We were lucky to catch up with Duncan Kirkwood recently and have shared our conversation below.

Duncan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

This past year in partnership with the Independent Health Foundation and Fostering Greatness Inc., I conducted a 3 and a half day leadership training for 50 Black boys ages 15 to 18 in Western NY called “Unleash Your Greatness” The training consisted of training on leadership, goal setting, empowerment, brotherhood, self care, and tapping into the greatness that we know they each posess. During this training I was able to bring all the lessons I learned from Army Basic Training, joining Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc, and a ton of professional development and resilience training.

The young men were very relectant at first, many of them only attending because their parents forced them to attend. However by the end, the majority of the young men were strongly requesting to stay an additional day. Several parents actually said that the young man that returned to them was so much different from the young man that they sent, and that they were so thankful.

Since the “Unleash Your Greatness” conference we have held monthly workshops with the young men where we visit colleges, learn about careers in trades, and teach them what it takes to become a successful young man.

We are looking to replicate the program in 4 additional cities in 2023. More information and videos from the training can be found at www.DuncanKirkwood.com/Greatness

Duncan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up in the inner city of Buffalo, I should have been dead or in jail, but God had a purpose for my life. My mother pushed me to leave Buffalo after high school because it was so violent in my neighborhood, so I went all the way to Alabama to attend a Historically Black College, Alabama State University in Montgomery. There I really discovered my voice and that I had something special to offer the world. Through multiple leadership roles in student government and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. I learned the value of service to others. This feeling ultimately led me to enlist in the Alabama Army National Guard.

During my time in the military, Soldier depression and suicide reached an all-time high, and in 2012, we actually lost more Soldiers from suicide than in overseas combat. In response, the Army ramped up its support for Soldiers by training officers like me to become Master Resilience Trainers tasked with training Soldiers to become more mentally tough.

After my time in service ended, I took that resilience training and mixed it with some principles on purpose, presence, and self-discovery to publish my book best-selling book Rerouting: Resilience Tools and Tactics in 2020. Since its launch, the book has sold over 10,000 copies across six countries, and I have spoken to over 100 audiences comprising over 140,000 college and high school students from Albany State University in Georgia to the Institute of Technical Education in East Singapore.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

From the time I was 22 years old in 2007 and got elected student government president at Alabama State University until I was 34 in 2019, I had one career goal. I wanted to become an elected official. I had dreamt of it literally a million times. I chose the jobs that would best equip me to become a great statesman. I learned how policy works, and how to whip votes in legislatures. I became a master of parliamentary procedure. I did a ton of community organizing and advocacy and mastered the art of speaking and garnering media attention. And in 2017, a moment presented itself. A long-time county elected official was leaving her seat to run for Mayor, which mean for the first time in years the seat would not have an incumbent running.

I threw my hat in the race and announced my candidacy. Through the campaign, my family turned into a political machine. We had nearly two dozen family members knocking on doors, and another 20 making phone calls daily. We had a fundraising team, we had a social media team, and so on. For a time it felt like we could really win, we were even endorsed by the city newspaper. For a time we believed that a real member of the community who isn’t being propped up by a political force outside the community could win. Unfortunately, we lost. And it felt to so many that maybe it wasn’t possible to actually have the community choose the people that would represent them. That money, special interests, and political bosses would always dictate who could be the representatives.

Two years later we decided to run again for the same seat. This time the election would be even more of an uphill battle running against an incumbent and the job I had at the time told me that if I ran for office I would need to resign my position and quit my job. My wife and I decided that we would never allow anyone to control our dreams and dictate our fate, so I quit the job and went for it. Unfortunately, we lost again, and by an ever bigger margin this time.

But in the time after the election, when I had no job and no prospect, I finally had time to write the book I had always talked about writing when I “had time”. My book Rerouting: Resilience Tools and Tactics was published in March of 2020 and since that time has sold over 15,000 copies and is being used in nearly 10 school districts to build resilience in middle and high school students. The success of my book launched me into a speaking career that has taken me all over the world. I never could have imagined that losing that election after 10 years of prep would be the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

If you are a creative, or entrepreneur, you need to be reading. A LOT !!!! Reading is like our version of going to the gym. Here are some books that have changed my life and helped me to understand how to bring my best self into my journey.

The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle
Stillness Speaks Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth Eckhart Tolle
In Search of the Miraculous PD Ouspensky
The Fourth Way Pyotr Ouspenskii
The Four Agreements Miguel Ruiz
The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell
The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene
The 50th Law Robert Greene and 50 Cent
Freakonomics Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama
The Celestine Prohesy James Redfield
The Kyballion The Three Initiates
The Reality of Being Jeanne de Salzmann

Contact Info:

• Website: www.DuncanKirkwood.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duncankirkwood/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=duncan%20kirkwood%20speaks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncankirkwood/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC79DjvgqkjuLagRtd8n6b-A

Image Credits
I have the rights to all photos