A Profile of K.D. Hardy
K.D. Hardy: Steering others away from being repeat offenders.

video here

Les Brown gets it. So many leaders do not. The speaker and best-selling author who is known as “The Motivator” is in Fayetteville with a team of speakers to try to reach our high school and middle school children, mainly in the city’s minority communities. They will fan out to Westover, E.E. Smith and Terry Sanford high schools, as well as to several middle schools.
Brown and his team spoke last night to a packed house at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Bonnie Doone. Guests filled all the pews and part of the choir stand. One thing Brown understands is that gangsta rap did not always exist, and so cannot be blamed for all the black community’s social problems.Brown believes a revolution in thinking must take place, led by community leaders and parents. The target: reducing violence, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school and drug abuse.

Brown told the approving crowd that he, at age 63, is older than rap. He said criticizing rap and doing nothing is a waste of time. “No one ever built a statue for a critic,” he said, adding that the dominance of rap in young folks’ lives simply means, “the bad people are outworking the good people.” The gospel radio station WIDU arranged Brown’s visit, which is called a “Rise to the Challenge Rally.” The station worked closely with John Smith Jr., a retired educator and coach who was a Westover High principal. Smith shared the church’s pulpit with Brown’s team of seven speakers. Brown sat in the seat normally reserved for the pastor. The Motivator informed the audience later that “7” was his favorite number. One by one, the speakers followed Brown, and with talks that ranged from five to 15 minutes, gave the adults a preview of the messages they will be giving students today. Brown’s stamp was evident on the speakers, who hail from an array of backgrounds. Like their mentor, they each mixed intensely personal stories with positive messages and quotes from sources ranging from the Bible to author George Bernard Shaw and multi-billionaire Warren Buffet. Most important, they showed Brown’s energy — so critical to reaching young folks growing up in a culture awash with powerful and beguiling negative images.

Kerry Hardy, speaking in a thick Southern accent, told of how he went to prison for selling drugs. To a silent audience, he painted the picture of being put in a solitary cell the size of a bathroom. “At night, I could hear men crying and screaming,” he said. “It felt like the room was getting smaller and smaller.” He said things only improved when he changed his way of thinking — thanks to a call from his mother. She later sent him a short letter and 20 books. The letter said that if Nelson Mandela could endure prison for 28 years, her son could do his eight-year sentence. Hardy wound up reading 300 books during the six years he served. One of them, he said, was Brown’s bestseller, “Live Your Dreams.” “I started to feel good about myself,” said Hardy, who is a college graduate. “The books took me from that space I was in.” The audience gave him a standing ovation.

The speakers also gave practical advice, which they encouraged folks to write down. Businessman Wade L. Randolph said when your child has you at your wit’s end, call someone who has done a good job of raising children. Randolph said he called his mother when he was having trouble with his 13-year-old son. Brown, a former state legislator and radio DJ, was raised by his late mother. He was listed as “educable mentally retarded” and was considered the “dumb twin” between him and his brother. He said he began to change when a teacher told him to never use the label again. He saw himself in a new way. Now, he said, he is a speaker with no college degree who conducts seminars for professionals who pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars for his communication tips. He interrupted the story in my head,” Brown said of that long-ago teacher.
Brown said he and his speakers try to do the same thing for today’s young people. “Someone’s opinion of you does not have to be your reality.”