cell phone is a guy named John Gordon, one of the biggest motivational speakers and author in America. He's on the other end of my phone and I follow John every day on Twitter for my inspiration and just the energy bus guy. So my John, dude, I know who you are, how do you know who I am? He said Dabo Swinney, he said, I just got done speaking to Clemson's football team and Dabo briefly

office to tell me your story. He said, Daymond The world needs the coffee, the message, let's deliver this to the world. He said, Well, you write a book we'll be we'll call it the coffee bean. Randall, the coffee bean comes out the next summer, the summer of 2019 becomes an instant bestseller not just here. All over the world. It's in almost every language in the world, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, French, Italian. But it all goes back to that one night, Houston,

Texas on January 12 2017. When I'm in the corner of the Toyota Center, licking my wounds, feeling sorry for myself, and the voice in my head is telling me leave. But Randall, if I walk out that door that night, we're not having this conversation today. And the world doesn't have the coffee bean message. And I tell people all the time, don't give up. Don't give up for

the miracle happens. Don't give up before your Dabo Sweeney moment, always ask the question, because the only question you know the answer to is the one you do not ask. That's a no every time.

work. Here's the deal to about that right now. No one can put in your work for you. No one can. You have to take action in your own life, no one can take your action for you. These are the things you have to do every single day. And if you don't do it, no one's gonna do it for you. You'll never know what you could be in life or never get ahead, if you're not willing to put in the work. And that is the preparation part. People want to talk about this thing called the

overnight success. There's no such thing, Randall there's no such thing as an already success. Because life is a long time to live. And you have to get up every day people don't see the backs of people don't see what you do random they don't see you get up early in the morning for years and years and years to get to this life you have the day, they just see the glitz and the glamour of it. And they want that you got to be willing to put into work. What are

listen. Listening is one of the biggest things in the world because listening. Everybody wants to feel like they've been heard Randall it's the most fundamental part of communication. And once a person feels like they've been heard now they feel like they're on your team. They feel like they're part of something bigger now. They'll do things in life.

They wouldn't normally do because you're when you're part of a team, you'll sacrifice your work harder, you put in more hours, you'll do things to help the team succeed. But that has to come from listening to what other people are saying. And communication is key. And the last thing is, well, it's what we just talked about. It's being willing to put in the work, get to outwork everybody around, you got to be willing to put in the work, don't get complacent,

don't rest on your laurels. And laurels are like the awards and the certificate you receive receiving life, the things you're doing, they're good. What I mean by that is, you cannot live in the rearview mirror. There's a reason why your windshield is bigger than your rearview mirror and the vehicle ran out. Because you need a lot more space to look forward and do look backwards. You have to get out of the rearview mirror, you can't live your life look in the rearview mirror either.

on in my life. But the secret sauce and all that is that I wake up every day with this one prayer that I say, and whatever religion you are out there, and it's I'm not here to like, I'm not here to convert anybody to a religion. But I'll tell you the prayer that I pray and you can plug it into your religion because it doesn't matter what religion you are for this. In AAA, we say Go Go find what blows your hair back, right?

This is a prayer I say every day, God put in front of me what you need me to do today for you. And let me recognize that when I see it, amen. That's it. I don't want to miss whatever that one, whatever those things are. And in my life, whenever I was in prison, I watched all these guys that have children out there in the free world. And it's the

same story. Every time my son or my daughter is going down the wrong road, I'm in prison, they're going to be in prison one day, or my son or my daughter wants to play a sport or do something like take dance, whatever we can afford that because I'm in prison. And I thought to myself, Randall, if I ever get to a place in life, where I can fix that, for any kid, I'm going to do that because children can't pick their parents. And that's the

thing about life. You know, in America, if you have an incarcerated parent, you're more likely to be incarcerated yourself. So my foundation that I created to be a Kauffman Foundation, one of the things we do is we connect children who have an incarcerated parent with any extracurricular activity they want to do, whether it's a girl that wants to take dance, a boy that wants to dance or karate lessons judo, you know, sports like baseball, so like

softball, whatever. Any child in America that has an incarcerated parent, we will provide up to $2,500 a year, a scholarship for whatever activity they want to do. And it could be you know, we have a little girl that we picked up wanting to play the guitar. So we got we bought our guitar found our guitar lessons and found ways for her to get to and from her lessons. I just want kids to be connected to something bigger than them. So they don't have to go down that

road. And they don't have to be excluded from things in life because the choices that their parents made. One of the things I did when I got out of prison Randall is I went back to school, I got a master's in criminal justice. And part of this was amazing because I Yeah, and I wanted, I wanted to be taken more serious, because I knew that academic credentials

could could help do that. I didn't realize at the time that I would become a professor at the University of Houston downtown, teaching a class called prisons in America. Randall. This is insane. I'm the only professor on the planet to teach your prisoners class that lived in prison. Imagine the perspective that my students get about what the inside of a prison is like, because I never

got to leave. You know, you have a lot of prisoners classes that are taught by former correctional officers, foreign wardens, former law enforcement officers. And that's good. I'm not saying those are bad classes. But I can tell you some stuff about prison that not even they get to experience in prison.

didn't start my email list. When I first started out doing this, John Gordon told me on day one back in 2018, when he called me capture every email, you can, and I didn't start doing it until this year, which is we're recording in 2023. I'll have five years of emails on the table.

Hey, you know, I asked the question because I always ask the question.

you're done. Daymond you're gonna be influenced the lives of 100 million people. And you're making? I'm guessing millions of dollars a year. Could you ever envision in a billion years you'd be where you are today?

fears are in your head. And I met this woman in Kindle Romero. She has a daughter named Claire Romero, this my stepdaughter to this day. Kindles family is like my own family. Now my mother, my father is still alive. And I've got my father in law mother in

law that love me. And you know, when the first time she brought me in to meet her parents, her dad looked at me said, man, it sounds like you made a lot of a lot of really shitty decisions in your life, he said, but she paid a hell of a price for the choices she made. He said, I'll tell you what man. Sounds like you're on the right path. Treat my daughter. Well, we'll be great. And man, he's one of my best friends to this day.

of prison as Muhammad Ali. So the only name I know this guy buys Muhammad. And I finally found him because an inmate the Texas Department criminal justice wrote me a letter. And he said fine, James Lynn Baker, and you find Mr. Jackson. So I went on the search with a private investigator to find James Lynn Baker. We found him and he was the right guy, but he was dead. He died almost six years ago of an opioid overdose. He was a drug addict, just like me, Randall never got help,

though. I wouldn't found his family after that. I said, Hey, I want to honor I found his three sisters Misha Vaughn seelen, Vanessa Baker, and I told them I want to honor your brother. I'm gonna start a scholarship at his high school that he went to whatever high school it was, ends up being Dallas and Lincoln High School. And so I put $10,000 Every year into a trust for the James Lynn Baker, the second be a coffee

bean scholarship. So that one little boy or one little girl that graduates from his high school that grows up in his neighborhood in the inner city of Dallas. We'll get a better chance at life through education because these two guys had this chance encounter in Dallas County Jail in the summer of 2009. So yeah, man, I I finally found Mr. Jackson.

have one behind me. I'm giving it to all my 35 summer interns this summer and all of my kids and I'm sure it's gonna change your life. I'm very grateful for you to sharing your story today. Thank you very much, Randall,