00:00:00.677 --> 00:00:05.497
Kevin Lowe: So my friend, you can say there's a lot of different ways I could choose to
00:00:05.497 --> 00:00:06.757
Kevin Lowe: start off today's episode.
00:00:06.957 --> 00:00:12.457
Kevin Lowe: How I could hook you, grab your attention, convince you that today is going
00:00:12.457 --> 00:00:17.417
Kevin Lowe: to be quite possibly the most impactful podcast episode you've ever listened to.
00:00:17.557 --> 00:00:22.077
Kevin Lowe: But the thing that I want you to know more than anything else is that today
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Kevin Lowe: you're about to hear a story of hope. A story of hope that I believe can leave
00:00:27.457 --> 00:00:30.637
Kevin Lowe: a lasting impact on you and in your life.
00:00:30.817 --> 00:00:36.197
Kevin Lowe: Now, ironically, when you hear the story of today's guest, hope is going to
00:00:36.197 --> 00:00:38.217
Kevin Lowe: be the last thing you could possibly think of.
00:00:38.637 --> 00:00:42.957
Kevin Lowe: Because today's guest, he sat through a six-day-long trial.
00:00:43.217 --> 00:00:49.317
Kevin Lowe: At the end of six long days, the jury, they deliberated for 10 short minutes.
00:00:49.657 --> 00:00:54.357
Kevin Lowe: At the end of 10 minutes, they came back with a verdict. 65 years in prison,
00:00:54.797 --> 00:01:01.097
Kevin Lowe: 65 years for Damon West in a maximum security prison in the state of Texas.
00:01:01.437 --> 00:01:06.817
Kevin Lowe: Again, where is hope when you're handed down a sentence like that?
00:01:07.137 --> 00:01:09.817
Kevin Lowe: That is what makes today so powerful.
00:01:10.397 --> 00:01:14.257
Kevin Lowe: Now, what makes today's conversation so powerful is my friend,
00:01:14.777 --> 00:01:18.077
Kevin Lowe: maybe you've not been given 65 years in a prison.
00:01:18.757 --> 00:01:22.917
Kevin Lowe: But maybe you're living in a prison in your own life, keeping yourself held
00:01:22.917 --> 00:01:27.637
Kevin Lowe: back from the dreams that you want to achieve, the things that you believe in.
00:01:27.817 --> 00:01:31.617
Kevin Lowe: You're keeping yourself locked away from living the life that you're meant to live.
00:01:31.837 --> 00:01:37.757
Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, today, I pray more than anything else that today can be the
00:01:37.757 --> 00:01:39.157
Kevin Lowe: spark of hope you've been needing.
00:01:39.457 --> 00:01:44.517
Kevin Lowe: This is an interview with Damon West. And yes, if you caught our last episode,
00:01:44.797 --> 00:01:50.477
Kevin Lowe: this is the guest I was talking about, A guy who I first learned about on an
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Kevin Lowe: ordinary morning while listening to the Ed Milet Show.
00:01:53.797 --> 00:02:01.017
Kevin Lowe: Today, Damon West is a man who is one of the most in-demand motivational speakers there is.
00:02:01.157 --> 00:02:03.497
Kevin Lowe: A guy who's absolutely phenomenal.
00:02:03.837 --> 00:02:06.797
Kevin Lowe: But more than anything else, he's just a guy.
00:02:07.097 --> 00:02:11.597
Kevin Lowe: A normal person, just like you or me, who he's been through some stuff.
00:02:11.777 --> 00:02:16.917
Kevin Lowe: But more than anything else, he's come out the other side. and he's proof that
00:02:16.917 --> 00:02:22.177
Kevin Lowe: you can make a difference in your life and in the lives of everyone around you.
00:02:22.377 --> 00:02:26.437
Kevin Lowe: So my friend, if you need some encouragement, if you need to be inspired,
00:02:26.697 --> 00:02:32.077
Kevin Lowe: motivated, and of course, if you could use a little bit of hope in your life,
00:02:32.237 --> 00:02:35.877
Kevin Lowe: well, my friend, this is exactly where you were meant to be.
00:02:36.117 --> 00:02:42.797
Kevin Lowe: My friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I welcome you to episode 390 of Grit,
00:02:42.937 --> 00:02:44.397
Kevin Lowe: Grace, & Inspiration.
00:02:44.817 --> 00:02:45.997
Podcast Theme Song: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind...
00:03:01.965 --> 00:03:07.285
Kevin Lowe: What's going on and welcome back to great grace and inspiration today i have
00:03:07.285 --> 00:03:12.165
Kevin Lowe: the absolute pleasure of being in the studio today with none other than a guy
00:03:12.165 --> 00:03:19.245
Kevin Lowe: named damon west damon man what a pleasure to have you here welcome to the podcast kevin.
00:03:19.245 --> 00:03:23.105
Damon West: Dude i'm so excited to be here with you brother your story inspires me and when
00:03:23.105 --> 00:03:27.165
Damon West: you reached out to me about doing your podcast it was an honor man I jumped
00:03:27.165 --> 00:03:30.145
Damon West: at it, and yeah, I'm ready to do this today, brother.
00:03:30.925 --> 00:03:34.545
Kevin Lowe: Oh, man. Well, I appreciate you making it clear that I did not have to threaten
00:03:34.545 --> 00:03:36.985
Kevin Lowe: you or twist your arm or anything. No, sir.
00:03:37.365 --> 00:03:41.385
Damon West: Just being an inspiring human being is all you had to do. And usually that's
00:03:41.385 --> 00:03:43.345
Damon West: enough in life, right? We need inspiration.
00:03:43.785 --> 00:03:48.405
Damon West: Everybody needs it. Even the motivators need motivating. So you do that for me, brother.
00:03:49.025 --> 00:03:54.605
Kevin Lowe: Oh, man. Well, I appreciate that. Well, David, I'm excited to get to dive into your story.
00:03:54.605 --> 00:04:00.285
Kevin Lowe: And I think what I want people to understand as we get started here is that
00:04:00.285 --> 00:04:05.225
Kevin Lowe: as much as we're going to hear about your story, it's really the honestly the
00:04:05.225 --> 00:04:07.485
Kevin Lowe: life lessons that you literally have to share,
00:04:07.705 --> 00:04:11.345
Kevin Lowe: which is what I think makes you so powerful.
00:04:11.605 --> 00:04:18.245
Kevin Lowe: And so where I would love to start is honestly by asking you from somebody who's
00:04:18.245 --> 00:04:24.445
Kevin Lowe: gone through hell and back, where do you feel like your story really begins?
00:04:25.105 --> 00:04:31.165
Damon West: Good question. I think the best place to start my story is somewhere right, we'll say in the middle.
00:04:31.445 --> 00:04:36.265
Damon West: And I got a date we'll start with. The date is July 30th, 2008.
00:04:36.765 --> 00:04:41.185
Damon West: So 17 years before this recording right here. On July 30th, 2008,
00:04:41.445 --> 00:04:43.845
Damon West: I'm sitting around this little rundown apartment in Dallas, Texas,
00:04:43.905 --> 00:04:45.745
Damon West: and I'm sitting on this little ratty old couch.
00:04:45.905 --> 00:04:49.705
Damon West: And sitting next to me on the couch that day is my meth dealer that's got new
00:04:49.705 --> 00:04:54.745
Damon West: tags. because 17 years ago, I'm not the clean-cut, polished-looking guy that everybody knows today.
00:04:54.945 --> 00:04:58.925
Damon West: I'm a full-blown meth addict. I'm the head of an organized crime ring that operates
00:04:58.925 --> 00:05:00.165
Damon West: throughout the entire city of Dallas.
00:05:00.305 --> 00:05:03.745
Damon West: I'm the top criminal in this criminal enterprise, the shot caller, the boss.
00:05:04.425 --> 00:05:07.885
Damon West: So I'm on the couch that day with my dope dealer, Tex. And I'm telling Tex,
00:05:07.965 --> 00:05:11.025
Damon West: we're passing this pipe back and forth, you know, Tex, you don't want to be here, man.
00:05:11.425 --> 00:05:13.785
Damon West: The cops are closing in on me. The end is near.
00:05:14.405 --> 00:05:17.745
Damon West: Ten days before this, Kevin, my partner in crime was a guy named Dustin.
00:05:17.985 --> 00:05:21.925
Damon West: Dustin knew everything about our criminal enterprise and Dustin was in the custody
00:05:21.925 --> 00:05:23.225
Damon West: of the Dallas police department.
00:05:23.745 --> 00:05:27.585
Damon West: They picked him up 10 days before. So they've got my partner in crime in custody,
00:05:27.865 --> 00:05:31.605
Damon West: which means it's only a matter of time before they're going to have me in custody.
00:05:32.045 --> 00:05:33.965
Damon West: Because here's the truth about crime, Kevin.
00:05:34.525 --> 00:05:38.945
Damon West: Everybody talks, everybody talks. And just as I pass the pipe back to Tex,
00:05:39.265 --> 00:05:41.405
Damon West: the window on my right blows out and shatters.
00:05:43.502 --> 00:05:47.322
Damon West: And then tumbling across my living room floor was a little canister going end
00:05:47.322 --> 00:05:49.542
Damon West: over end, and it was smoking on one side.
00:05:50.442 --> 00:05:53.942
Damon West: Kevin, I've seen that movie before. I know what that canister's about to do.
00:05:54.262 --> 00:05:57.342
Damon West: And I tried to get out of the living room as fast as I could. Too late.
00:05:57.822 --> 00:06:02.442
Damon West: Boom. The flashbang grenade blew up my face. Bright white light, loud noise.
00:06:02.902 --> 00:06:06.362
Damon West: Blows me back on the couch. And when I came to, when I can see and hear again,
00:06:06.642 --> 00:06:10.922
Damon West: there's a cop standing over me in full SWAT riot gear. His boot is on my chest.
00:06:11.462 --> 00:06:14.142
Damon West: The barrel of an assault rifle is sticking in my eye socket.
00:06:14.422 --> 00:06:17.602
Damon West: And he's screaming at the top of his lungs, don't move, don't move.
00:06:18.242 --> 00:06:22.362
Damon West: And man, I looked up at this cop and I was like, man, don't worry. Don't worry, right?
00:06:22.962 --> 00:06:25.982
Damon West: So the cops, the Dallas SWAT team, they flood into my apartment.
00:06:26.302 --> 00:06:29.082
Damon West: And one of them screams out loud, we got him.
00:06:29.482 --> 00:06:31.842
Damon West: We got the Uptown Burglar. The
00:06:31.842 --> 00:06:35.002
Damon West: Uptown Burglar, Kevin. That's a name I live with for the rest of my life.
00:06:35.342 --> 00:06:38.862
Damon West: About a dozen other meth addicts and myself, young and old, male and female,
00:06:39.022 --> 00:06:41.182
Damon West: black and white, and everything in between,
00:06:41.722 --> 00:06:45.942
Damon West: we indiscriminately and without reservation broke into the homes of dozens and
00:06:45.942 --> 00:06:50.422
Damon West: dozens of people in the uptown neighborhood of Dallas and beyond to feed our
00:06:50.422 --> 00:06:51.902
Damon West: insatiable meth habits.
00:06:52.122 --> 00:06:54.662
Damon West: But on July 30th, 2008, the uptown
00:06:54.662 --> 00:06:56.982
Damon West: Burger and Crown Street comes to an end because they've got their man.
00:06:57.302 --> 00:07:01.122
Damon West: They've got the mastermind of the entire thing, zip tied on the floor of a dirty
00:07:01.122 --> 00:07:04.282
Damon West: old apartment. They took me to Dallas County Jail that day, Kevin.
00:07:04.542 --> 00:07:08.742
Damon West: They processed me in, fingerprints, mugshot. They throw me in a holding cell,
00:07:08.802 --> 00:07:11.442
Damon West: and they set my bond at $1.4 million.
00:07:12.002 --> 00:07:15.722
Damon West: This was the biggest bond in Dallas at the time, Kevin. There's 9,000 people
00:07:15.722 --> 00:07:17.622
Damon West: in Dallas County jailed. No one's got a bond this high.
00:07:17.922 --> 00:07:20.142
Damon West: The trial takes place about 10 months later.
00:07:20.642 --> 00:07:26.622
Damon West: The date is May 18, 2009. On May 18, 2009, I'm standing in front of a jury in Dallas.
00:07:26.762 --> 00:07:30.802
Damon West: And the jury, these 12 men and women in this jury box, they've just set through
00:07:30.802 --> 00:07:32.022
Damon West: a six-day criminal trial.
00:07:32.162 --> 00:07:35.962
Damon West: And Kevin, six days for a trial and crimes where no one got hurt.
00:07:35.962 --> 00:07:38.302
Damon West: It means the evidence of my guilt is overwhelming.
00:07:38.982 --> 00:07:44.382
Damon West: And at the end of that long six-day trial, the jury goes to deliberate for 10 minutes.
00:07:45.393 --> 00:07:49.533
Damon West: 10 minutes, Kevin. That means you're in serious trouble because a jury coming
00:07:49.533 --> 00:07:51.893
Damon West: back that fast, it means they smoked you.
00:07:52.373 --> 00:07:55.433
Damon West: And the crime that I'm standing trial for this whole six days,
00:07:55.573 --> 00:07:56.833
Damon West: it wasn't a burglary case anymore.
00:07:57.053 --> 00:07:59.853
Damon West: It was the highest level case the prosecutor can bring against you.
00:08:00.033 --> 00:08:01.893
Damon West: It was an organized crime case. It was a RICO.
00:08:02.993 --> 00:08:07.053
Damon West: And they brought me back in the courtroom and the judge read my sentence out loud.
00:08:07.773 --> 00:08:14.313
Damon West: He said, Damon Joseph West, you are hereby sentenced to 65 years in the Texas
00:08:14.313 --> 00:08:15.533
Damon West: Department of Criminal Justice.
00:08:16.493 --> 00:08:23.833
Damon West: 65 years in Texas is a life sentence in Texas, or as they say in prison terms, six dimes and a nickel.
00:08:24.213 --> 00:08:28.893
Damon West: The jury gave me life that day, Kevin. So that's where I think we should start this story off.
00:08:29.173 --> 00:08:34.253
Damon West: This guy that gets sentenced to life in prison in 2009, but it's sitting in your podcast in 2025.
00:08:35.233 --> 00:08:41.473
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Now, Now, the question that came to mind when you started
00:08:41.473 --> 00:08:45.133
Kevin Lowe: to share this story, you had this,
00:08:46.953 --> 00:08:52.993
Kevin Lowe: premonition, this smarts about you to realize that things were about to end.
00:08:53.653 --> 00:08:58.793
Kevin Lowe: Did you ever think about running, getting out of town?
00:08:59.033 --> 00:09:03.473
Damon West: It's a great question. Here's the answer to why I did not run.
00:09:04.233 --> 00:09:09.733
Damon West: I stayed in Dallas, Texas because I was a meth addict and my meth dealers,
00:09:10.033 --> 00:09:14.653
Damon West: every one of them that I knew were in Dallas, Texas. I didn't have another meth connection.
00:09:15.253 --> 00:09:21.413
Damon West: And the fear of being separated from my meth, the addiction part of that stayed,
00:09:21.673 --> 00:09:25.193
Damon West: it kept me grounded in Dallas, Texas, where the most danger was to my life.
00:09:25.513 --> 00:09:28.833
Damon West: Yeah. If I run, you know, I'm not arrested that day.
00:09:29.013 --> 00:09:31.773
Damon West: There's no doubt about that. I don't know how long I'll last on the run,
00:09:31.793 --> 00:09:35.273
Damon West: but I certainly have a better chance at evading capture if I run,
00:09:35.393 --> 00:09:40.013
Damon West: but I can't run, Kevin, because my dope is in Dallas. Very good question.
00:09:40.253 --> 00:09:42.973
Kevin Lowe: You were already imprisoned by the drug. Oh, yeah.
00:09:43.899 --> 00:09:49.519
Damon West: That's a good point. Yeah. I tell people, you know, this is a this is a fact about prison.
00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:52.099
Damon West: And look, we're going to hear from the story.
00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:55.459
Damon West: You know, I go to a level five maximum security prison, the highest tier level
00:09:55.459 --> 00:09:59.799
Damon West: prison there is. I do my time and we're going to hear the story about how I got out.
00:10:00.319 --> 00:10:03.379
Damon West: And one of the things I did when I got out of prison, as I went back to school,
00:10:03.579 --> 00:10:05.699
Damon West: I got a master's degree in criminal justice.
00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:09.639
Damon West: And since I got out 10 years ago, I became a professor at the University of
00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.759
Damon West: Houston teaching a class called Prisons in America.
00:10:13.059 --> 00:10:16.759
Damon West: Like I became the only professor on the planet to teach a prisons class who lived in prison.
00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:21.099
Damon West: So I'm going to tell you what I understand about prison. And this is from the
00:10:21.099 --> 00:10:25.659
Damon West: guy that spent almost 10 years in the joint or the professor who teaches about the joint.
00:10:26.119 --> 00:10:32.719
Damon West: The hardest prison to do time in is the prison in your mind.
00:10:33.539 --> 00:10:38.499
Damon West: I meet more people out here in the free world that are locked up than I ever
00:10:38.499 --> 00:10:41.879
Damon West: did when I served time in a real prison because more people are in prison by
00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:46.979
Damon West: their thoughts, by their things, and by their prejudices than by steel bars
00:10:46.979 --> 00:10:48.439
Damon West: and barbed wire and concrete combined.
00:10:48.779 --> 00:10:54.219
Damon West: So, yes, I was absolutely a prisoner. I was enslaved by my drug.
00:10:54.559 --> 00:11:03.239
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, such a valid point in this realization of what prison can
00:11:03.239 --> 00:11:07.959
Kevin Lowe: mean in its many different forms and definitions and circumstances and situations.
00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:14.739
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Very, very powerful. Now, before we proceed, I would love to understand
00:11:14.739 --> 00:11:20.699
Kevin Lowe: how did you even get to that point to be in that apartment that day to even
00:11:20.699 --> 00:11:22.599
Kevin Lowe: be hooked on meth in the first place?
00:11:22.599 --> 00:11:26.859
Kevin Lowe: Because we tend to think of somebody in that situation. Well,
00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:31.479
Kevin Lowe: then you've probably always been into drugs or you've always been on the wrong
00:11:31.479 --> 00:11:35.219
Kevin Lowe: path in life. But I know for you, that wasn't the case.
00:11:36.544 --> 00:11:42.384
Damon West: Yeah. You know, I got into substance abuse at a young age. I was 10 when I had my first beer.
00:11:42.664 --> 00:11:45.764
Damon West: I snuck in the fridge and got my dad's, stole my dad's beer out of the fridge.
00:11:45.904 --> 00:11:48.784
Damon West: I remember watching my dad and his buddies drink beer. And I thought to myself,
00:11:48.964 --> 00:11:51.764
Damon West: you know what, I'm going to get it. I'm going to get a beer one day.
00:11:52.024 --> 00:11:57.364
Damon West: You know, when I was drinking at a young age and I tried marijuana when I was
00:11:57.364 --> 00:12:02.424
Damon West: 12, I was touching my toe, dipping my toe into the waters of addiction.
00:12:02.884 --> 00:12:04.144
Damon West: I didn't know it back then.
00:12:05.364 --> 00:12:11.524
Damon West: And nothing serious had happened in my life. No adversity had ever hit me until I was 20 years old.
00:12:12.204 --> 00:12:15.184
Damon West: And I had a really good high school football career in the state of Texas.
00:12:15.324 --> 00:12:19.304
Damon West: And as you know, you're in Florida, Texas and Florida. High school football is a really big deal.
00:12:19.644 --> 00:12:24.684
Damon West: So I was a real big star quarterback in Texas. So good that I got a scholarship
00:12:24.684 --> 00:12:28.604
Damon West: to play football at the University of North Texas, Division I college football.
00:12:29.224 --> 00:12:32.424
Damon West: And by the time I was 20, I was a starting quarterback on a Division I team.
00:12:32.624 --> 00:12:37.544
Damon West: But on September 21st, 1996, when we were playing Texas A&M,
00:12:37.724 --> 00:12:40.004
Damon West: I separated my shoulder on the third play of the game.
00:12:40.104 --> 00:12:42.404
Damon West: And it was the last game I would ever play in college.
00:12:42.544 --> 00:12:45.584
Damon West: The injury was the last game I ever played in college.
00:12:46.044 --> 00:12:49.344
Damon West: And I was at a giant fork in the road in life when football was gone because
00:12:49.344 --> 00:12:52.984
Damon West: more than just football was gone that day, I lost my identity, Kevin.
00:12:53.384 --> 00:12:56.624
Damon West: Everything in my life identified around being a college quarterback or being
00:12:56.624 --> 00:13:02.064
Damon West: the star athlete. And once that was gone, I spun out and I got into hardcore
00:13:02.064 --> 00:13:03.804
Damon West: drugs at that point. I got into cocaine.
00:13:04.164 --> 00:13:08.624
Damon West: I got into ecstasy. I started popping pills, but I was a pretty functional addict, Kevin.
00:13:09.024 --> 00:13:12.784
Damon West: I mean, like I graduate college in 1999. I move off to Washington,
00:13:13.004 --> 00:13:16.584
Damon West: D.C. I have some of the best jobs you can have. I worked in the United States Congress.
00:13:17.024 --> 00:13:19.524
Damon West: I worked for a guy running for president of the United States.
00:13:19.804 --> 00:13:24.204
Damon West: And in 2004, I moved back to Dallas to be a stockbroker for one of the biggest
00:13:24.204 --> 00:13:27.024
Damon West: Wall Street banks of the world, UBS, United Bank of Switzerland.
00:13:27.884 --> 00:13:34.284
Damon West: And it was at that job as a stockbroker at UBS in 2004 that my life and the
00:13:34.284 --> 00:13:36.864
Damon West: lives of so many other innocent people would forever be changed.
00:13:37.424 --> 00:13:41.424
Damon West: Let me take you back that day in 2004. I was passed out of sleep at work.
00:13:42.084 --> 00:13:45.664
Damon West: This other stockbroker comes in. He sees me sleeping. He wakes me up.
00:13:45.924 --> 00:13:48.004
Damon West: He's visibly shaking. He's like, Damon, wake up, man.
00:13:48.404 --> 00:13:51.224
Damon West: He said, you can't sleep on this job. The markets are up. You're messing with
00:13:51.224 --> 00:13:53.584
Damon West: people's money. They'll fire you if they catch you sleeping here.
00:13:53.964 --> 00:13:55.944
Damon West: He said, come on down to the parking garage.
00:13:56.464 --> 00:13:58.204
Damon West: I've got something that will pick you up.
00:13:59.184 --> 00:14:01.964
Damon West: So I followed this guy in the parking garage that day. We get into his nice
00:14:01.964 --> 00:14:05.584
Damon West: little sports car. He hands me this glass pipe with these crystal rocks in it.
00:14:06.044 --> 00:14:08.424
Damon West: Now, I'd never seen a glass pipe before. I'm like, man, what is that?
00:14:08.984 --> 00:14:13.684
Damon West: He said, Damon, just relax. It's crystal meth. He said, you're going to love this stuff.
00:14:14.344 --> 00:14:18.784
Damon West: Kevin, truer words never been spoken because I fell in love with crystal meth that day.
00:14:19.224 --> 00:14:24.724
Damon West: Meth is the most evil, most destructive, most addictive drug ever created by man.
00:14:24.864 --> 00:14:27.664
Damon West: It's made in a lab, made to get you hooked. I smoked it one time.
00:14:28.577 --> 00:14:32.417
Damon West: Instantly hooked just like that. And I started giving everything away for that drug.
00:14:32.597 --> 00:14:37.597
Damon West: I gave up my job, my home, my car, my savings account, my family, my tethering to God.
00:14:37.797 --> 00:14:41.877
Damon West: And at 18 months, I go from working on Wall Street to living on the streets of Dallas.
00:14:42.337 --> 00:14:45.117
Damon West: And that's when I became a criminal at that point, when I was homeless.
00:14:46.037 --> 00:14:49.157
Damon West: Started breaking into cars, breaking into storage units, and eventually I started
00:14:49.157 --> 00:14:50.757
Damon West: breaking into people's houses.
00:14:51.357 --> 00:14:55.257
Damon West: And these burglaries, these are very serious crimes, Kevin, because I didn't
00:14:55.257 --> 00:15:00.537
Damon West: just steal people's property when I broken their homes. I stole their sense of security.
00:15:01.017 --> 00:15:02.097
Damon West: That's something I can't give
00:15:02.097 --> 00:15:05.277
Damon West: back to them. And my victims live with that for the rest of their lives.
00:15:05.797 --> 00:15:08.677
Damon West: But after three years of committing property crimes against the people of Dallas,
00:15:08.917 --> 00:15:13.877
Damon West: Texas, the Dallas SWAT team on July 30th, 2008, put an end to the uptown burglaries.
00:15:14.017 --> 00:15:17.637
Damon West: The day that they arrested me, or as I tell people all the time,
00:15:18.197 --> 00:15:23.857
Damon West: I look back, Kevin, at July 30th, 2008, that's not just the day I was arrested.
00:15:24.437 --> 00:15:25.957
Damon West: That was the day I was rescued.
00:15:26.637 --> 00:15:29.557
Damon West: I got pulled out of a situation in life I couldn't get myself out of.
00:15:29.817 --> 00:15:32.517
Damon West: The Dallas SWAT team saved my life that day, Kevin.
00:15:33.837 --> 00:15:38.557
Kevin Lowe: Wow, what a powerful, powerful, powerful perspective. During this time,
00:15:38.717 --> 00:15:42.277
Kevin Lowe: and this kind of leads into the next question I want to ask you,
00:15:42.817 --> 00:15:45.177
Kevin Lowe: your family, your parents,
00:15:45.917 --> 00:15:49.497
Kevin Lowe: their son, I mean, you just told us, Division I quarterback,
00:15:50.157 --> 00:15:54.757
Kevin Lowe: you get this injury, you continue, though, on with life, You get involved with
00:15:54.757 --> 00:15:57.217
Kevin Lowe: crystal meth and everything starts to spiral down.
00:15:57.897 --> 00:16:01.657
Kevin Lowe: What is the impact on them during this time?
00:16:01.977 --> 00:16:05.277
Damon West: Oh, man. Yeah, they're devastated. Like, they know something's wrong with me.
00:16:05.577 --> 00:16:08.097
Damon West: They don't know what it is. But, I mean, they know something's wrong.
00:16:08.197 --> 00:16:13.757
Damon West: My mom is constantly trying to get me to move back home to Southeast Texas where I grew up.
00:16:14.057 --> 00:16:19.037
Damon West: But, again, Kevin, I'm not moving from Dallas. My dope dealers are in Dallas, you know?
00:16:19.827 --> 00:16:23.027
Damon West: So there's absolutely no way I'm going to move back to Southeast Texas.
00:16:23.247 --> 00:16:26.707
Damon West: My mom, she tries and tries and tries. She pleases me to come home.
00:16:27.007 --> 00:16:30.567
Damon West: They don't know really what's wrong, but they know something's wrong.
00:16:30.667 --> 00:16:34.507
Damon West: But they're so far away that I just lie to them because that's what addicts do.
00:16:34.827 --> 00:16:37.407
Damon West: We lie. We cheat. We steal. We manipulate.
00:16:37.987 --> 00:16:41.567
Damon West: We do what we have to do to stay in our behaviors. Here's what I learned about addiction.
00:16:42.587 --> 00:16:45.667
Damon West: Addicts give up their goals to meet their behaviors.
00:16:46.207 --> 00:16:50.487
Damon West: In fact, that's the definition of addiction, Kevin. when you give up your goals
00:16:50.487 --> 00:16:51.847
Damon West: to meet your behaviors, you're an addict.
00:16:52.027 --> 00:16:54.947
Damon West: It doesn't have to be drugs or alcohol, right? It could be food,
00:16:55.087 --> 00:16:58.847
Damon West: money, clothing, shopping, sex, pornography, the internet, social media.
00:16:59.567 --> 00:17:02.847
Damon West: But my family knew that something was wrong. And here's the deal.
00:17:03.727 --> 00:17:07.927
Damon West: Addiction touches everybody in this country, Kevin. It touches everybody.
00:17:08.167 --> 00:17:11.407
Damon West: No one is immune from this epidemic of addiction in America,
00:17:11.407 --> 00:17:15.887
Damon West: whether you're the addict, the victim of an addict, the friend of an addict,
00:17:15.987 --> 00:17:19.487
Damon West: the family member of an addict, or you're just a taxpayer paying into an overburdened
00:17:19.487 --> 00:17:20.267
Damon West: criminal justice system.
00:17:20.727 --> 00:17:24.867
Damon West: Addiction touches every single person in this country. And my parents were not
00:17:24.867 --> 00:17:27.687
Damon West: immune from that. And I'll tell you this even further.
00:17:28.627 --> 00:17:33.987
Damon West: The cycle of addiction that took me into prison, no one goes to prison alone,
00:17:34.087 --> 00:17:36.587
Damon West: Kevin. You take a lot of people with you when you go to prison.
00:17:36.947 --> 00:17:40.567
Damon West: You take your victims, you take your family, you take your friends who believed
00:17:40.567 --> 00:17:43.687
Damon West: in you, you take everybody on the ride, the taxpayers, they pay for it.
00:17:44.027 --> 00:17:45.727
Damon West: No one goes to prison alone in country.
00:17:46.167 --> 00:17:53.387
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Speaking about your mom, will you share with us the story of the day that
00:17:53.387 --> 00:17:59.667
Kevin Lowe: you were sentenced to 65 years in prison and the advice that your mom gave you?
00:18:00.527 --> 00:18:03.807
Damon West: Yeah, man, this is a very pivotal conversation on my journey.
00:18:04.427 --> 00:18:09.807
Damon West: My mom, you know, my mom is a woman of strong faith. My mom and my dad were
00:18:09.807 --> 00:18:11.247
Damon West: married for 55 years, too.
00:18:11.587 --> 00:18:15.267
Damon West: I had a very privileged life, Kevin. I grew up with two parents in the home.
00:18:15.427 --> 00:18:16.987
Damon West: I didn't know anything but have mom and dad there.
00:18:18.261 --> 00:18:21.121
Damon West: So my parents are there for the whole trial. And right after the trial is over,
00:18:21.821 --> 00:18:27.281
Damon West: my mom and dad are escorted in to this little side room. There's a bulletproof glass dividing us.
00:18:28.041 --> 00:18:30.581
Damon West: And my mom has this conversation with me that day. She's like,
00:18:30.661 --> 00:18:34.221
Damon West: Damon, debts in life demand to be paid.
00:18:34.781 --> 00:18:37.621
Damon West: And you just got hit with one hell of a bill from the state of Texas.
00:18:37.821 --> 00:18:41.441
Damon West: But she said, you did everything they said you did. So you have to go and pay that debt to society.
00:18:42.361 --> 00:18:46.881
Damon West: She said, Damon, you owe Texas that debt. But now you owe your father and I
00:18:46.881 --> 00:18:50.001
Damon West: debt too. You see, we gave you all the opportunity to love and support,
00:18:50.141 --> 00:18:51.441
Damon West: to be anything you want to be in life.
00:18:51.741 --> 00:18:54.441
Damon West: And that's how you just repaid us what we saw in that courtroom.
00:18:54.601 --> 00:18:55.541
Damon West: She said, that's not going to work.
00:18:56.221 --> 00:18:59.601
Damon West: So here's the debt you're going to pay to us. When you go to prison,
00:18:59.761 --> 00:19:03.161
Damon West: you will not get in one of these white hate groups, one of these Aryan Brotherhood
00:19:03.161 --> 00:19:05.061
Damon West: type of gangs, because you're scared because you're the minority.
00:19:05.581 --> 00:19:08.761
Damon West: She said, that's not going to work, Damon. You were never raised to be a racist.
00:19:08.861 --> 00:19:09.781
Damon West: You're not starting that stuff now.
00:19:10.421 --> 00:19:13.801
Damon West: She said, you will not get any tattoos when you're inside that prison.
00:19:14.621 --> 00:19:21.261
Damon West: She said, no gangs, no tattoos. She said, you come back as the man that we raised
00:19:21.261 --> 00:19:23.741
Damon West: or don't come back to us at all.
00:19:24.661 --> 00:19:28.341
Damon West: And man, Kevin, I was stunned, right? I'm floored because I don't know how I'm
00:19:28.341 --> 00:19:29.781
Damon West: going to deliver on this promise to my mom.
00:19:29.901 --> 00:19:34.921
Damon West: But my mom told me, she said, Damon, this is the debt you owe to your father and I get to work.
00:19:35.861 --> 00:19:40.661
Damon West: So I'm running around Dallas County Jail. I've got two months before the prison bus comes to get me.
00:19:40.761 --> 00:19:43.021
Damon West: And I'm frantically asking every guy that's been to prison before,
00:19:43.201 --> 00:19:44.201
Damon West: how am I going to survive?
00:19:44.421 --> 00:19:48.441
Damon West: What am I going to do? And every guy I'm talking to, black, white,
00:19:48.761 --> 00:19:52.141
Damon West: Asian, Hispanic, they're all telling me the same exact thing,
00:19:52.321 --> 00:19:53.841
Damon West: that you've got to get into a gang.
00:19:54.021 --> 00:19:56.721
Damon West: You can't survive without a gang. The gang is your family now.
00:19:57.925 --> 00:20:02.185
Damon West: But there was this one guy that was so different, this older black guy named Muhammad.
00:20:02.865 --> 00:20:05.885
Damon West: Now, Muhammad was what you call a career criminal.
00:20:06.465 --> 00:20:08.965
Damon West: He's been in and out of prison his entire life. But, you know,
00:20:09.005 --> 00:20:10.945
Damon West: he was the most positive guy I've ever been in my life, Kevin.
00:20:11.205 --> 00:20:14.105
Damon West: This guy had a smile on his face everywhere he went. You couldn't knock the
00:20:14.105 --> 00:20:15.225
Damon West: smile from Muhammad's face.
00:20:15.325 --> 00:20:18.585
Damon West: And every morning, he would come to my cell, to my bunk, and he would pick me
00:20:18.585 --> 00:20:22.585
Damon West: up like a ray of sunshine in that dark place with his positive energy.
00:20:23.045 --> 00:20:25.585
Damon West: So one morning, Muhammad comes up to my bunk.
00:20:26.285 --> 00:20:28.705
Damon West: He's got a cup of coffee in his hands. He had a smile on his face.
00:20:29.205 --> 00:20:30.865
Damon West: He said, Wes, I've been watching you, man.
00:20:31.545 --> 00:20:34.105
Damon West: I've been watching how you're dealing with these knuckleheads and these dummies
00:20:34.105 --> 00:20:35.585
Damon West: talking about you got to get into a gang.
00:20:36.125 --> 00:20:39.485
Damon West: He said, man, don't listen to these fools. You want to keep that promise you
00:20:39.485 --> 00:20:40.605
Damon West: made to your mom and your dad?
00:20:41.085 --> 00:20:44.125
Damon West: Then let me tell you what prison is really going to be like.
00:20:44.865 --> 00:20:48.625
Damon West: And so he told me, Kevin, he said, the first thing you need to understand about
00:20:48.625 --> 00:20:50.305
Damon West: prison, he said, prison's all about race.
00:20:50.725 --> 00:20:53.885
Damon West: He said, race runs the whole institution side of a prison. And that's the way
00:20:53.885 --> 00:20:56.985
Damon West: all the inmates want it. He said, everything's broken down by the racial code
00:20:56.985 --> 00:20:58.445
Damon West: in there. Everybody separates by the races.
00:20:59.165 --> 00:21:02.505
Damon West: So what I'm telling you is when you walk in the door, the white gangs get the
00:21:02.505 --> 00:21:03.765
Damon West: first dips in you because you're white.
00:21:04.445 --> 00:21:07.965
Damon West: The Aryan Brotherhood, the Aryan Circle, the white knights, the woods.
00:21:08.225 --> 00:21:11.245
Damon West: He said, you fight all the white gangs first. If you survive the white gangs,
00:21:11.345 --> 00:21:14.825
Damon West: then you fight the black gangs, the Crips, the Bloods, the gangster disciples.
00:21:15.345 --> 00:21:18.525
Damon West: They're going to be happy to tee off on this independent white guy who won't
00:21:18.525 --> 00:21:20.685
Damon West: get with his own race and his own kind where he belongs.
00:21:20.965 --> 00:21:23.965
Damon West: He said, but if you survive all that, and you can survive all that,
00:21:23.965 --> 00:21:26.265
Damon West: You will earn the right to walk alone.
00:21:26.865 --> 00:21:29.465
Damon West: He said the strongest man in prison always walks alone.
00:21:30.385 --> 00:21:34.185
Damon West: He told me the truth about fighting. He said you don't have to win all your
00:21:34.185 --> 00:21:36.605
Damon West: fights, but you do have to fight all your fights.
00:21:37.225 --> 00:21:42.005
Damon West: Some days you win, some days you lose. He said it's okay when you lose as long
00:21:42.005 --> 00:21:44.365
Damon West: as you get back up and you keep fighting.
00:21:45.655 --> 00:21:48.595
Damon West: You know, he's telling me, get back up.
00:21:48.855 --> 00:21:52.635
Damon West: But when he's telling me it's back 2009, Kevin, I'm looking back at this guy
00:21:52.635 --> 00:21:55.815
Damon West: like a deer in headlights, man. All this violence and terror I'm about to walk into.
00:21:56.715 --> 00:22:00.675
Damon West: That's when he's like, West, he said, let me break this down for you a different way.
00:22:01.675 --> 00:22:06.835
Damon West: He said, I want you to imagine prison as a pot of boiling water.
00:22:07.395 --> 00:22:10.815
Damon West: He said, anything we put into a pot of boiling water will be changed by the
00:22:10.815 --> 00:22:12.635
Damon West: heat and the pressure inside that pot.
00:22:13.255 --> 00:22:15.655
Damon West: He said, I'm going to put three things in this pot of boiling water.
00:22:15.975 --> 00:22:17.155
Damon West: And watch how they change.
00:22:17.795 --> 00:22:21.715
Damon West: A carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean.
00:22:22.995 --> 00:22:27.875
Damon West: So he tells me the story that coffee bean came. He said, if I put a carrot in
00:22:27.875 --> 00:22:29.975
Damon West: a pot of boiling water, he said, what happens to the carrot?
00:22:30.435 --> 00:22:33.415
Damon West: And I was like, the carrot turns soft, Muhammad. He said, that's right.
00:22:33.715 --> 00:22:36.655
Damon West: But the carrot goes in the water really hard and firm. But the water of the
00:22:36.655 --> 00:22:40.655
Damon West: prison turns the hard carrot, soft and mushy and weak. He said,
00:22:40.695 --> 00:22:41.695
Damon West: you don't want to be a carrot.
00:22:42.635 --> 00:22:46.335
Damon West: He said, what about the egg? What happens to the egg in the pot of warm water?
00:22:47.535 --> 00:22:50.575
Damon West: I'm like, the egg is going to turn hard, like a hard-boiled egg.
00:22:51.135 --> 00:22:55.095
Damon West: He said, that's right. He said, the egg has a shell that will protect it physically.
00:22:55.255 --> 00:22:58.515
Damon West: But inside that shell, that soft liquid core, the egg's yolk,
00:22:58.675 --> 00:23:00.975
Damon West: the heart becomes hardened.
00:23:01.095 --> 00:23:06.555
Damon West: He said, now, if your heart becomes hardened, you become incapable of giving or receiving love.
00:23:06.715 --> 00:23:10.675
Damon West: He said, if you're incapable of giving or receiving love, you've become institutionalized,
00:23:10.675 --> 00:23:14.675
Damon West: and you do not come back as someone your parents recognize because your eggshell
00:23:14.675 --> 00:23:15.895
Damon West: has swastikas all over it.
00:23:16.983 --> 00:23:20.383
Damon West: Then he asked me the question. He said, what about the coffee bean, Wes?
00:23:20.683 --> 00:23:24.023
Damon West: He said, what happened to the coffee bean in the pot of boiling water?
00:23:24.143 --> 00:23:26.743
Damon West: And Kevin, I didn't have an answer from Muhammad on that one.
00:23:26.803 --> 00:23:28.963
Damon West: I didn't know what happened to a coffee bean in a pot of boiling water.
00:23:29.463 --> 00:23:35.123
Damon West: And that's when Muhammad, a man who looks nothing like me, a man who doesn't
00:23:35.123 --> 00:23:39.263
Damon West: come from the same America that I come from, a man who doesn't believe the same
00:23:39.263 --> 00:23:40.623
Damon West: things I believe in my own life.
00:23:40.943 --> 00:23:44.843
Damon West: This is a black Muslim man from the streets of Dallas, Texas.
00:23:45.403 --> 00:23:48.303
Damon West: I'm a white middle-class Christian from a little town called Port Arthur,
00:23:48.483 --> 00:23:53.163
Damon West: but this man who is so different than me, he's about to share with me one of
00:23:53.163 --> 00:23:56.783
Damon West: the most important and transformational messages I've ever received in my entire
00:23:56.783 --> 00:23:58.823
Damon West: life. And the moral to that is this.
00:23:59.303 --> 00:24:03.603
Damon West: If you ever shut yourself off to other people because of their differences,
00:24:04.123 --> 00:24:05.683
Damon West: different race, different gender,
00:24:06.303 --> 00:24:08.903
Damon West: different ethnicity, different religion, different opinions,
00:24:09.323 --> 00:24:13.563
Damon West: different political views, if you close yourself off to people because of their differences,
00:24:14.103 --> 00:24:17.263
Damon West: you're going to miss some of the most important lessons and some
00:24:17.263 --> 00:24:20.483
Damon West: of the best friendships in this life because Muhammad
00:24:20.483 --> 00:24:23.183
Damon West: told me that day he said if I put
00:24:23.183 --> 00:24:25.923
Damon West: a coffee bean in that same pot of boiling water we
00:24:25.923 --> 00:24:30.003
Damon West: call prison he said now you're going to change the name of the water to coffee
00:24:30.003 --> 00:24:34.463
Damon West: because he said the coffee bean west the smallest of the three things he said
00:24:34.463 --> 00:24:38.963
Damon West: small like you has the power to change the entire atmosphere inside that pot
00:24:38.963 --> 00:24:43.643
Damon West: because the power's inside the coffee bean he He said, just like the powers inside of you.
00:24:44.263 --> 00:24:47.343
Damon West: And he said, everything else in life is changed by the water in life.
00:24:47.823 --> 00:24:48.963
Damon West: Carrots are changed by the water.
00:24:49.503 --> 00:24:52.363
Damon West: Eggs are changed by the water, but not a coffee bean. He said,
00:24:52.443 --> 00:24:55.443
Damon West: the coffee bean is the only thing that changes the water because it's the change agent.
00:24:55.703 --> 00:24:57.943
Damon West: He said, if you want to come back to someone your parents recognize,
00:24:58.423 --> 00:25:00.103
Damon West: you got to be like that coffee bean too.
00:25:00.903 --> 00:25:05.943
Damon West: In fact, the last words he ever said to me, he said, West, be a coffee bean.
00:25:06.928 --> 00:25:10.108
Damon West: And that was it. That was the message right before I got on the prison bus.
00:25:10.548 --> 00:25:13.008
Damon West: Be a coffee bean. The four words that changed my life, Kevin,
00:25:13.108 --> 00:25:14.568
Damon West: because you know what those four words did for me?
00:25:14.728 --> 00:25:17.808
Damon West: They put the power back inside me. And if the power was inside me,
00:25:17.988 --> 00:25:19.428
Damon West: it could be the world around me, right?
00:25:19.788 --> 00:25:22.968
Damon West: The criminal justice system, the guards, the other inmates. It wasn't me.
00:25:23.368 --> 00:25:27.328
Damon West: And if I could keep the power inside me, I don't survive prison.
00:25:27.648 --> 00:25:30.968
Damon West: I thrive in that prison. And that's what I'm telling your audience today,
00:25:31.008 --> 00:25:34.428
Damon West: because I want your audience to know that the power is inside you, too.
00:25:34.968 --> 00:25:37.828
Damon West: It's not what goes on around you where you live, the town you're from,
00:25:38.108 --> 00:25:44.288
Damon West: the state you're from, or the crazy politics and social problems this country has right now.
00:25:44.748 --> 00:25:48.788
Damon West: It's in you. And if you can keep the power inside you, you don't survive adversity,
00:25:48.788 --> 00:25:49.668
Damon West: you thrive in adversity.
00:25:50.448 --> 00:25:53.688
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow, the coffee bean.
00:25:54.488 --> 00:25:59.128
Kevin Lowe: What a powerful, powerful imagery that is.
00:25:59.388 --> 00:26:05.888
Kevin Lowe: I guess, though, what I wonder, though, is when you went into prison,
00:26:06.628 --> 00:26:14.868
Kevin Lowe: did you have any idea that you would not serve all 65 years behind bars?
00:26:15.208 --> 00:26:19.168
Damon West: You know, that is a good question. The answer to that question is like,
00:26:19.348 --> 00:26:23.708
Damon West: I know because my crimes, Kevin, my crimes were non-aggravated.
00:26:23.868 --> 00:26:27.108
Damon West: And in Texas, they've got two different categories of crimes you can commit.
00:26:27.928 --> 00:26:32.308
Damon West: An aggravated crime is a crime where someone is physically hurt and commissioned the crime.
00:26:32.688 --> 00:26:38.148
Damon West: Think murder, rape, child molesters, those kind of things. Robbery,
00:26:38.268 --> 00:26:39.488
Damon West: when you put a gun in someone's face.
00:26:40.188 --> 00:26:43.668
Damon West: Non-aggravated crimes are where you have no physical victim.
00:26:44.128 --> 00:26:49.228
Damon West: These are property crimes. These are crimes that you commit,
00:26:49.548 --> 00:26:52.248
Damon West: like theft and stuff like that around drug addiction.
00:26:52.548 --> 00:26:57.408
Damon West: So my crimes were non-aggravated. And in Texas, if you have non-aggravated crimes,
00:26:57.708 --> 00:27:02.468
Damon West: you don't have to do as much time before you see parole as someone that has an aggravated charge.
00:27:03.208 --> 00:27:09.268
Damon West: So I know going into this thing that I'll be eligible for parole in seven years.
00:27:09.788 --> 00:27:11.708
Damon West: But do I think I'm going to make the first parole?
00:27:12.288 --> 00:27:16.268
Damon West: Absolutely not. No one makes the first parole in prison, not on a life sentence.
00:27:16.868 --> 00:27:21.028
Damon West: In fact, just to get out on a life sentence, most people do about 10 or 15 years,
00:27:21.168 --> 00:27:23.328
Damon West: best case scenario, before they get out.
00:27:23.908 --> 00:27:27.628
Damon West: So I'm going into this thing. I don't think I'm doing 65 years,
00:27:27.668 --> 00:27:30.008
Damon West: but I think I'm doing about 10 or 15.
00:27:30.008 --> 00:27:33.868
Kevin Lowe: And I guess when I think about it,
00:27:34.548 --> 00:27:41.108
Kevin Lowe: 65 years versus 10 years, it's in prison, maximum security in the worst place
00:27:41.108 --> 00:27:46.528
Kevin Lowe: in the world and in a place where I think hope can't exist.
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:54.900
Kevin Lowe: And I can't help but I guess think even thinking, OK, I'll be in here for 10,
00:27:55.080 --> 00:27:57.380
Kevin Lowe: 15 years, even say seven years.
00:27:57.820 --> 00:28:04.740
Kevin Lowe: How do you maintain, though, hope in such a place as prison?
00:28:05.300 --> 00:28:09.080
Damon West: Yeah, that's the thing, man. Hope is the thing you have to have.
00:28:09.520 --> 00:28:11.240
Damon West: You ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption, Kevin?
00:28:12.560 --> 00:28:13.680
Kevin Lowe: Embarrassingly, no.
00:28:14.700 --> 00:28:19.100
Damon West: Well, I didn't know before you went blind if you had ever seen that movie.
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:21.440
Damon West: But it's one of the most incredible movies ever.
00:28:21.820 --> 00:28:24.440
Damon West: And the movie Shawshank Redemption is about hope.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.800
Damon West: And in the movie, there's two main characters. One of them is a guy named Andy Dufresne.
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:34.100
Damon West: The other is a guy named Red. A lot of people think the movie Shawshank is about
00:28:34.100 --> 00:28:36.180
Damon West: Andy, the innocent guy that went to prison and escaped.
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:38.760
Damon West: But the movie is really about Red.
00:28:39.420 --> 00:28:44.200
Damon West: He's the incarcerated guy that Andy befriends in there. The reason why the movie's
00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:50.400
Damon West: about Red is because Red has no hope, and Andy represents hope inside the prison.
00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:56.620
Damon West: In fact, so much so that the last scene of the movie, when Red and Andy unite
00:28:56.620 --> 00:29:01.720
Damon West: outside the prison walls, because Andy has escaped, and Red has finally made parole after 40 years.
00:29:01.800 --> 00:29:04.360
Damon West: He did 40 years of prison before he walked out.
00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:10.020
Damon West: Red's final sentences Red's final he has the final line of the whole movie and
00:29:10.020 --> 00:29:14.720
Damon West: that last scene of the movie they're on this beach in Mexico Zihuataneo, Mexico
00:29:16.030 --> 00:29:22.750
Damon West: And Red's dialogue at the end is the culmination of the whole movie. He says this.
00:29:23.190 --> 00:29:28.310
Damon West: He says, I hope I make it across the border. He's going into Mexico, right?
00:29:28.770 --> 00:29:33.230
Damon West: I hope I make it across the border. I hope I see my friend again so I can shake his hand.
00:29:33.630 --> 00:29:37.390
Damon West: I hope the Pacific is as blue as it was in my dreams.
00:29:37.850 --> 00:29:41.650
Damon West: I hope. Every single sentence starts off with the words, I hope.
00:29:41.710 --> 00:29:44.650
Damon West: In fact, the last two words of the movie were one sentence. says,
00:29:44.850 --> 00:29:48.490
Damon West: I hope prison was the hardest thing I've ever been through because it's the
00:29:48.490 --> 00:29:49.970
Damon West: most hopeless world I've ever walked into.
00:29:50.390 --> 00:29:55.010
Damon West: And that's why prisons are so dangerous in America, Kevin, because when you
00:29:55.010 --> 00:29:59.690
Damon West: have a void of hope, negativity, evil, and darkness fills the void.
00:30:00.070 --> 00:30:03.150
Damon West: And you don't have to live in a physical prison to be in a world with no hope,
00:30:03.270 --> 00:30:06.570
Damon West: do you, right? Because there's a lot of ways to not have hope in this world.
00:30:06.870 --> 00:30:11.850
Damon West: But hope is the thing that we must have because hope gives us the belief that
00:30:11.850 --> 00:30:13.510
Damon West: there are going to be better times.
00:30:14.050 --> 00:30:18.370
Damon West: You know, one of the things that I found that would bring me hope inside prison,
00:30:18.470 --> 00:30:23.390
Damon West: and I still use to this day, remind myself of the times when I succeeded in life.
00:30:23.570 --> 00:30:25.490
Damon West: When you're having a tough day and you're struggling, Kevin,
00:30:25.590 --> 00:30:29.690
Damon West: do you ever sit back and think about the times you won and focus on those wins?
00:30:29.910 --> 00:30:33.930
Damon West: I mean, that's really kind of a way that a tool that I found even in prison
00:30:33.930 --> 00:30:39.410
Damon West: and even out here, that I could get past It's the moment where I see myself in this bad situation.
00:30:39.850 --> 00:30:43.750
Damon West: And I just remind myself, Damon, you've won before. You've done this before.
00:30:43.790 --> 00:30:47.810
Damon West: You've been able to accomplish big things. And you'll be able to get through this thing too.
00:30:48.050 --> 00:30:52.290
Damon West: In every situation of adversity, there's an opportunity in the adversity.
00:30:52.630 --> 00:30:55.190
Damon West: I tell people that all the time, Kevin. It's important to understand.
00:30:56.378 --> 00:31:00.698
Damon West: Opportunity is in the adversity. And on the other side of the adversity is the
00:31:00.698 --> 00:31:04.298
Damon West: best version of us. But the trick is this. The catch is this.
00:31:04.578 --> 00:31:07.098
Damon West: You have to go through that adversity. You have to go through that difficult
00:31:07.098 --> 00:31:11.858
Damon West: thing in front of you to meet and shake the hand of the man or woman you're always destined to be.
00:31:12.198 --> 00:31:19.978
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. In prison, though, while you're there, you're in a world of adversity.
00:31:20.218 --> 00:31:21.718
Kevin Lowe: You're in a world of no hope.
00:31:22.698 --> 00:31:26.918
Kevin Lowe: You've been given this powerful message by your mom.
00:31:27.398 --> 00:31:31.818
Kevin Lowe: You've been given this amazing life lesson by Muhammad.
00:31:32.618 --> 00:31:37.538
Kevin Lowe: But was there a moment in time when you're laying there in the bunk at night
00:31:37.538 --> 00:31:41.018
Kevin Lowe: thinking, I can't do this?
00:31:41.978 --> 00:31:49.438
Damon West: Oh, yeah. Yeah, man, of course. I mean, look, I live in a dungeon. I live in a cage.
00:31:50.218 --> 00:31:54.458
Damon West: So, I mean, you're living in a dungeon and it's a very drab place and there's
00:31:54.458 --> 00:31:56.258
Damon West: all this misery around you, right?
00:31:56.518 --> 00:31:59.198
Damon West: So, yeah. Do I ever think I can't do it? Yeah.
00:32:00.138 --> 00:32:04.498
Damon West: Here's what has to happen, in my opinion, for a person to recognize the kind
00:32:04.498 --> 00:32:06.378
Damon West: of gains that I recognize in life.
00:32:07.098 --> 00:32:10.218
Damon West: I think you have to have a spiritual awakening.
00:32:10.578 --> 00:32:14.938
Damon West: And I said spiritual, Kevin. I didn't say religious, right? I'm not talking
00:32:14.938 --> 00:32:18.338
Damon West: about any one religion out there. I'm a Christian, So I believe in Christ.
00:32:18.718 --> 00:32:21.978
Damon West: But I believe anybody can believe in anything they want to. Whatever it is you
00:32:21.978 --> 00:32:26.038
Damon West: believe in, whatever higher power, believe in that, dig into that, and give into that.
00:32:26.338 --> 00:32:28.418
Damon West: Because here's why you have to have a spiritual awakening.
00:32:29.098 --> 00:32:35.738
Damon West: A spiritual awakening allows you to turn this idea of control over to a higher power.
00:32:36.058 --> 00:32:38.578
Damon West: Because there's only four things you can control in life, Kevin.
00:32:38.858 --> 00:32:42.798
Damon West: This is it. This is the whole ballgame, really. You control what you think.
00:32:43.721 --> 00:32:47.581
Damon West: What you say, what you feel, and what you do.
00:32:48.121 --> 00:32:50.621
Damon West: What you think, what you say, what you feel, and what you do.
00:32:50.801 --> 00:32:53.341
Damon West: And it's not one of those four things. You don't control it.
00:32:53.481 --> 00:32:55.801
Damon West: I mean, so what I'm telling you is the world goes on around you,
00:32:55.901 --> 00:32:58.821
Damon West: Kevin. You can't control the world around you, but you can't control the world inside you.
00:32:59.901 --> 00:33:03.661
Damon West: Unless you allow another person, another group, a political party,
00:33:04.041 --> 00:33:06.621
Damon West: a politician to get inside your head.
00:33:06.781 --> 00:33:10.021
Damon West: And of course, when you allow people inside your head, that's when you become
00:33:10.021 --> 00:33:14.501
Damon West: a prisoner of your own mind. But so to free yourself, to free yourself from
00:33:14.501 --> 00:33:18.641
Damon West: the thoughts that I can't do this or this, it's too big, it's impossible.
00:33:19.101 --> 00:33:23.601
Damon West: You turn the other parts of your life over, the parts you can't control, to a higher power.
00:33:24.141 --> 00:33:27.541
Damon West: And that's when you say, hey, you know, higher power. In my case,
00:33:27.641 --> 00:33:28.581
Damon West: I would say Christ. Hey, Christ.
00:33:29.301 --> 00:33:34.821
Damon West: I can't fix or control those things that you can control, but I'll go work on
00:33:34.821 --> 00:33:37.461
Damon West: the things that I can control and you work on those things over there.
00:33:38.001 --> 00:33:43.001
Damon West: And while I'm working on my stuff over here, I'll make the best version of whatever
00:33:43.001 --> 00:33:45.221
Damon West: I can do with what you get me to work on every day.
00:33:45.741 --> 00:33:52.081
Damon West: And that spiritual awakening gives you the freedom to let go of the things you can't control.
00:33:52.461 --> 00:33:56.621
Damon West: And once you let go of the things you can't control, you start to have a better
00:33:56.621 --> 00:34:02.721
Damon West: life because now you're focusing your time, which is the most precious resource there is, Kevin.
00:34:03.241 --> 00:34:07.841
Damon West: Once time is gone, it's gone for good And all the money in the world can't buy
00:34:07.841 --> 00:34:10.021
Damon West: one more second of that stuff they call time, right?
00:34:10.901 --> 00:34:15.141
Damon West: But once you're focusing your time on things you actually can control, your life takes off.
00:34:15.301 --> 00:34:18.681
Damon West: And that's what happened in my life. I had a spiritual awakening and I let go
00:34:18.681 --> 00:34:21.021
Damon West: of the things I couldn't control, the worry, the doubt.
00:34:21.641 --> 00:34:25.701
Damon West: You know, there was a lady in the chapel, a volunteer lady in the chapel.
00:34:25.801 --> 00:34:28.781
Damon West: Her name was Miss D. Doucette. And so Miss D.
00:34:29.361 --> 00:34:34.341
Damon West: Told me one day, she said, if you're going to pray, don't worry.
00:34:35.041 --> 00:34:40.601
Damon West: But if you're going to worry, don't pray. She said, you can't do God's job and your job, Damon.
00:34:40.741 --> 00:34:45.221
Damon West: She said, you're either going to let God drive the car or you're going to drive the car.
00:34:45.361 --> 00:34:49.821
Damon West: But the last time you drove the car, you parked it in a maximum security prison.
00:34:50.321 --> 00:34:52.661
Damon West: So choose who gets those keys, but choose wisely.
00:34:53.849 --> 00:34:55.429
Damon West: So, wow. Yeah.
00:34:56.229 --> 00:35:01.009
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. You, you mentioned earlier when we were talking about the
00:35:01.009 --> 00:35:05.169
Kevin Lowe: coffee bean, being a change agent, an agent of change.
00:35:05.369 --> 00:35:10.249
Kevin Lowe: How do you, how do you do that though inside of a prison?
00:35:10.569 --> 00:35:15.329
Damon West: I learned about this thing called servant leadership. Servant leadership is
00:35:15.329 --> 00:35:19.089
Damon West: helping other people reach their goals in life, helping to raise other people
00:35:19.089 --> 00:35:20.269
Damon West: up to a different station life.
00:35:20.429 --> 00:35:24.269
Damon West: Cause I believe Kevin, when we help other people grow, we grow too.
00:35:24.769 --> 00:35:28.809
Damon West: That's what the secret to life is, right? Helping other people reach their goals.
00:35:29.009 --> 00:35:31.349
Damon West: And whenever you are struggling and when you're trying to reach your goals,
00:35:31.669 --> 00:35:34.289
Damon West: someone's going to be there to help you reach yours too.
00:35:35.029 --> 00:35:38.149
Damon West: Whenever I learned about servant leadership, I asked myself,
00:35:39.029 --> 00:35:40.609
Damon West: Damon, how do you serve these guys around?
00:35:40.789 --> 00:35:43.269
Damon West: How do you serve men you're doing time with in prison?
00:35:43.769 --> 00:35:47.249
Damon West: And the answer came to me. I had a very privileged life, Kevin.
00:35:47.389 --> 00:35:49.809
Damon West: I had a bachelor's degree when I went to prison.
00:35:50.089 --> 00:35:53.689
Damon West: Most of the guys around me in prison, their education stops around the seventh
00:35:53.689 --> 00:35:57.109
Damon West: grade or eighth grade. You know, that's the reality of incarceration.
00:35:57.849 --> 00:36:01.689
Damon West: Most people in prison, the lack of an education is one of the biggest reasons
00:36:01.689 --> 00:36:02.749
Damon West: they got into prison, right?
00:36:03.669 --> 00:36:08.329
Damon West: So what I did when I was in prison, as I opened up a free tutoring service,
00:36:08.529 --> 00:36:11.329
Damon West: I taught guys how to read and write.
00:36:11.669 --> 00:36:14.689
Damon West: I get them ready for the GED test. So if they ever got out of prison,
00:36:14.689 --> 00:36:18.009
Damon West: they could be a better husband or a better father one day.
00:36:18.709 --> 00:36:23.129
Damon West: Through my acts of service in there, through my acts of teaching other people,
00:36:23.149 --> 00:36:27.809
Damon West: I was also teaching these men about the importance of building a community.
00:36:28.549 --> 00:36:31.649
Damon West: So many of the people that I was locked up with, Kevin, they didn't come from
00:36:31.649 --> 00:36:34.169
Damon West: the same background I came from. I had two parents in my home.
00:36:34.449 --> 00:36:37.889
Damon West: You know, most of the guys I was in prison with, they had one parent in the
00:36:37.889 --> 00:36:39.369
Damon West: home, if they even had one, right?
00:36:39.969 --> 00:36:44.549
Damon West: So they weren't taught the importance and lessons about building a strong community.
00:36:44.689 --> 00:36:46.649
Damon West: A strong community looks like this, Kevin.
00:36:47.009 --> 00:36:52.689
Damon West: In a healthy community, we have this mindset that my success is your success
00:36:52.689 --> 00:36:53.869
Damon West: and your success is mine.
00:36:54.169 --> 00:36:57.569
Damon West: And I want to see my community thrive. And in a healthy community,
00:36:57.809 --> 00:37:01.069
Damon West: everybody goes out in their community and say, hey, this is my talent.
00:37:01.229 --> 00:37:02.869
Damon West: This is what I have to offer to the community.
00:37:03.089 --> 00:37:06.969
Damon West: And if anybody can use my talents, I'm here to be a part of this community.
00:37:07.229 --> 00:37:11.109
Damon West: In prison, everybody's always fighting for themselves, man. I got mine, go get yours.
00:37:11.749 --> 00:37:16.169
Damon West: In prison, I taught people how to have a good community. So an example of this.
00:37:16.904 --> 00:37:19.444
Damon West: Whenever I was teaching these guys how to read and write in prison,
00:37:19.724 --> 00:37:22.144
Damon West: everything has a price on it, Kevin. Nothing is free.
00:37:22.664 --> 00:37:26.244
Damon West: You can't give somebody something. Everything has to be transactional in prison.
00:37:26.544 --> 00:37:29.384
Damon West: So these guys that I'm tutoring, teaching how to read and write,
00:37:29.664 --> 00:37:33.024
Damon West: they would come to me with wanting to pay for the tutoring services.
00:37:33.284 --> 00:37:37.424
Damon West: And money in prison is in the form of food that you get from the commissary
00:37:37.424 --> 00:37:39.104
Damon West: or stamps off the commissary.
00:37:39.804 --> 00:37:43.424
Damon West: You know, think about coffee, think about pastries, think about stamps,
00:37:43.844 --> 00:37:47.144
Damon West: think about soups, things you would pay for stuff with in prison.
00:37:47.464 --> 00:37:52.064
Damon West: So guys would come up to me with this bag of food, trying to pay me for teaching
00:37:52.064 --> 00:37:53.664
Damon West: them how to read and write.
00:37:54.144 --> 00:37:58.244
Damon West: And I'd tell them, you can't pay me for this. This is my service to you.
00:37:58.664 --> 00:38:02.524
Damon West: So instead of paying me, pay it forward.
00:38:03.204 --> 00:38:07.064
Damon West: Find someone else that needs something in life. And when you find that person,
00:38:07.244 --> 00:38:10.324
Damon West: remember this favor I did for you. do them a favor too.
00:38:10.764 --> 00:38:14.164
Damon West: So now I'm watching. I'm teaching this guy how to read, right?
00:38:14.584 --> 00:38:17.264
Damon West: He's a prison artist. This guy can draw really well.
00:38:17.724 --> 00:38:20.844
Damon West: And there's another guy on the pod that's indigent.
00:38:21.324 --> 00:38:24.864
Damon West: Indigent meaning he's poor. He doesn't have any money. He doesn't have any access
00:38:24.864 --> 00:38:26.784
Damon West: to funds to go to the commissary.
00:38:26.924 --> 00:38:31.104
Damon West: He has no one in the free world that'll help him with his life out of prison.
00:38:31.604 --> 00:38:37.724
Damon West: But this indigent guy really wants to send somebody on the outside of the free world a Christmas card.
00:38:38.144 --> 00:38:41.744
Damon West: And these prison artists, that's their big time of year.
00:38:42.424 --> 00:38:47.624
Damon West: Birthdays, holidays, stuff like that when people are requesting them to create
00:38:47.624 --> 00:38:50.064
Damon West: art for them. That's how these prison artists make a living in there.
00:38:50.324 --> 00:38:54.824
Damon West: I watched this guy that I'm tutoring that's a prison artist go up to the other
00:38:54.824 --> 00:38:56.364
Damon West: guy that's indigent when he found
00:38:56.364 --> 00:38:59.424
Damon West: out that this guy was wanting to make a Christmas card but had no money.
00:38:59.804 --> 00:39:03.024
Damon West: And he said, hey, I'm going to make this Christmas card for you.
00:39:03.264 --> 00:39:05.924
Damon West: And I'm going to do this for you. And you're not going to have to pay me a dime
00:39:05.924 --> 00:39:08.104
Damon West: for it. and it's going to be the best Christmas card ever.
00:39:08.164 --> 00:39:11.424
Damon West: I'm going to put the best work into it as if you paid me full price for it.
00:39:11.504 --> 00:39:14.584
Damon West: But what I want you to do instead of paying me is pay it forward.
00:39:15.004 --> 00:39:20.284
Damon West: Then I watched that guy that received the Christmas card found another inmate
00:39:20.284 --> 00:39:22.984
Damon West: that was a handicapped guy that was in a wheelchair.
00:39:23.444 --> 00:39:29.844
Damon West: And a person inside of a prison, you live with a handicap, a physical handicap, Kevin. You're blind.
00:39:30.544 --> 00:39:35.024
Damon West: So a person with a handicap is going to need help to do certain things inside
00:39:35.024 --> 00:39:39.364
Damon West: of a prison. I mean, just think, and there are blind people inside of prison too, Kevin.
00:39:39.464 --> 00:39:43.444
Damon West: So when you think about navigating a world where you have a physical handicap
00:39:43.444 --> 00:39:47.404
Damon West: inside of this very difficult world already, and I watched the guy that received
00:39:47.404 --> 00:39:51.564
Damon West: the Christmas card go up to this guy that's in a wheelchair and said, hey, I tell you what,
00:39:52.004 --> 00:39:55.084
Damon West: for now on, you don't have to push yourself to the chow hall every day.
00:39:55.484 --> 00:39:57.584
Damon West: I'm going to be your ride. I'm going to push you there and back.
00:39:58.604 --> 00:40:03.144
Damon West: So man, you're seeing this evolution of these guys when they learn about a good
00:40:03.144 --> 00:40:06.524
Damon West: community. And that's how I changed prison, Kevin.
00:40:07.317 --> 00:40:11.377
Damon West: Taught these men how to find the best version of themselves.
00:40:11.797 --> 00:40:16.797
Damon West: And I taught them about a better way of living. And that transferred into like
00:40:16.797 --> 00:40:19.137
Damon West: making more coffee beans and making coffee.
00:40:19.317 --> 00:40:23.517
Damon West: So when the prison becomes this more positive place and everybody's got this
00:40:23.517 --> 00:40:27.877
Damon West: attitude that we're going to help each other out, the people in prison took notice of this, Kevin.
00:40:28.037 --> 00:40:30.997
Damon West: I mean, the wardens saw it, the majors, the captains saw it,
00:40:31.157 --> 00:40:35.957
Damon West: and the parole board saw it. I came up for my first parole vote in 2015.
00:40:36.437 --> 00:40:40.897
Damon West: Now, I've been in prison for seven years at this point. It's my first parole on a life sentence.
00:40:41.077 --> 00:40:44.477
Damon West: Again, I've told you before, my expectation is that I'm going to do about 10
00:40:44.477 --> 00:40:46.037
Damon West: or 15 years before I go home.
00:40:46.277 --> 00:40:48.437
Damon West: But they call me up for parole in 2015.
00:40:48.697 --> 00:40:51.977
Damon West: The lady calls me into the interview, and she's got my criminal file in front
00:40:51.977 --> 00:40:54.017
Damon West: of her cabinet. And it's a pretty thick file.
00:40:54.297 --> 00:40:57.537
Damon West: I mean, it's got my whole life story in there. It's got every arrest, every felony.
00:40:58.017 --> 00:41:01.857
Damon West: They call it your jacket. So my jacket is sitting in front of this lady,
00:41:01.997 --> 00:41:04.657
Damon West: and she's flipping through the pages of my jacket for about 20 seconds.
00:41:04.877 --> 00:41:06.517
Damon West: And she slams the big file shut.
00:41:07.017 --> 00:41:12.237
Damon West: She pushes it away from her. She said, Mr. West, I came here today to ask you
00:41:12.237 --> 00:41:13.557
Damon West: one question for your parolee hearing.
00:41:14.337 --> 00:41:17.297
Damon West: She said, this is a one question test, Mr. West.
00:41:17.557 --> 00:41:20.997
Damon West: The answer to my question determines whether or not you go home or you stay in this prison.
00:41:21.117 --> 00:41:25.477
Damon West: But the answer to my question is not in the file about the guy that I'm reading
00:41:25.477 --> 00:41:28.157
Damon West: about who committed all those crimes in Dallas, Texas all those years ago.
00:41:28.417 --> 00:41:36.677
Damon West: She said, we don't see a lot of Damon West inside the prison system because you had it all, Mr. West.
00:41:36.937 --> 00:41:40.117
Damon West: You had every advantage. You had every privilege. You had every opportunity
00:41:40.117 --> 00:41:42.377
Damon West: over everybody your entire life.
00:41:42.497 --> 00:41:46.317
Damon West: She said, you're the definition of a privileged person in America.
00:41:46.997 --> 00:41:50.157
Damon West: And she read the file, right, Kevin? I did. I had it all.
00:41:50.277 --> 00:41:54.217
Damon West: Remember, I come from this incredible two-parent home, middle-class background,
00:41:54.697 --> 00:41:56.957
Damon West: good student, great athlete, had it all.
00:41:57.137 --> 00:42:01.177
Damon West: Best jobs anybody could have, but no substance abuse.
00:42:01.357 --> 00:42:03.597
Damon West: But that's what she's saying. She said, you had it all.
00:42:04.518 --> 00:42:07.798
Damon West: But you threw it all away. You became a drug addict. You became a criminal.
00:42:08.238 --> 00:42:12.378
Damon West: You became a thief. A jury in Dallas gave you life in prison for the things you did.
00:42:12.618 --> 00:42:18.018
Damon West: But instead of letting that license define you, you changed yourself inside this prison, Mr. West.
00:42:18.078 --> 00:42:21.738
Damon West: She said, there's no doubt about the change you made to yourself.
00:42:22.718 --> 00:42:28.038
Damon West: But what got our attention, the reason why we're here today is you didn't just
00:42:28.038 --> 00:42:29.838
Damon West: change yourself inside this prison.
00:42:30.078 --> 00:42:32.338
Damon West: You changed the entire prison around you.
00:42:33.138 --> 00:42:37.498
Damon West: One man changed this whole prison. So my question for you is this, Mr.
00:42:37.598 --> 00:42:42.938
Damon West: West, and think very hard about this answer because your life depends on it.
00:42:43.878 --> 00:42:48.098
Damon West: She said, if you could be remembered for being anything in life,
00:42:48.338 --> 00:42:51.218
Damon West: anything at all, she said, tell me what that one thing would be,
00:42:51.338 --> 00:42:54.078
Damon West: but give it to me in just one word, go.
00:42:55.178 --> 00:43:00.218
Damon West: And Kevin, I remember thinking to myself, man, I don't have to think about that answer.
00:43:00.718 --> 00:43:05.398
Damon West: I know the answer to that question because I'd been living that answer the whole time I was in prison.
00:43:05.798 --> 00:43:09.558
Damon West: And I fired her answer back at her immediately, and I said, useful.
00:43:10.278 --> 00:43:14.138
Damon West: I said, I just want to be useful because, Kevin, don't we all want to be useful?
00:43:14.858 --> 00:43:17.738
Damon West: Doesn't everybody want to feel like they have a purpose in life?
00:43:18.218 --> 00:43:21.618
Damon West: And that's what I told that lady that day. I said, ma'am, I just want to be useful.
00:43:21.798 --> 00:43:25.398
Damon West: And I can be useful inside this prison, as you've already seen,
00:43:25.878 --> 00:43:29.718
Damon West: or I could be useful in that free world finding more coffee beans.
00:43:30.878 --> 00:43:34.378
Damon West: November 16, 2015, Kevin, a day I'll never forget.
00:43:34.758 --> 00:43:40.298
Damon West: Because on November 16, 2015, I walk out of a Texas prison, but I'm not a free man.
00:43:40.638 --> 00:43:44.978
Damon West: You know, I remind people all the time, I'm not a free man in front of you right
00:43:44.978 --> 00:43:48.338
Damon West: now. I got a little more time left on parole in the state of Texas.
00:43:48.718 --> 00:43:52.898
Damon West: I'm on parole in the state of Texas, Kevin, until the year 2073.
00:43:54.138 --> 00:43:54.398
Kevin Lowe: Yeah.
00:43:55.458 --> 00:43:58.758
Damon West: 48 more years from the day this recording. But I'm going to tell you something,
00:43:58.878 --> 00:44:01.498
Damon West: Kevin. I'm not worried about being on parole because I'm a coffee bean.
00:44:01.858 --> 00:44:06.058
Damon West: And as long as I'm a coffee bean, the only way I'm going back into a prison
00:44:06.058 --> 00:44:08.158
Damon West: is when I walk in the front gate of a prison.
00:44:08.298 --> 00:44:11.338
Damon West: Every month, somewhere in America, I voluntarily walk into a prison,
00:44:11.718 --> 00:44:14.778
Damon West: voluntarily walk in, I share the story, the message of the coffee bean with
00:44:14.778 --> 00:44:17.958
Damon West: the inmates in there, and I walk out the front gate. A free man today.
00:44:18.618 --> 00:44:23.798
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Damon, you have one of the most...
00:44:24.791 --> 00:44:31.171
Kevin Lowe: Transformative, most empowering stories of anyone I've ever heard.
00:44:31.411 --> 00:44:36.011
Kevin Lowe: And when I listened to you getting to tell it to me firsthand,
00:44:36.011 --> 00:44:43.951
Kevin Lowe: I'm just left literally in awe at what somebody could do inside of a prison
00:44:43.951 --> 00:44:47.371
Kevin Lowe: to make a difference, not just in their life,
00:44:47.551 --> 00:44:50.271
Kevin Lowe: but in the lives of who knows how many.
00:44:50.571 --> 00:44:54.411
Kevin Lowe: You taught people how to read. You taught people how to write.
00:44:54.791 --> 00:45:01.291
Kevin Lowe: And at the same point, you infused in them this mindset of the coffee bean to help others.
00:45:01.391 --> 00:45:03.691
Kevin Lowe: You created a community in the prison.
00:45:04.271 --> 00:45:10.351
Kevin Lowe: How can people take what you've done in a prison and do it in their world today,
00:45:10.751 --> 00:45:13.591
Kevin Lowe: just in their normal life, their neighborhood, their town?
00:45:13.971 --> 00:45:17.771
Kevin Lowe: What can we leave with them today that they can start doing?
00:45:18.271 --> 00:45:20.911
Damon West: Man, that's a great question. Here's the answer to that question.
00:45:21.391 --> 00:45:25.591
Damon West: Look around you. And I don't mean that like in a sense where I'm talking to
00:45:25.591 --> 00:45:28.791
Damon West: a blind guy, tell him to look around because you did this, too.
00:45:29.211 --> 00:45:32.391
Damon West: You did exactly what I'm about to say to everybody else out there.
00:45:32.731 --> 00:45:36.631
Damon West: Look around. You look for ways to serve other people. Find out what your way
00:45:36.631 --> 00:45:38.871
Damon West: is in life to make the world a better place.
00:45:39.211 --> 00:45:44.631
Damon West: How can I best help other people around me and pitch in? Do that.
00:45:45.231 --> 00:45:47.551
Damon West: Find that path for you. You found that path.
00:45:48.271 --> 00:45:51.591
Damon West: This is why you're the inspiration for me. This is why of all the people that
00:45:51.591 --> 00:45:56.031
Damon West: requested to do a podcast with me after Ed's podcast, you're the one I picked
00:45:56.031 --> 00:45:58.311
Damon West: because you're the inspiration for me. You're blind.
00:45:58.611 --> 00:46:02.471
Damon West: You have a physical handicap that would make most people tap out and quit.
00:46:02.971 --> 00:46:06.311
Damon West: But you said, no, I have something more to offer. And I'll put this podcast
00:46:06.311 --> 00:46:10.891
Damon West: together. And I'll reach people because I have something to give to society.
00:46:11.151 --> 00:46:14.191
Damon West: And that's what we all have to do. Find out what you have to put in.
00:46:14.411 --> 00:46:17.091
Damon West: It's not about you. It's about what you can do for other people.
00:46:17.411 --> 00:46:21.031
Damon West: Help other people reach their goals in life. And you don't have to do this on
00:46:21.031 --> 00:46:25.791
Damon West: a global scale like me going around speaking of impact and affect the world
00:46:25.791 --> 00:46:29.291
Damon West: around you first and use positive body language to do that.
00:46:29.791 --> 00:46:33.171
Damon West: Positive body language, positive language, everything you do,
00:46:33.291 --> 00:46:37.511
Damon West: be positive about it because you either infect the world around you with negative
00:46:37.511 --> 00:46:40.951
Damon West: energy or you affect the world around you with positive energy.
00:46:41.191 --> 00:46:44.731
Damon West: So I would remind people out there, man, you have three choices every day.
00:46:45.325 --> 00:46:48.885
Damon West: And that's, you can be the carrot, let life beat you down and make you sad.
00:46:49.185 --> 00:46:52.485
Damon West: And you can be the egg, let life make you hard, make you mad.
00:46:52.645 --> 00:46:56.525
Damon West: Or you can be a coffee bean and change the pot of boiling water into a pot of
00:46:56.525 --> 00:46:59.905
Damon West: coffee. And I believe we all have the power inside of us to change the world around us, Kevin.
00:47:00.445 --> 00:47:05.305
Kevin Lowe: Mr. David West, man, you are an amazing man, a servant leader,
00:47:05.465 --> 00:47:09.065
Kevin Lowe: a change agent, a fricking coffee bean.
00:47:09.385 --> 00:47:12.885
Kevin Lowe: It has been a pleasure to get to have you on the podcast today.
00:47:12.885 --> 00:47:20.665
Kevin Lowe: And for the person who is in awe as much as I am, and they want to stay plugged
00:47:20.665 --> 00:47:23.965
Kevin Lowe: in on your world, they would love to read your books.
00:47:24.105 --> 00:47:26.265
Kevin Lowe: Where is the best place that we can send them?
00:47:26.705 --> 00:47:32.565
Damon West: Yeah, DamonWest.org is my website where people find me for speaking and stuff like that.
00:47:32.565 --> 00:47:39.465
Damon West: And then my social media stuff, Instagram and X, it's at DamonWest7,
00:47:39.605 --> 00:47:43.265
Damon West: D-A-M-O-N-W-E-S-T, at DamonWest7.
00:47:43.985 --> 00:47:48.705
Kevin Lowe: Fantastic. Well, I will be certain that all of that is in the show notes for anybody interested.
00:47:49.365 --> 00:47:53.025
Kevin Lowe: Damon, from the bottom of my heart, man, I appreciate your time today.
00:47:53.225 --> 00:48:00.005
Kevin Lowe: And it's a true, true honor to get to share a minute of your time today. So thank you.
00:48:00.445 --> 00:48:03.545
Damon West: Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate you, man. And thank you, Kevin. Thank you so much for
00:48:03.545 --> 00:48:06.225
Damon West: the opportunity today. And like I said, you're an inspiration to me.
00:48:06.325 --> 00:48:08.205
Damon West: And it was an honor to do your show today.
00:48:09.045 --> 00:48:14.405
Kevin Lowe: Oh, thank you. For you, my friend listening today, I hope you're in awe as much as I am.
00:48:14.865 --> 00:48:19.765
Kevin Lowe: And more than anything, I hope today you don't just leave feeling inspired or
00:48:19.765 --> 00:48:23.545
Kevin Lowe: entertained, but I hope you leave feeling empowered that, you know what?
00:48:23.685 --> 00:48:26.065
Kevin Lowe: If he can do it, then why can't I?
00:48:26.625 --> 00:48:31.625
Kevin Lowe: So take that motivation, that inspiration, and turn it into empowerment to make
00:48:31.625 --> 00:48:34.205
Kevin Lowe: a difference in your life and the life of someone else.
00:48:34.385 --> 00:48:38.265
Kevin Lowe: I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and this is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
00:48:38.525 --> 00:48:39.885
Kevin Lowe: Get out there and enjoy this beautiful day!