Overcoming Adversity: Inspirational Lessons from the Professor of Perseverance

Because quite possibly, you're going to feel sorry for what he's been through, for what he's had to endure.

But at the same time, when you hear the smile in his voice, when you laugh at his joke, you're going to feel like, oh my gosh, I can't feel sorry for this guy because this guy is living life.

He's making the most out of the hand he was deaf.

My friend, this is episode 254, and this is the story of James Purdue.

What's up, my friend, and welcome to Grit Grace Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Twenty years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind.

And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you.

Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take, well, consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Do you ever feel like there's got to be more to life than this?

Yeah, maybe on the outside your life looks good.

But in reality, you are so unfulfilled with life that you keep thinking that there has got to be something more, that you're meant to be doing more, but you don't know what that is or how to even make it happen.

Well, imagine if it was different.

Imagine if you got to wake up on Monday morning, full of enthusiasm, so excited for the day, because you are finally living in alignment with your life's purpose.

Well, friend, it's possible.

And that is why I created Discover Your Purpose.

My signature one-on-one coaching session where we can dive deep into your life's purpose.

If you are finally ready to make this the year that you start living without your truest potential, well, it's time that you discover your life's purpose.

To learn more, text the word discovery to 55444.

Again, just text the word discovery to 55444.

And with that, I hope you enjoy today's episode.

SPEAKER_00: Well, my mom, she uh divorced before my first birthday, with her with her, I call him just the uh sperm donor, since I've never heard from him.

He never sent a birthday card, nothing like that.

He never even when he was dying on his deathbed, he uh my mom sent word that she would bring the boys up here to meet him before he passed away if he wanted to.

And he never even sent word on his deathbed they don't want to see his boys.

So I just considered him as my sperm donor that put me where I'm at today.

And uh my mom remarried, and the stepfather is the guy that I considered my father.

He would love me when I desperately needed it, and uh, he would bust my butt when I desperately needed it, and to keep me in line, because I was one of them that uh kind of got into mischief a little bit.

I was I was one of them that uh that believed that I was invincible.

You know, I could do a lot of things and I would overcome it and move forward in life.

And yeah, so he was the one that loved me and disciplined me when I needed it and put me where I'm at, and then he ended up dying when I was sixteen, about ten or eleven years after marrying my mom.

And so uh my mom, she raised three boys, and uh, I guess she did pretty good at it.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love it.

Now, now when when he passed away when you were just 16, how did that impact your life?

SPEAKER_00: Tell you what, he had about a year, two year and a half, two years earlier, he had open heart surgery, and at that time they said like one side of his heart was like 90% blockage, and other side was like a hundred percent blockage.

So they had to go in and do this triple bypass at that time, and he came home and never got to go back to work again.

And so for the next year and a half, not till he was sick in bed all the time, he'd get up and go do things, did a little work around the house, but he was told not to overexert because how much blockage was there, and but he did the best he could, but finally he went to the hospital, and I remember I remember the doctor calling and told my mom that uh there's nothing more they can do for him, that uh he was retaining fluid on his uh body and lungs, and said that he could have a

year, he could have a month, he could have a week, said we just don't know.

There's nothing more we can do.

So she goes to the hospital to pick him up to bring him home.

And while they're waiting on the paperwork, the uh lunch lady came in for lunch at the hospital, and he told him, said, No, I'm not gonna eat lunch here.

I'll wait till I get home and eat lunch with my boys.

And so, but I'll drink some of his tea.

And so he reached to grab the tea, and what he did drop dead right there in front of my mother.

So Oh my gosh.

We had to, of course, I was 16 years old, got an older brother 17, he was a year older than me, and then a younger brother at that time, he'd be about eight or nine, something like that.

And, you know, we we all all had to grow up fast so we can help mom with everything.

Tell you what, uh, we'll get a story one day.

We need to get in here and uh we can do a second program, but we need to talk about how my mom is like a modern day Job with all the stuff she's had to go through.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: She's definitely the strongest.

And I hope I hope everybody can say that they have a mother, stepmother, somebody that raised them as a female is I hope they can say that's the strongest woman I've ever met.

And I I can definitely say they were my mom.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I know that is the case with my family as well, my mom and my grandmothers.

SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're mom, grandmother, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: We know us men, we would be nowhere without the women in our life.

SPEAKER_00: You know, I tell you what, it's a shame.

Hey, I just saw some statistics the other night, uh research and everything that uh when men get sick, they truly do get sicker than women.

So when it used to be the woman's going, Oh, I still go cook supper and gotta go whatever, and I got a code and you're doing nothing, and then the men are laying in bed with their code, not doing anything.

And some research actually came out and said that uh men actually do get sicker than women and stuff like that.

So now they take out a woman.

SPEAKER_01: That is so funny.

So that point in your life, back to your your childhood, when when you said that your stepdad had passed away, and and you and your brothers really kind of had to become the men of the house and stuff.

At what point though did did sports enter your life?

Because I know baseball is a big part of your story.

SPEAKER_00: Big, big part, yeah.

Uh actually, I was playing sports, started at uh 10 years old with baseball, and I actually made a team.

My brother, again, was a year older than me, but he wasn't quite athletic.

He didn't make a team, but I did.

And about a week before the season started, then they cut me.

I'm going, what?

10 years old?

I didn't know they can catch you anytime they want to.

And so they cut me.

So the following year, my brother and me had to try out again, and we both made the team this time a different team.

And so uh I got to play two years in Little League, my 11 and 12-year-old leave.

And one of my greatest stories, and let me go back to my father for a second.

He always said, I'll be a great storyteller.

He said, Because she lies so much around here, son, you're gonna be a great storyteller one day.

And he used to call me Jesse James uh because I got in so much mischief.

So uh okay, so but here's one of my but better stories is one day we're getting ready to play the the number one team in the league.

Number one, they hadn't lost a game 13-0.

This is the last game of the season.

They beat the crap out of us the first time we played them.

Uh, but I got to pitch a couple innings and the best player of the league, Tony Goodall.

Hey, Tony Goodall, my buddy, if you ever get to hear this talking about you again.

And so, oh Tony, he he led uh with most home runs in the league, the highest batting average in the league.

He was the best pitcher in the league, undefeated and everything.

Uh, but I got to pitch an inning or two because we're getting beat so bad.

Now, not that at that time I was the hardest thrower, which I wasn't.

I probably threw it so slow and that team was so anxious right ahead, I probably threw them off a little bit.

But I struck old Tony out, and I was one of the first persons to strike him out.

And I'm, yeah, felt good about myself.

So the the last game of the year we're playing them.

They're 13-0.

We're six and seven, I think.

Six and seven.

So we're playing them.

And so they decided I was gonna pitch the game.

And I'm going, yeah, well, it rained half today, and so the coach is calling, going, hey, rest up for the arm, but right now they're saying we're still gonna play.

And I said, Okay.

Then he goes, Well, they I think they're gonna cancel it.

Then he calls and said, Nope, they said it's still on.

And so uh I'm resting, waiting for the game.

But come to find out, our league was the only league in the city that played.

All the softball teams canceled.

The other across town, little league, they canceled theirs.

So everybody in Galton is there watching me pitch against the number one team in the thing, including the team that cut me two years earlier.

And so I end up again, I didn't throw hard at that age, so I'm sure I threw slow enough and they're over swinging and everything.

And but we end up beating them four to nothing, and I pitched a no-hitter against the number one team.

And the team, the team that cut me again was going, we should have kept him.

We should have kept him.

We should have kept him.

And so and I got to strike Tony out again, so I was the only person that struck him out twice.

Again, I know it's because I probably threw it so slow, and he's up there thinking home run, the home run, boom, but uh strike him out twice.

So wow.

SPEAKER_01: That is one heck of a story.

I love it.

I love it now.

So now did you continue being a pitcher all through your your career in baseball?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this little league team, but I didn't pitch any of my first year as an 11-year-old, but a 12-year-old, they wanted people to try out for pitching, so I tried out and I was left-handed, and so when a left-hander throws, they got that little natural screwball.

And so, yeah, so they ended up giving me the opportunity.

And so, yeah, from uh the rest of my career I pitched or played first base or outfield.

Yeah, and so you know, I was one of them growing up wanted to be a professional athlete because when my dad died, uh we weren't what you were called poor, but we were knocking on the door poor.

And so um, like um at 16 when he passed away, my mom, if the roof leaked from rain, I'm the one who had to get up on the roof and find it and patch it the best we could because she couldn't afford a roofer.

And here in Tennessee, the weather gets kind of nippy a little bit.

So if under our house the pipes froze, and I'm the one at 14 degrees is underneath there, trying to find where the pipe is froze to get it thawed out so we have water for the um winter and auto mechanics, everything, she just couldn't afford it, so I had to learn to do all that uh growing up.

My older brother, he wasn't mechanically inclined, so I had to do it.

And younger brother, he's too young to do all that.

And so I wanted to be this professional athlete.

That way I can buy mom this new house, not have to worry about all that going on, buy her new car, get my brothers new cars.

And I even told people, you know, back when I was growing up, they used to have a magazine that you could order, and you can get a mail-ordered bride.

And so I was going to get I was gonna get a mail-ordered groom for my mother is was was my plan.

So that's so that that was my plan was to uh get this professional deal to help the family.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I think I mean, let's say real quick before we continue, how much that said about you at a young age that that was your dream, not all yourself to buy yourself a big house and fancy cars only, but literally that you wanted to take care of your family.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.

I mean, even give my grandmother something.

And I've told people, so I don't know what I got her because you know, grandparents, they seem to have everything.

Uh but uh I'm sure I would have got her something.

SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, I love it.

So we we talked about you being like 11, 12 playing baseball.

I assume that you continued then playing baseball all the way up through high school?

SPEAKER_00: High school, I was our most valuable player my junior and senior year.

And even today, I'm the only person that's won the MVP two years.

Oh, wow.

Use it's a one and done and used it as a senior to get it.

But again, the but the funny thing is when I got it my junior year, the guy before me was a senior, but his junior year, he got the MVP, and he came back as a senior, and so I beat him out.

And then of course I got it my senior year.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Oh wow, that's pretty darn cool.

SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm the only one that, and and of course I ended up getting a scholarship to go to college.

And I was one of them that uh I had a strong 2.0 GPA to go to college.

Now, when I say strong 2.0, I mean, yeah, I just barely got that 2.0.

I was one of them that the teachers always said, James, you're smarter than this, you ought to be putting more into it.

And I'm going, no, you don't need to do all this when you're playing baseball.

And so, mom and dad, mom and dad, you're smarter than this, you need to do.

Well, but you don't need to do all this when you're in baseball.

And so, uh, so I never did put forth what I should have.

And then I'm one of them nowadays I wished I would have, so I would be better prepared when I got injured and went to play baseball.

I mean uh to college.

Because then I had to learn to study all over again because of what I didn't really learn in my high school and and middle school years.

SPEAKER_01: Of course, of course.

You know what, man, something always comes to bite us in the butt later in life, you know?

SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, and it doesn't it sometimes uh uh doesn't have to be a big bite, but yeah, it comes back and lets you know that uh things could have been a little different.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

So so talk to me about leaving town, going away to to college.

Your college was it far away from home?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was about two hours.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Two hours, two and a half, something like that.

It wasn't wasn't real far, but it was far enough I couldn't come home get mom's home cooking every night.

And so um so I ended up going to what was called uh back then Martin Methodists.

It was a two-year college.

And uh now they're a four-year school, but uh Martin Methodist then.

And so I was uh in college for a whole two weeks before I had my injury.

Um when I went to college, I went I went for three reasons.

One to get drafted so I can go to pros so I can you know do my thing.

And number two was to meet all the women I can meet, and number three to party.

And it didn't matter what order it was, it depended on what time of day it was.

If it was if it was noon to five, well, then my priority was baseball.

But if it was seven to midnight, then it was meeting girls and partying.

So depending on time of the day was my priority uh at that time.

And so uh I was in school for two full weeks and I got to play one college game, and I mean I don't hate telling the story, but I don't want to say I can bragging.

But again, I was the only freshman starting.

The he had all his players from the year before coming back, and so I got to play as the one freshman, the only freshman starting, and got had a pretty good game after the game.

I remember my mom saying, Hey, come on home, because we played in Nashville, so we were 40 minutes from home then.

She says, Come on home tonight, I'll cook you a you know a dinner and stuff, spend a night, and I'll drive you back down to college the next day.

And I said, Mom, there's no way of going.

I said, Today was a good day.

This is a first step towards our goal to be this professional athlete.

And I said, Mom, nothing can stop us.

You know, and then in looking back, you know, hindsight, you know, when I said nothing can stop me, you know, that's kind of like that dude on the Titanic, the captain, you know, the guy, and he says, even God himself can sink this ship.

And I I tell people, I say, you know, watch how you say can't stop you and stuff.

I then I said, but God didn't need to stop the Titanic.

He didn't need to stop the ship.

The iceberg did it for him.

And so I guess so the very next day, a bunch of people on campus, I say a bunch, you know, were playing a football game, pickup game, no pads, no helmets, nothing like that.

But we were playing tackle.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: We'd been out there probably two hours, and my team got the ball back, and I said, Hey, I'm done playing for today.

We've been after about two hours.

I said, I need to get my stuff ready for class.

And then, you know, hindsight looking back, I'm going, get ready for class.

Ta, you wasn't taking anything for class.

You were just showing up just so you, you know.

But I said, I need to get things ready for class.

So I left the huddle.

I got maybe 10 feet away, and then I heard someone say, We need someone to run the ball.

I stop and turn around.

Now, Kevin, a little shameless plug here.

I said, I'll come back for one more play, which hint, shameless plug, is the name of my first book, One More Play.

And it talks about how growing up like we're talking today, my little memoir.

And so uh they hand the ball off to me.

I broke through the line, broke a couple of tackles, scored a touchdown, and I was turning towards everyone, plays over with, right?

You know, so scored a touchdown, plays over.

So I'm putting the ball down, turning towards everyone, and on the right side of me, and something in my peripheral vision, I see something.

I have no idea what it is, I just see something.

And then I hear I feel contact up high by shoulder area, and then I hear a loud pop, and both of us go to the ground.

Now I'm thinking my collarbone broke because he hit me up high on my right side, and again, I was left-handed.

And the guys all I tackled him, attacked him, said, Yeah, after the play was over with, I said, Man, I'm gonna get up and kick your butt right now.

So I didn't use the word butt.

And uh so I now figure, you know, again, because I grew up thinking I was invincible, I beat this guy with one hand, my left hand, I'm left hand didn't get my left side didn't get hurt.

It was my metal collarbone broke on my right side.

And so I got up and well, I tried to get up, and when I lift my head, nothing followed.

My shoulders didn't come up, my arms didn't come up, my legs didn't come up.

And so I put my head back down, and then the guy that tagged me says, Well, does your touchdown count?

I said, Man, when I really get up now, I said, asking the dumb question like if it still counts.

And tried again to get up, again, nothing followed.

And then I did the old, you know, people say three's a charm.

So I put my head down, took a deep breath, tried to get up a third time, nothing followed.

And then I knew instantly I was paralyzed.

Wow.

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01: How fast everything can change.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you hear people say in the blink of an eye, well, in the blink of an eye, in the break of a neck, uh, because the pop end up hearing was he broke my neck.

Okay.

And that made the spinal cord injury.

And so, yeah, and that's how I got paralyzed.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, wow, wow, wow.

What happened?

Do you remember at that moment?

I mean, did did everybody start coming over and kind of chaos pursuits?

SPEAKER_00: I just remember staring at the at the sky and the trees where the wind's blowing the leaves up top, because I knew they're gonna have to get an ambulance.

So I'm and you always hear, don't move, you'll make things worse.

Uh I couldn't move anyway, so but so we didn't have to worry about that part.

But there was one guy there, and I don't know what they called it back in 1983, but he was trying to be a paramedic, EMT, whatever they called him back then.

And all of a sudden he's taking control of everything.

He told someone to run to his room, get his pen and paper out, bring a blanket, bring his stethoscope, bring his blood pressure cup, and I mean he's out there before the ambulance even getting there, and then he's telling them my blood pressure and temperature, and he's telling me to be calm, don't uh, you know, over.

I mean, he gives he gave him a bunch of information to give to them before they got there.

So I would love to meet him again, but I didn't get his name or anything.

But I would love to meet that guy to thank him for that.

I'm just laying laying there.

I did I wasn't knocked unconscious, had pain in my neck, but it wasn't pain.

I mean, it wasn't pain that made you cry, but it was pain.

Yes.

And so um they ended up taking me to the course to the local hospital.

Part of my story there is um one of my reasons I went to school was to meet these girls.

And so I met this one girl a couple of days before all this took place, and she was going to school to be a nurse.

And so we're at the I'm at the hospital, I'm out in the hallway, they've done x-rays and stuff.

And this girl, she comes by and she looked at me and says, Hey, James, how you doing?

I forgot her name now.

And I said, Oh, yeah, I'm not doing too good, so I'm paralyzed.

She says, What?

I said, Yeah, my neck's broke.

And she goes, huh?

And then she looks at the chart and everything.

And um, yep.

So one of the reasons I went to meet the girls, and here she was working at the hospital there.

Yeah.

And so she ended up uh, you know, staying to talk to me a little bit because then from the local hospital, they transferred me back at the Nashville to St.

Thomas Hospital.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

Wow.

Now, during this time, I mean, are you thinking to yourself that this is temporary?

Or did you know this is serious?

SPEAKER_00: Well, I knew it was serious because again, I couldn't get up and move at all.

So I knew it was serious.

But again, I had this invincibility that when they told me, because I remember asking the doctor in Nashville, I said, How bad is it?

And he said, bad enough you'll never walk again.

Possibly not move anything from your neck down.

I said, that's pretty damn bad, isn't it?

And he said, Yeah.

But again, I had this invincibility.

I thought, oh yeah, right, I'll show y'all.

I'll be walking.

Now, figure my baseball career was over with, but I thought, I'll be walking.

And yep, so that invincibility kept kicking in to do more and try more from there.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow.

So what ended up being your long-lasting injury?

Did you ever regain movement from the neck down?

SPEAKER_00: I had my injury on everybody else's what they call 9-11, September 11th.

So my 9-11 was in 1983, where the country was 2001.

So I own that before they do.

All right.

Yes.

Now, not that I'm bragging that anybody's 9-11 is worse than anyone else or or not as bad.

I'm not saying, I'm not comparing, but that was September 11th.

I heard on Halloween.

I first moved a muscle on my leg.

And so uh I get had a nurse come in and feel I said, moving this muscle on my leg.

I said, I can tell you what I'm doing.

I said, Here I'm going to tighten this muscle up.

And I tightened it up and I said, now I'm relaxing it.

Tighten it up, relaxing.

And she confirmed it.

I was moving them, yeah.

And so um I was in the hospital for like St.

Thomas for like three months.

The same day I was released, they sent me to Birmingham to a rehab that's geared more for spinal cord injuries.

And I thought, well, if they're specialist, and I'm already moving my legs because then I was really moving them, but they're so weak I couldn't stand on them or anything.

So I started thinking, oh shoot, if they're specialists, I'll be walking before I get out of there.

And their job, I didn't understand it then because I was young and dumb.

We didn't get along as well because I thought we were going to be working on my legs.

They were trying to teach me how to dress and bed and eat and be a quadriplegic and use the chair all the time.

And so we didn't quite get along.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_00: Years later, I understand what they're doing is because uh rarely do a spinal cord injury get up and walk again.

They may get these movements and things, but to walk efficiently without struggling, it's easier for the wheelchair and learn to do.

So I didn't I didn't understand it then.

So, but to get to where I'm at, when I got home from there, this home health physical therapy came, and he really did take an interest in with my legs and helping me get strong.

He even brought in his own homemade parallel bars to put in my living room.

And we got where I needed help standing, but once I was standing, and these parallel bars are like eight or nine feet, I don't think they were quite ten feet.

So I was able to, after plenty of practice, able to make a trip down, turn around, and come back.

And I think I was able to do it two or three times with parallel bars.

My mom and brothers would have to help me stand up.

So then had a friend down the road, his grandmother, and I said, Let's go down and see if they can I can borrow his grandmother's walker, see if I can do anything.

It took me half a day because I forgotten how to stand up.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: You know, when you when you stand up, you lean forward to get your center of gravity over your knees and to help stand.

Here I am trying to stand up straight as a board, trying to, and I'd make my older brother sit down.

So I'd watch him, then I'd say, stand up.

Then I'm watching, sit down, do it again.

All right, stand up.

And so I finally figured out how to stand up uh on my own.

And so eventually we got where I was able to stand up on my own, walk with a walk of about a hundred feet, and that was it.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

SPEAKER_00: About a hundred feet.

So that's what I tell people say, you know what a doctor said I'll never walk again.

I made a lyre out of him for 10 minutes.

It's only the 23 hours and 50 minutes he was correct.

And so so, but that was good for me to be able to stand and stretch and let blood circulate, and I'm a big boy, so it's easier for me to stand to transfer than to do the other way, just uh sliding and everything.

And so it it was great that I had developed that, even though it wasn't fully functional walking.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Now, approximately how long was that after your accident?

SPEAKER_00: I was doing that, it was about a year.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Okay.

We would we would have uh RR, you know, when that again home health therapist came in.

Uh Dr.

Udot, I remember him, he was he was probably 150 then.

And so uh uh but he he's the one that took interest and really helped us.

So whenever people come visit, I I would make them do uh exercise with me.

That way I can exercise and they can see what we're doing.

And we have these arm weights and do his arm exercises, and and so we pretty much started our own therapy program from there.

Yeah.

And so it took about a year for me to do that consistently, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, at some point in time, you would end up getting out of the house and going back to college, correct?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I figured that with even, you know, with wheelchair and you know, I was able to stand and do and everything again.

That the I of course I've never met anybody with spinal cord injury.

I remember going to school and there was one kid that was in a power chair and he had muscular dystrophy.

And I remember talking with him while we were in school some, but I never met any other real spinal cord injury, all except for uh JT.

Let me go back to JT real quick.

When I'm laying on the ground trying to get up after that football hit, after the third time, I started thinking of JT.

JT's this fella that is my grandfather when I was 12, 13, 14 years old, we used to go visit him in a nursing home.

And one day I went to go visit my grandfather, and about two rooms before we got to my grandfather's, uh, heard this one guy go, Hey buddy, come here for a minute.

And so I go into the room and I met JT.

Well, come to find out, JT, he was in his mid-30s and uh he'd had a car accident that broke his neck and he was totally paralyzed from the neck down.

He asked me to help uh if I'd hold a cup with the straw in and water so he can get something to drink.

So when I'm laying on the thing, I'm thinking, oh great, I'm gonna be in a nurse home the rest of my life, like JT at the age of 19.

It was my first thought coming towards all this when I realized I was paralyzed.

Later on, you know, we did our own physical therapy, Dr.

Odot, and everything like that.

And so uh I just decided when things were going good that if I was gonna have any life, I need to go back to college and really get my degree.

And I'm going, you know, I didn't study that much uh growing up.

And when I first went to college, it was just to get out of the house.

Yeah.

Get away from mom, get away from my brothers, get away from them, meet new people, talk to new people, different people.

That's uh I'd maintain my C average, okay, maintain the C average.

So then I ended up quitting a couple of years.

And again, I'm thinking if if you're gonna do anything, you gotta go out, you got to get something.

So there's a vocational training in Tennessee, and I'm sure uh all the states have a vocational training.

And this here is uh bookkeeping.

So I went and took their bookkeeping course and passed and everything, got certified as a bookkeeper, but then I was going, I don't want to sit there and do all that.

And so but it was good for me that I was able to, I made all A's but one B.

And it was good for me to go, well, if you can do this there, you can go past college.

You can do better than you do on the C's.

And so when I went back to college, this time was more serious to really graduate.

And about uh, I don't know, a couple of months beforehand, I was actually working at a travel agency, and one of the people came in was one of the professors at the local college, it's a two-year school, and she came in and we got to talking, and her day was uh was Dr.

Aminette now.

She was Miss Aminette then, wasn't a doctor at that time.

I said, Yeah, I thought about going back to college at uh at Vault State.

I said, but I don't want to go do all that paperwork and stuff and try to figure out what's going on.

And she says, she says, what?

And I said, Yeah, thought about it, but I just don't want to get caught up with all that all that paperwork.

And then she says, she knew my name and everything.

She said, What's your social security number?

I gave it to her.

She comes back the very next day and she had my schedule made up for the next three semesters from from the spring.

I never took a summer class, but if I did these in the summer class and then I do these in the fall, she says, You can graduate in a year.

She went and figured out all that for me, and I was going, man, if she did all that for me, I got at least try.

I can't I can't let her waste her time.

And so the greatest advice my older brother gave to me, he said, All the determination, all the hard work, everything you put forward in baseball, now this is your time to do the exact same thing with your studies.

And so um like that.

So I decided on my very first semester, I was gonna make it as hard as possible.

That would be if I passed all of them, that would be a sign to me that I'm serious about doing this.

So I took all these hard classes, and one of them was a science class, and uh his name was Dr.

Bamer, and I heard stories about Dr.

Bamer, how tough he was, and I thought that's good because I wanna, if if I'm serious about this, if I can pass him, then uh that tells me I can do the other stuff.

And so uh took the very first test I took with Dr.

Bamer, and I get it back, and I'm going, he puts on the board before he passed out the test, see how he did.

He puts on the board how many people made A's on the test, and then he put a zero, and I'm going, Oh, well, I did study, but I would expect him better, but but I'm not an A person, I can understand that.

Then he put a B up there, five people.

I said, Oh, only five.

Well, I know I'm not one of the five.

Then he put a C and he put how many people, and I said, Oh, that's probably me, because I did study.

And he said, I'm a C guy.

And then he put how many D's and how many F's.

And um, so we're going through, so he passed out the test back to everybody.

And I look over next to me, there's this one guy over there, and I see he failed the test.

Uh, he didn't see me see his paper, and so he got in that.

So I got him going, oh man.

So I got mine back and look at it.

Well, I'm one of the I'm one of the five that made a B.

Woohoo! So now it's telling me, yeah, you're serious about doing this, and uh to get this done.

And so um we go outside of class, and this guy that was sitting that I saw on his paper, he didn't know I saw it, and he asked me, he said, How'd you do on the test?

And now I'm feeling about as proud as a peacock, and I go, Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm one of them five I got a bee.

Like I make bees all the time, you know.

And uh and so I'm I'm proud of myself, so yeah.

So knowing knowing this guy got devs.

So then I turn to him and said, Hey, buddy, um, how'd you do?

Well, he didn't tell me how he did, but he did say, I believe that if you believe in the Lord, he'll provide.

And I said, Well, I mean, smack me if I'm wrong, man, but I believe the Lord's provided these books, so maybe you need to start studying.

Like, that's oh boy, he didn't like it.

And so so, yep.

So I ended up uh getting a B out of Dr.

Baymer's class, and like in that uh made me realize that um I'm capable of doing better in C, but I had to study, study, study.

For another example, I had his history teacher for the midterm.

It took me four days, and I didn't study it.

I memorized like 40 pages of information, and that's not studying, it's just memorizing.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_00: Okay.

So right before the test, midterm, met this girl and I said, Hey, uh, how do you get to study?

She says, uh, I studied about an hour before I got here.

I said, an hour, and I'm going thinking to myself, good luck to you.

Like, that's what I'm thinking.

I was like, because I put four days in memorizing.

Of course, she said study, right?

Study, not memorizing.

And so took the test and we got her returns back.

I got a 94 on mine for memorizing, but it still got me the 94 and A.

And so I saw a girl and said, knowing she studied for one hour, said, How'd you do?

She says, I got a 90.

I go, a 90 for studying for one hour?

Like that.

So I started thinking, I got four extra points because I memorized for four extra days.

Like that.

And so uh, so yeah, that's how I ended up going through college first until I really learned how to study is just memorizing everything.

And it got me through.

So uh tell people that um when I graduated high school, I was a 2.0.

When I got done with the two-year degree, I was a 2.6.

I'm already 0.6 ahead of high school.

Like then I got my bachelor's degree, and it was a 3.1.

So working my way on up.

And then I got my master's degree, a 3.9.

And I told people, I said, Man, the higher the education, the the stronger I'm getting.

About 15 years later, I finally go back to work with my doctorate degree.

A friend of mine was working on his.

He said, James, you need to go get it.

I don't need to get it, I don't care to get it.

And I was coaching basket girls' basketball and teaching, and I didn't have time.

But then there was a position open in high school, and I went interviewed for those two positions, it was two positions, and I didn't get either one of the positions, but my assistant got both of the positions.

She got one, she got one and didn't like it, didn't like, and it was at our hometown where we both grew up, but she didn't like the the way the the head coach of the varsity, these for ninth grade coaching jobs, that was just interfering in her practice.

And she, after about two months, she quit and got the other job.

And I'm going, man, I've been doing this for 12, 13 years.

I won eight championships and undefeated uh you know six times.

And I'm going, how'd she get both of them?

And I didn't get either one of them.

So after that, I said, Bruce, what do I need to do to get in that doctor program?

Because I'm fed up now.

Just get out of the school system, let's go do something and teach at college and forget all this.

And so so I went back to my doctorate, and remember, Eric, the grade GPA had gone up and up and up.

And so even my doctorate, my my my master was a 3.9.

So I even got a 4.0 with my doctorate.

And I said, man, every time I go up a level, man, I get better grades.

So, but but that's that's not because I was any smarter or anything.

I learned to play the game.

That's it.

But I would tell anybody going into college, going to a trade school, learn to play the game.

All right, you don't have to agree with the professor saying, what your teacher's saying, but if this is what they want, you give back to them what they want.

Don't argue with them.

Don't you just don't intercede what you think is the best answer.

If they're looking for this, you give it right back to them.

So I just I I just had learn to play the game.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wise, wise words.

Um so I'm curious, James, what made you get into teaching and coaching?

What what led you to that that career path?

SPEAKER_00: One of my big physical therapies for me was my brother, I mean, he's just great, to get me back on the baseball field as a coach.

This way I can still be involved in baseball, I can coach, help the youth become better, not only athletes, better ball players, but better men, you know, out there to teach them to be respectful, teach them to be whatever.

And, you know, I learned, especially I learned in when I got into middle school teaching and coaching, and I was coaching girls' basketball team, and we'd won a state championship one time, and I learned, especially then, that these players would do almost anything for their coach, but then they would second guess their own parents.

And so the parent would come up to me and say something, and then I'd say, well, I'll have a little talk with them, and then I'll go talk to them about how they need to be more respectful to mom and dad and how you need to be said, because I'm only gonna be your coach for only a couple years, you got to deal with mom and dad the rest of your life, and you've got to learn to love them and and stuff.

And I said, You don't have to be eye to eye.

And I mean, just give them advice all I did.

But because the coach said so, they were more apt to do that.

And then I would tell them, say, now I know you like the mother would come say something and say, I know you had a problem with mom a little bit, but I'm expecting uh you to go home and tell your mother you love her and give her a big hug.

And uh said, and I will be asking your mom if you did that.

And I said, now you don't go tell her, Coach Perdue says, I gotta do this.

No, you don't do that.

You do it on your own, okay?

But I will be asking, and sometimes I would ask, sometimes I wouldn't, you know, just but yeah, they found it out to to be a positive role model, to help them all become better people.

Again, keeping me in the uh loop with baseball and uh I ended up learning the basketball.

I was doing baseball for a while and just kept realizing it's just too darn hard for wheelchairs, especially me being a quadriplegiac, I can't push my brothers having to push me across the field and back and everything.

And um, I was going, man, it's just just too hard to be a baseball.

And when I got into the middle school, I helped coach the basketball team because the guy that was head coach, him and I went to high school together, and we were both on the baseball team, so I already knew him.

And I said, hey, I don't know anything about basketball, other than you put the ball in the goal, you get points, and if you hit too hard, you get a file.

Other than that, I don't know anything.

I said, But I said, maybe I can come on and be your conditioning coach, help him condition before the games and stuff.

And he was great, let me come in and help.

But the same year I wanted to be the baseball coach with the high school, and so that he was great.

He let me come in and help them, but I was going, man, it's just too much work for these people getting me on and off the field.

And I said, I've learned once you get into school building, it's all easy from basketball once you get into building.

And so I ended up uh cutting my ties with baseball and spending more time with the basketball learning.

Two years after I started, the the guy that was coaching with and went to school high school, he says, Hey man, I'm putting, I'm giving up basketball.

It's all yours next year.

I said, What?

I said, I gotta learn more than this.

And so another guy that I'd met at school, him and I become co-coaches.

No head coach, no assist.

We both respect each other and co-coached.

And so we had a run of winning like seven or eight championships, like 12, 14 years.

We were in the championship game and all of them but three times.

We didn't win them all in the county, but we ended up playing them.

And like I said, we won one state championship together.

So that uh again, just the it was more for me at the beginning as therapy that I could still do something with the baseball and being out there helping.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

I love it.

Now, now were you teaching at the same time or just coaching?

SPEAKER_00: Teaching and coaching.

Okay.

Well, years later they passed it where they would let I know other c uh like California in that area, you don't have to teach at school.

You can coach at schools.

And here in Tennessee, you had to teach uh to be the coach.

Uh now they passed it where they can have volunteer coaches.

Or paid coaches that don't have to be in the classroom now.

And I wish you had had that because then I wouldn't have cared about teaching.

I just wanted to do the teaching.

So for me to be able to coach, I had to teach.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

So you you talked about going back and getting your doctorate degree from there.

Did you go teach in in college?

SPEAKER_00: No, uh a lot of like you said, sometimes life comes around and bites us again.

And what had happened is about a year, year and a half before I went back.

Again, remember I was able to stand and transfer and everything like that.

And so we're getting ready for the first day of class to go back.

And I had my shoes underneath my dresser drawer.

Well, I went to pull the shoes out that morning before I went, and I'll go, Dang, there's a spider web in there.

So I got a rag out and wiped it out, thinking, I mean, I didn't see no spider come running out or anything.

I just figured they did their thing and then left.

And apparently there was a baby spider in the shoe and it bit me uh brown recluse on the bottom of my foot and then I'll be getting a sword about the size of a tennis ball.

And all that dead tissue on me from where the poison from that bite was in there.

So they had to go cut all that dead tissue out, and then now I had to let new skin regrow.

And so they told me, don't stand on my foot.

It would break the new tissue growing.

So after that, you know, the four to six months of not standing, I lost the strength to stand.

So now I need help getting into bed.

Getting I can get out of bed.

I just couldn't get into bed to get into the shower and out of the shower, to get in the car, out of the car, because I was used to standing and doing everything.

And so now I'm now I'm feeling like a burden that here my families have to come do more work for me.

And I was living them on home independently, you know, they're doing their thing and I'm doing my thing.

I'm driving to school, driving to work, driving to stores, and again, doing everything independently.

But then after that, I needed help to to get dressed because I couldn't stand up to pull my pants up.

So they're having to pull up uh when I'm leaning back and forth and stuff in my chair.

And so I felt like a burden to them, and I got to be real depressed.

During that time, though, my younger brother, now he was a functional alcoholic.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: He drank, but he would do his work.

He was an auto mechanic, had his own business, and so he would work all day, then come home and drink, go to work and drink.

One day we were noticing that his skin was turning yellow and his eyes yellow, going jaundice, and so uh got him to go to the hospital and they kept him in there for about a week.

And they finally ended up telling them that if they if he continued drinking the way he was, they'd give him a 10% chance to live five more years.

Okay, so uh he tried coke turkey, quit drinking, and one of his good buddies couldn't drink alone, got my brother back to drinking, and so he says I couldn't drink alone.

So when uh he was in the hospital again, my younger brother, I remember seeing this guy, but I just visited him when I was coming back into the parking garage, and this guy got him back to drinking.

He said, James, you need any help getting in your car?

I said, I don't need any help from you, man.

He said, I'm afraid you'll kill me.

And he, what?

I said, You know that Andy was told not to drink because it's gonna kill him.

And I said, Here you are because you were too insecure, you couldn't do your own thing.

You drug him back into it, and he says, Well, if I didn't give it to him, someone else is going to.

I said, Well, then I'd be yelling at them, not you.

And I said, and and going on, and of course he left and everything.

And there's a bunch of people blame this same guy for uh killing Andy, basically, getting back into it.

Well, but during the time when he was in the hospital, they he's uh again, he's a mechanic, car on uh vehicles, and he had an ulcer in his stomach and a hernia, and they told him uh don't pick up anything heavy so you don't bust a hernia or your ulcer to make things worse.

And so one night I couldn't get into bed, so I called him, and mom brought him out here, and Amy helped me in bed, and that same night he died.

And so I've already been depressed that I'm a burden for people because I can't do it by myself now.

And here he is helping me in bed because they told him not to pick up anything heavy, helped me in bed.

He died that same night, so I felt responsible for his death.

And I don't know, maybe five months later, I I attempted suicide.

And at that time, again, I was going to school.

I was still coaching, I was teaching, coaching, at that time going uh working on my doctoral degree, so all this, and then him feeling death, and then me uh him dying, and and then me feeling a burden and everything just come crashing down.

So I attempted suicide three times in three days.

That's how bad I wanted out.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

How how cruel life can be sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it's not like uh our family hadn't been through enough, you know.

Exactly.

And then want to add, you know, this burden onto us.

And so um uh and I tell people, you know, it's a serious thing with suicide.

Hey, anybody if you're if you're going through and you think you're suicidal and you think something's going, you think you're gonna attempt something, you're gonna that new number is 988, I think.

You just double 988 or text 988 and you can get someone at Suicide Hotline to that you can talk to and help with.

Hey, you don't have to tell them your real name.

You can tell them your name is James Purdue, my name, uh, but be honest with your story so they can know how to help you, okay?

Yeah but yeah, I think it's 988, so anybody you're going through anything, please look for that help.

I didn't.

Okay, I was so down and out, and I didn't I didn't care to look.

But please, if you you're anybody out here listening, 988, that you can text it or you can call it, and it'll take you straight to them helplines.

So what happened is the well the first two days I took Sudafed and Benadrils, thinking it would make me go to sleep, and then that that'd just be it, be done with.

Took first day two packs of Pseudafeds, and it says on the package, do not operate heavy machineries, causes drowsiness.

And I thought, well, if you take drowsiness on one pill, hey, it's really going to drowse me, you know, after you take 48 pills.

And uh I don't know if uh God was looking after me, being overweight, whatever.

All I do was sleep and wake up with a headache.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

SPEAKER_00: Wow.

And the next day, next day is Super Bowl Sunday.

Super Bowl Sunday, and the Giants are playing the undefeated Patriots.

The Patriots win, they'll be the second team in history in the NFL to go undefeated.

And so I ended up calling that Sunday to uh Walgreens or Walmart or one of them.

Of course, lied to them, and I didn't tell them any other thing other than hey, uh got insomnia.

I had a hard time sleeping, you had anything I'd take?

And they said, Yeah, get some Benadryl.

I said, Okay.

So uh had and I only had enough money to get one pack of Benadryl and took it.

All I did was go to sleep and wake up seeing that the Giants had beat the undefeated Patriots.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

So you though you took the whole box of Benadryl?

SPEAKER_00: Well, I took, like I said, the night before, took two packs, 48, uh is in 24 is in a pack.

So it took two packs, 48 pills of Pseudafed, and the yeah, the next day I'll have enough to buy one pack, so it took 24 Benadrils, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Wow, wow, wow.

So what changed, James?

SPEAKER_00: Well, the very next day, and of course, now this is on Monday, you know, because that was Super Bowl Sunday.

So Monday, over the weekend, I called a bunch of, well say a bunch of five or six teachers I uh enjoyed working with.

So I left messages over the weekend at their work at the school.

That way, by the time Monday got here, I would be dead.

Well, I'm still alive because all impills didn't work with me.

And so now 5:30 and 6 in the morning, I'm getting 7 o'clock.

I'm getting these phone calls from these teachers because I thank them for being friends and everything like that.

And they're worried about me, the principal calls, and so I'm not having to lie to them, say, oh, you're just worrying too much.

I'm just taking time off and trying to get my health right, and said, um, y'all just looking at the things wrong wrong way and lying to them and everything.

So once I got off the phone with them, I go out in my garage, because now I don't have any money to go buy anything else.

So I go in my garage in my van and start the van, and I get out of my wheelchair and lay on the van floor so I can suck the carbon monoxide.

And I get out of the wheelchair, that way, if I feel bad or sick, I don't leave the van.

So if I'm laying on the floor, I can't get up and go.

And so I'm laying there for two hours sucking in carbon monoxide, and then all of a sudden the engine starts clack and clattering and going on and off, and and uh because the thing is full of carbon monoxide in the garage, it has to have that regular oxygen to run with those sensors today.

And so I'm thinking, oh great.

I said, now I'm not gonna die, but I'm gonna end up having brain damage from sucking this stuff in, and now I'm gonna be worse on everybody else.

So then I just started just huffing as hard as I can to get as much as I can in.

And um, next thing I know, somebody had come to visit me and they found me in the van and they had paramedics there, and they revived me.

And apparently they told them that about 10 more minutes I would have been dead.

So they take me to the hospital, put me in the hyperbaric chamber, and there they're in there for like four hours where they push in the carbon monoxide out of my body and oxygen into the body for four hours in the hyperbaric chamber.

I'm telling you, Kevin, you live through a suicide.

Not only people think you're crazy, they make you see a psychiatrist.

So now I gotta see a psychiatrist for you for a while.

And uh, but it ended up being the best thing for me to be uh being with him, that here I can open up to someone that I I didn't want to put burden on my mom and older brother about what's going on with Andy dying that I feel like I killed him, but I can open up to someone stranger that knowing he wasn't gonna judge me, he wasn't going.

And so I saw him for a year, and he's the one that finally said, James, for whatever reason, God didn't take you.

And so you're here to share your story to help inspire other people.

And he got me into the public speaking, which eventually got me doing a YouTube channel, which eventually got me doing a podcast, so we can help spread messages of other people, providing hope to other people around the world.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Wow.

Now, is that what also brought you to write your book?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he told me he said, well, one yeah, one thing he said, uh again, you need to write your story, this one book, one more play.

Of course, when I I didn't have the title at that time, but he's the one that told me to write that book.

That way, uh, you know, if you don't get to talk to people, people can get your book.

And I'm going at that time, I'm going, I'm not a writer.

I don't know.

And uh, here's a a miracle in itself, Er Kevin.

It took me 12 years to write that book.

Now, should have taken me 12 months, but I'd write a page and a half, then I wouldn't touch it for three months.

Then I come back and write half a page and wouldn't touch it for six months.

And it's a miracle when you upgrade your computer that I didn't lose that manuscript.

Because if I had lost it, I would have never gone back and done it all over again.

Of course.

And so finally I decided if you're going to, and I had started writing this book beforehand, before all this suicide.

And uh so when he told me I need to get a book out, I was going, I've already started one.

Finally, I said, Well, if you're gonna write it, you need to go ahead and do it now or just shut up and don't ever do it.

And same thing with uh going back to school, you're gonna take the hardest classes, and that's gonna be a good test.

So, same thing on the book.

If you're gonna do it, do it.

If not, shut up and go on and quit talking about it.

And so I ended up finally eventually doing it and getting it together, and several friends uh helped proofread it for me, and we got it out, and from there, yeah.

So I tell you, I tell you, there's times when um I don't know how many, you know, everybody's God or if you want to call it life or whatever else again, but uh twice I'm gonna this this happened, and it happened uh Kevin a year apart.

So you gotta remember this to take place.

I'm not gonna tell you the whole thing at the beginning.

I'll give you the I'll give you the Paul Harvey, the rest of the story here in a minute.

So uh about a year apart now, and both of them are like like in December, about a year apart.

I go, man, my speaking business just ain't getting like I want it to be.

I mean, I've had a couple of things and some things out there and I'm but it hadn't got to be a full-time business.

And I'm going, all right, uh well, I'm tired of just trying on this, so I'm I'm gonna quit.

I'm gonna give it up.

Well, that's when it seems like God comes back in again to give you a little kick in the pants to get going again.

And he uh I go to to the store Wally World, I take my service dog Ricardo.

Ricardo's the Walmart mascot up here, and so all of a sudden we're at the checkout, and this other woman had already checked out, she's walking past, she says, Hey, there's Ricardo.

I said, You met Ricardo?

Said everybody meets him and said, I can't remember everybody's name.

And then she goes, Well, ain't he on the front of your book?

And I said, Well, yeah.

She says, Well, I've I've read your book.

I said, Really?

Like, yeah.

So then I asked the dumb question, if you don't mind, could you tell me how you got the book?

You know, did someone give it to you, someone recommended?

Uh, you looked up motivational book and it popped up and you looked and said, hey, that looks good.

And or you find it laying in a trash can or in a gutter, you know, somewhere.

And I said, so we stopped there.

A year later, same thing.

Speaking of the odd just ain't going like we do, I'm gonna quit and everything.

Dah da.

We go to Wally World, Ricardo me there.

We went in there 23 seconds.

All of a sudden I heard this guy going, Mr.

Purdue, Mr.

Purdue, Mr.

Purdue.

And I turned around and I'm thinking, Mr.

Purdue, one of my former students has found me at Walmart.

And uh turned around, I had no idea who the guy is.

He said, I just come to let you know I've read your book four times.

And I'm thinking in my head, crap, you ain't read my book no four times.

And uh he says, I've read your book four times.

Your book is going to help me in life.

And I said, Really?

Well, I appreciate you saying that.

Again, the same day I'm saying, I'm giving up all this stuff because it's not going anywhere.

And uh so now here I'm being stopped twice again, a year apart.

So I asked him to dumb quick.

Well, then about that time, his girlfriend comes in and uh one of the the electric carts, she was had her foot in a cast.

She said, Is this him?

She's he said, Yeah, this is him.

And then she goes, Boy, I'm so glad my uh husband found your book.

Like, dumb me.

Here's my chance.

I could have given him a copy of my book because my book was being sold in Walmart.

Just Walmart didn't know it.

Okay.

Um up front, you know, uh they got those uh, you know, where you can get your haircut, uh, where you can get uh copies made and printed and signs made.

Well, that place there that was making signs and printing papers and stuff, they offered to sell my book right there, and they didn't charge me a commission.

They just sold it and gave me the money.

Oh wow, dumb me when they was talking that I should have gone and got him a book and gave it to him.

Wasn't thinking.

So, but I asked the question to him, like I did that girl a year earlier.

Hey, if you don't mind, could you tell me how you got the book?

You know, did someone refer it to you?

You Google it, it popped up, you find it laying in a uh trash can down in the gutter, someone threw it out.

And then here's where Paul Harvey would say, and now the rest of the story.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Both answers they gave was the exact same answer a year apart.

I mean, exact same answer.

I was locked up in the county jail, and your book is in the library in the county jail library.

What?

Yeah, my book is in the county library, jail library, jail library, and that's how they found it.

So after the, especially the guy when he told me that, I'd go, I guess he did read it four times.

He had nothing else to do.

Now I'm saying it to myself, not to him.

And uh, but yeah, then I'm thinking, man, my book's in the jail library.

And I said, that's when I come to realize that we are all helping people.

We have no clue who we're helping.

I was fortunate enough that God sent those to me when I said I'm quitting everything to let me know that you help them.

Okay.

But we have so many people out there with our podcast, Kevin, with your podcast, grace, and inspiration, that we're helping so many people out there, we'll never hear from them.

unknown: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: If they're gonna get something out of these podcasts, they're gonna use one little nugget that's gonna help them get past a hard time.

And so that's when I've come to learn we're not done.

Even when I think I'm done, I'm not done.

You know, that uh we're gonna do another podcast.

And I've written like 10 books now.

Five of them are little children's books about my service dog, and uh got about five other book books, and so yeah, we're gonna be helping people, and we're gonna we're not gonna have a clue on anything, but uh it's happening.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wow.

James, you are such an awesome guy with such an amazing outlook on life that's truly just a breath of fresh air.

SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm telling you, again, being on grit grace and inspiration with Kevin Lowe, who's been an honor and everything, and I want to grow up and be like you because I want you on my story on my podcast with your story.

And uh again, you're definitely going to um uh help other people again, whether you're doing this one.

So you're like me now.

See, when I when I started my YouTube channel, I'm here I am just trying to give out inspirational information, telling little goofy stories on and and overcoming it and things like that.

But then when I started my podcast, I'm like you.

People are tired of hearing my thing.

I want to get out other people's messages.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: And that way we can help them get out to help other people as well.

And so this is my way, your way of giving to society uh something that uh other people are not getting.

And so, yeah, I definitely want you on my podcast.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I would love to do it.

I gotta ask the question when everybody's wondering.

Do we have to go to prison to find your book or can we find it elsewhere?

SPEAKER_00: You do not have to go to prison, and I would recommend not being there.

But you can go to Amazon and um to find the majority of my books are there with the little children's books.

Uh did them self-published, and so they're all there.

The one more play, though, I had it through a publishing company, and it's actually a Barnes and Nobles website as well.

And so from there, so you can go to Amazon and uh be the big one, and then hey, I if you really want to save some money, because again, when you write these books, I've learned that uh when you get your royalties, you if you're lucky, you'll get a buck eighty on the royalties.

And so at least you sell a million, you're not gonna get rich off of it.

So I I advise people to go to eBay and just look up uh one more play, and you can find someone just put it up and you'll get it for two dollars instead of paying twenty dollars at the other places.

SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.

Wow, now now you got bargain hunting advice.

You you you got it all, man.

SPEAKER_00: Hey, I tell people, and it's probably only worth$2, so you may want to, you know, so save what you hey.

I'm I'm serious that uh I've actually gone back and bought some of them for two or three dollars, and they still look as good as new.

And if it's not one that I've signed and gave to someone, then I'll turn around and just give that book away to someone else.

Uh, and it didn't cost me two bucks instead of uh, you know, $18 to get it printed.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

What is the name of your podcast for somebody interested in that?

SPEAKER_00: Podcast is actually named Professor of Perseverance Podcast.

Professor of Perseverance.

I got to throw a little uh shout out to man John Bentley.

John Bentley retirement coming.

Buddy, I'm proud of you.

But John Bentley one day, we were at the speaker's workshop one day, and he he lives in Alabama, and I'm in Tennessee, and he'd come up for uh speaking thing, uh, workshops from Alabama.

And one day he was John was behind me, and all of a sudden I heard behind me Professor of Perseverance.

I'm just looking in front of me, not thinking nothing about it.

He goes, Professor of Perseverance.

I'm still looking forward.

I didn't know John was talking to me.

All of a sudden, John goes, James.

I said, Hey John, how you doing, buddy?

He said, He said, You're the professor of perseverance.

I said, What?

He said, You're the professor of perseverance.

I said, What do you what are you talking about?

He said, You got a doctor degree, right?

Yeah.

So you're a professor.

Okay.

And you want to talk about persevering, don't you?

So you're the professor of perseverance.

And I said, John, I'm stealing that.

SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Now, another quick story.

I know you got other things you need to get going to, Kevin, but another quick story.

You know, Popeye's chicken.

SPEAKER_01: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Popeye's chicken.

One day I was going through uh where I live, and we got a Popeye's chicken, and it's getting, you know, dark.

And I look on their front of their building where their lights up uh Popeye's right there, and the P O P for Pop was lit up, but the word eyes, E-Y-E-S, wasn't lit up, just P O P.

So I pulled over, took a picture, and I said, Look, even Popeye's restaurant is is advertising for the professor of perseverance.

SPEAKER_01: I love it.

SPEAKER_00: I really need to take a picture and send it to the headquarters and see if they will sponsor some of my podcasts.

SPEAKER_01: That's right.

That's right.

I love it.

Man, James, thank you so much for for just lighting up my day.

And I can only imagine for everyone listening lighting up their day as well.

You're an amazing man.

And for the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you.

And I'm gonna leave one more thing that remember your past doesn't have a future.

How many people go, I can't go do this because I uh 40 days ago, or I can't do this because 10 years ago at a DUI.

I can't go this because I got arrested one time.

I can't.

No, your past doesn't have a future, but you do.

All right?

Your past doesn't have a future, but you do.

So create your future today.

Get out from living what used to be, what happened, whatever's hindering you, and move forward in life.

I don't care if you're going at a snail's pace, and then one day you're gonna say, Oh, I went three steps forward, and man, uh something happened.

Now I feel like I'm two steps behind.

Oh, that's cool, man.

That means you're still one step in the good.

All right.

So just build on that and go.

So yeah, just find people to be around with, people positive, people that has their best interest in helping you in life, okay?

And then the great thing about it is you're gonna pay it forward, you're gonna help somebody else in life, and again, they're gonna help somebody else.

And you'll never know the sequence and everything.

But the good thing about it is we're gonna be here to help each other.

SPEAKER_01: Amen to that.

James, thank you for being here.

For you, my listener, thank you for being here.

You know this show is all for you.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

If you did enjoy it, if you got something out of it, and you're thinking to yourself, man, I gotta tell somebody about this, we'll do that.

Please share today's episode with somebody you love who needs a little encouragement, who needs some of that James Purdue special energy in their life.

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host.

This is Greg Grace and Inspiration.

Get out there and take on the day.