From Poverty to PhD: How Donald Williams Defied the Odds and Changed His Life

What if the life you're living today doesn't have to determine where you'll end up tomorrow?

In this inspiring episode of From Drift to Direction, I sit down with educator, speaker, author, and Department of Defense research analyst Donald Williams to discuss his remarkable journey from growing up in poverty in a South Carolina mill village to earning a doctorate in education and traveling the world.

Donald shares how faith, resilience, mentorship, and an unwavering belief in himself helped him overcome stereotypes, self-doubt, and the limitations others placed on him. His story proves that your circumstances do not define your future—and that one decision can completely change the direction of your life.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to overcome limiting beliefs and negative environments
• Why self-belief is the foundation of success
• The power of mentorship and positive influences
• How resilience can help you break generational cycles
• Why your current situation doesn't determine your future
• Lessons from a college dropout who earned a doctorate
• How faith and perseverance can transform your life

Donald Williams is the author of Born of Nothing: White Trash, Lintheads, and has dedicated his life to helping others realize their potential regardless of where they come from.

If you've ever felt stuck, underestimated, or limited by your circumstances, this conversation will challenge you to think bigger and take action toward the life you truly want.

Subscribe for more conversations on personal development, mindset, success, entrepreneurship, self-improvement, and living with purpose.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You're wasting our time, you're wasting our money. Just quit college and and come back to to here, to Rock Hill, and get you a job in a mill or a factory and start making money. My last three semesters, I made the dean's list uh last semester, my senior year. First time in my life I made straight A's. And through my master's and doctorate, I never made less than an A after that. And my daddy, my father, he looks at me and he goes, Good job, son. Uh just try better next time. You'll you'll get better as you go along and it'll be better next time.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome back to the podcast. Today's conversation is about generational change, purpose, and proving that where you start in life doesn't determine where you finish. Our guest today is Donald Williams, co-author of Born of Nothing. Donald grew up in a South Carolina mill village in a family of cotton mill workers and witnessed firsthand how people from the same environment can end up on completely different paths. Through faith, education, and discipline, he changed the direction of his life and eventually earned a doctor of education. He spent time teaching thousands of students and worked internationally in education. Donald, thank you for being part of the podcast. I'd love for you to start by introducing yourself in your own words.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Okay, thank you, Peter. First of all, thank you for allowing me to tell my story today. But I am Donald Williams and I'm from regularly originally from South Carolina as a young man, born in 1959, so I'm very old to a lot of for a lot of people. But I was born into a culture that was uh probably very foreign and something you would not find in the United States any longer. Um but I was born into a cycle of um I will say work and poverty uh that where you maybe didn't even realize who you were or what you were or how people viewed you. And it it takes that uh self-realization to understand who you are, uh where you are, what people think of you, and then to try to break out of that cycle. Uh I have, as you said, I've been an educator most of my life. Um I taught uh classroom for 28 years. I taught agriculture, special education, and all the sciences, and I taught it at a lot of different levels. And I I've taught for the University of Maryland, I've taught for Clemson University as well, and another one. But uh so I've I have a lot of teaching experience, but then about the last 13 years of my working career, I worked for the Department of Defense uh education activity, and I worked overseas in Korea and Japan uh as a research analyst, and it was a very rewarding job. And because not only was I working, I was just seeing so much culture of the world and living in that culture, uh, and it really expanded my viewpoints of humanity.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

That's awesome. Why did you choose to pursue a career in education?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Okay, I I was lucky in that I had some really good teachers. There were times that I had some really bad teachers. I'll say this now. That I'll go back and describe something for a second. Um, the Mill Hill culture or cotton millhill culture, around uh I think 1915, 1920, one in six people in South Carolina were working in a cotton mill or in a cotton mill industry. And these people were called lintheads. Now, the book is uh I'm a co-author of that book, and it says it has a term white trash and lint heads. My co-author was more the white trash that he came from that, and we're not saying that in a derogatory term, it's it's just a reality. Lint head is a reality, it was not a derogatory term either, although some people took it that way. People who work in the cotton mills, they're these huge machines. And I went in there as a boy and would see these, and my father and my mother both worked there, but when they came out of the mill, they would be covered in cotton lint. And so it was just like cotton dust. And so everyone called them lint heads. And so, in that concept, you know, the concept was that you went to work or you went to school for as little as possible, and then as soon as you could work in the mills, you would. Both of my grandfathers worked in the mill when they were nine years old. My father went to work in the mills when he was 14, and my mother at the age of 16. And so I saw this cycle, but you also, I'm gonna say you almost belonged to the mill. You lived in their house, you shopped at their store, you went to their church, you the school kids went to their schools. So they had everything for them was built around that working mill. And so I saw this. I didn't think that was a bad thing. I didn't think it was anything that it was going to be a bad life. I, as a matter of fact, I looked at, I thought we were rich. I didn't know that the situation we were in because I wasn't aware. But I had some good teachers and some bad teachers. And years later, as an education researcher, I will say this for every great teacher there is, there's all there's an equal bad teacher somewhere doing evil to kids there, whereas some teacher working miracles. But I was lucky in that I had a couple of those miracle teachers in my life. One was actually a man from Rock Hill, South Carolina, who was a World War II veteran who supposedly came home from the war, the story I heard, and fell down some stairs, broke his neck, and was in a wheelchair. He couldn't move hardly anything, he could move one arm a little bit, and he could write on what at that time the latest technology was an overhead projector, and he taught science and math. And he would he would direct students to go get a test tube and put it in this, and I will show you this. You know, he would do like experiments through the students. And I was so inspired by this man because here he was, he had fought for his country, and here he is in a wheelchair, but he's teaching children, you know, and and I thought, if this man with such limited ability and mobility can do this, how much could I do in my life? And I mean, even as a young child, at the age of 10, I had that conscious thought. And then in high school, I had a uh a teacher, um, agriculture teacher, who just inspired me. He may be a similar background, came from a similar family situation, and he had gone to the University of Georgia, and and he taught, you know, he talked to me about it, and and I thought, well, that's just a sounds like a great thing, but it just seems like it's so far away. That that may not be a possibility. I have three older brothers. They had all lived the life of get as much education as possible, which in those days that seemed like a high school diploma. Then you would immediately get married, immediately start a job. All three of my older brothers, as soon as they uh graduated school, they were married, moved out of home, had a job. When it came to me, my mother asked me, and I was like, Well, I'd like to go to college. And so, you know, talking to the school who looked at me and said, You can't do that. You're you're lent head child. You don't have the money, you don't have anything. But they looked at my grades and go, well, oh, wait a minute, your grades are good enough. Uh, you will need to apply, you will need to take the SAT, which I didn't even know what that was. But so I was inspired, and I know I'm giving you a long answer here, but I was inspired by great teachers, but I was inspired by the opportunity of thinking there's something beyond where I am, and hearing stories and reading stories. And I remember when I was in the third grade, a teacher showing us a globe for the first time. And I had that realization, this is the earth, it's a really big place. And I live here, and there are countries here. There's a Japan and a Korea and a Europe and Africa. And I thought, well, I would love to go there one day, but I never thought that would be a possibility. And um, so um I think for me it was that mindset, I I want to do something more than work in the mill. But I was I also know that I was very lucky that I had supportive parents who were able to help me reach that goal, even though they knew nothing about college. They knew nothing, and they couldn't support me mentally, but they could support me financially. And so I was able to get to that point to do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

You had a different mindset, right? How did it feel being different from you know, the expectation is you go to school, you graduate, go and start working, and the cycle goes on and on.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

My my brothers and everyone looked at me as if I were I might as well be going to the moon. Right. And even though I was going to a university two hours away and by driving, you know, we didn't have uh telephone in those days. You had to pay for long distance. You know, you really communicated still by letter, or there was no computers or anything like that. And uh and so for them, it was it was kind of a disbelief. Like, what are you doing? And and as a matter of fact, they questioned me when I was not married by the time I was 20. They were questioning me like, what is wrong with you? Why are you not married? What what part of this life do you not understand? Right. And uh so I did get a lot of those pieces. Uh said, my the only person that I really knew that was in my life on a personal basis that who had ever been to college was my pastor. And I remember talking to him about it, and and he, you know, he gave me a little bit of advice, but not a whole lot. I I think he I don't think he believed that I would make it. And I think there were a lot of people who did not think that I would that I could actually survive.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Do you think that oh sorry? Do you think that having people around you that are negative or that don't believe that you can do something or achieve something kind of help you to you know keep going? Because I feel like sometimes we have those people around us that are negative, that keep saying you cannot do it, you cannot do this, you cannot do that, but actually that helps people to get them, you know, inspired, motivated, and keep going. I mean, in my way, that's how it works.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, and I think it's true, Peter, for some people, and for some people it's not. Uh, and I think it's that optimist, pessimist. And but you're right. If people, when I thought people, when I heard people say you can't do it, or when I felt like they thought I couldn't do it, yeah, that motivated me to be, I will show you that I can. And that's one of the things in my life. Uh I did come to the realization that a lint head and someone from a mill hill, uh, you know, and someone in my status was looked down upon. And I knew that. And that did give me strength and courage to go, I will show you that I can. And my when I went to college, I had uh handmade clothes. I didn't have store-bought clothes. My mother had stitched together shirts and pants. I had a few pairs of pants, a few shirts. I didn't have a suitcase. I had a duffel bag that she had made out of blue jean material, and I stuffed a few possessions I had, and I went to college, and you know, everyone else is coming in with suitcases and whatever, you know, and fixing the rooms. And I had a bedspread and a few clothes and a pen and a pencil and a notebook maybe. And, you know, it was very easy early on to see how different I was. Uh, but I also realized that I didn't shun them or they didn't shun me. Of course, they brought me in, but I didn't um I knew there was a difference, but I didn't look, I didn't think about it as being a different. I just thought that's an experience, that's a person that I will get to know. Um, they will be my friend. I I've never really cared that much about the concept of the class kind of concept like that. And um, I guess I was pretty lucky, maybe just to have that mindset as I look back on it now. But yeah, when people told me that I couldn't do it, that's when I would fight more about that. I have a story I'd like to tell you about this if it's okay. Of course. When I came home after my first semester, because uh not my first semester, my first year, like I said, my family, they, you know, they prepared me spiritually, you know, they prepared me love-wise from a family structure. They were great parents, they loved me, but they had no concept of education. They didn't know what college was. No one in my family, out of all of my 42 aunts and uncles or 80-something first cousins, no one had ever been to college. So I had no resource from family to tell me what it was like. So I struggled my first year. There's no doubt because I I didn't know. You don't, and a lot of times you don't know what you don't know. But I came home, and in those days, they send you a grade card in the mail. My first semester, I had made a 2.0, so roughly a C average. And that was okay. It wasn't the grace that I was used to. I'd done well in high school. My second semester, I opened up the grade card, my summertime, my first year, and I will say this a man that I worked for had offered me a job, and he says, You don't need to go back to college. Um, you need to just come on, go to work for me. Just forget that college dream. So I need you over here. So that was playing in my mind. And I opened up my grades, and I had six D's and one B. I had a 1.3 GPA for that semester. My parents were standing there and they asked me, well, you know, how did you do? And I said, Well, I didn't fail anything. Six D's and one B. Well, my mother, you know, she starts screaming, um, not really screaming, but what are you doing? You're wasting our time, you're wasting our money. Just quit college and and come back to here, to Rock Hill, and get you a job in a mill or a factory and start making money, you know, live like everybody else lives. And my daddy, my father, he looks at me and he goes, Good job, son. Uh, just try better next time. You'll you'll get better as you go along and it'll be better next time. And so I had those that contrast. I remember this man had offered me a job, and it was literally playing on my mind. And then my mother's going, Don't go back, don't go back. And my father's just going, that little bit of pat on the back, son, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. You can do it. Go back. And um, I went back. And at that point, that was that pivot point that I realized I can do this and I will I will get better at this. And I go back in every semester I got, uh, you know, I made a little better, a little better, and I began to learn and understand what college life was about. And my last three semesters, I made the dean's list uh last semester of my senior year, first time in my life, I made straight A's. And through my master's and doctorate, I never made less than an A after that. And so, you know, it I go back to that pivot point of my my father going, You can do this. But I also needed to hear my mother's voice saying, You're wasting our time, you're wasting our money. I needed that. I needed that, that negative thought, because that was just like my father's voice always saying, You can make it, I always also heard her voice saying, You can't do this. And it's like, I will show, I will show you, Baba, I can do this. And and uh, I mean, my mother's my biggest advocate, and uh she would she would really be mad at that story, but it that's that's the way I saw that story.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Right, yeah. No, definitely. And also in your story, you talk about people who ended up in prison, people who ended up in the death row. What was growing up around people like that, you know?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I mean, okay, so um we had a very tight-knit family and a very tight-knit, I'll say, church family. And on a Sunday in the South, uh, you would always have a Sunday lunch after church. And uh a lot of times we were going to relatives' house, maybe an aunt and uncle, or maybe going to grandparents' house. They were fixing a meal and everyone's eating together, and kind of on a rotational basis. But there was this one family that was just different. It was my uncle Charles's family, it's my mother's brother, and they lived in York, South Carolina, down near a small community called Sharon. He was uh on the outside, he was a very pious man. He he looked apart, he was a leader in the church, he did all the things right. But when you'd go to their house, it the two things, the two worlds collided. You didn't see the house, you didn't see the good meal, you didn't see feel the warmth of love, you you saw the dirt, the trash, the stench, all this. And it didn't make any sense to me uh how you saw that. Well, his he had six children, uh, three boys, three girls. The youngest girl got killed when she was five, got hit by a car. One of the sons uh died uh actually in uh Fort Lauderdale uh as a homeless uh male prostitute with AIDS. Um and then the other two, the oldest son, is on death row in California and has been there since the early 80s. And the cousin who was my age that I grew up with, like one of my best friends, he was just recently convicted of murdering a child uh 20-something years ago. It was a cold case thing, and they finally caught him through DNA, and he's in prison today. What was it like growing up with them? Well, I I you know I don't want to blame it on their father. Their father was bad. He it came out in court testimony how bad of a parent he was and the physical abuse, the sexual abuse that they encountered. But I want to say that I don't make excuses for them because everyone knows the difference. They knew the difference between right and wrong, and they choose, they chose wrong. Um, but I I grew up with these these people, with these young men, and you see them, you would see them making the bad mistakes as they as they went along. Now, my cousin Tommy, the one that's uh in life in prison here in South Carolina, he you know, I always thought he was a good guy growing up. I I would never imagine that he would do what he did. Uh it didn't seem that way to me. It seemed to me that he was just like me. And I would see a lot of my other cousins the same thing. You know, we're we're all growing up together, we're all children and kids. But then when you get into high school or whatever, you start seeing people branch and going in different directions. And you see people making different choices. Uh, you know, it may be to drugs or alcohol, but then there's some who are going to to work or family to church, you know, and making a lot of different choices. Uh, growing up with Eddie, the one who's on death row, he was uh evil. He was he was actually a bad kid as well. But I I look back and I know a lot of the things that happened to him, the beatings and the sexual abuse that he encountered. I understand now why he was lashing out as a child. I understand that. Uh my cousin Tommy, as I said before, I never remember him being a bad child, but something happened in his adult life to where, you know, he just went in the wrong direction. Uh I know he uh I I pretty much lost track of him probably about the age of 14 or 15. He's quit school, and I and I would hear people talk about him, and he moved around and he lived here and there. And I said, and then in that process now he's in prison. Uh I I ask myself a lot of times is what causes someone to make those choices. Um and I I don't know. You know, it comes a point to where you know people know what's right, people know what's wrong. And I'll say this, Peter, is the concept of the people. You surround yourself with, they're either going to lift you up or they're going to pull you down. Exactly. And so undoubtedly he made the wrong choice.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

The wrong choices. Do you think that the environment actually motivated you to go and study? I mean, you came from bad grades to doctor of education. Do you think that the environment kind of pushed you to, I don't want to be here, you know? What's what's for me here? You know, maybe I should go and study. Do you think that the environment played a role in your decisions?

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yes, it did. Now, once again, I I'm not going to denigrate what people are doing, like working, hardworking people working day to day as carpenters or whatever. You know, they they work hard. But I also I think it wasn't so much about work because I I'm a hard worker. I most of the time I've had three jobs in my life at a time and just always working, and I am a workaholic. But I think there was another part that I knew that if I went to school that I could help people. There were it was kind of maybe a different calling. I knew that I could do the physical labor, but could I help people? And so for me, it was maybe a different mindset of I knew that I had been inspired by Mr. White and Mr. Wilkins, the two teachers I talked about earlier. They inspired me. And I wondered, could I have that same effect on other people? Uh and so uh teaching is a calling of service, a service to others, and uh and I definitely felt that calling.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

That's awesome. Yeah, I feel like we we all need a role model, somebody that we we can, you know, we can see and we can kind of reflect because uh there's so many people around us and people are doing different things, but having that role model in life, I mean, it can be somebody from your family, can be a teacher, can be a partner, you know, uh it's it's important, it's definitely important.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

I think you like I think it's in your uh your background material about the coaching, uh, the concept of coaching someone or having a coach. Uh, you know, for me is I I've done this, I mean, just at work, but not like a life coach or anything, but as a work partner. But I I see coaching uh people I work with, but also getting advice from them and listening to them and lifting each other up. Uh I think that works. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah, we definitely I feel like we live in a world that there's so much information. I mean, we have AI, we have Chat GPT, we have some so many tools out there, we have so many people, there's so much information, there's tons of videos on YouTube, on TikTok, on social media that you know you can always find something. Uh the the way you use it, that's that's a different story because you might be scrolling and wasting your time for hours, but are you actually you know learning something?

SPEAKER_01 25:28

But I feel like when you when you hear advice, uh you have a choice. You can take the advice or you can refuse the advice. And um, and that's the thing, you know. I'm talking about with my cousin Tommy and Eddie. I know somewhere along the way someone said, Hey, don't live this way, but they they ignored that advice.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Right. You definitely spent a lot of time teaching thousands of students and working around the world. What do you believe that people need most today?

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Um I think there's you know, there's a lot of different talks and a lot of different pillars of success and those things. Uh for me, uh and I'll say everyone is different, everyone needs something different, maybe. For me, is uh I insist for me, a spiritual aspect is number one that I need to realize that there's that I'm not I am not the center of the universe, that the universe is here and I'm a small part of it, but I want to make this universe better, and I want to help with this universe. And so I I think that spiritual aspect of knowing that there is uh something greater than me is is number one. And number two is family. Uh strong family, a strong family structure is so important to people. And um I had a conversation with someone one time and I said, Well, God is like your father. And the man turned to me and he says, Well, my father was rotten, so I don't want anything to do with a God who may be like my father. So when we say a family, it has to be a good family. And it may not be a biological family, but you can have a you can have a pseudo family that you, people that you trust, friends that you trust, and I have friends who I think are closer than brothers, uh, that I would go to for advice before I would go to my brothers, maybe. And so when I say surround yourself with family, I think it's family and friends that are so close that are going to be willing to tell you the good and the bad. But then the third pillar for me is education. A professor taught me years ago uh to be a lifelong learner, and that's what I want to do. Uh and I'm I'm like you with the Chat GPT and all that. I'm constantly on it, asking, asking questions. What is this? What is this? Help me with this, and I have debates, I think, sometimes with Chat GPT, because I'll go like that. I don't believe you, I don't think this is correct. But so it's that intellectual quest to always know more. Every day I want to know more, uh, and I want to learn more. And so for me, that the spiritual aspect, the family and friends part, but then for me, that quest of knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Of knowledge and never stop learning. What inspired you to write Born of Nothing?

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Okay, so my uh roommate in college, one of my roommates was just Jason Pike. And we would just talk and we realized that we both came from, I will say, humble backgrounds. Uh his father was um born in a shack uh on a mountainside, or born homeless actually, and lived in a shack on a mountainside. But then he did okay in life. But Jason, when Jason was born, uh he was diagnosed with a pretty severe learning disability, and he was told that he would never make it, that uh college would not be a part of him or a factor for him or opportunity for him. And they told him, they said, you may could make it a little bit in the military, but just find a vocation, get a job. Well, he he just kind of refused that and just kept trying, kept trying. And he ends up moving from a learning disability in elementary school to where he's in the military for 30 years, uh, two masters, and he ends up as a lieutenant colonel. Uh, and so he had this. Well, the same thing. Now, we weren't at that point, we were in college at the time, but it's the same thing with me. You know, I started the Lent Head concept in the mill hill, and I end up being an education research analyst uh for around the world for the Department of Defense. And so um we had been lifelong friends and had stayed in contact, and we had even met in South Korea at one point, and um we were always not constantly texting, but he had written three books already after he had retired from the military, and he contacted me and he said, Hey Donald, he said, I want to write a story about my background. And he goes, I know your background is similar. Let's write this book together. Um and it was a two-year project, it wasn't something that just unfolds like in a week. It was a lot of research and a lot of background knowledge into um what was life like for these people, what was life like for our grandparents, and looking up diaries and manuscripts and articles and things like that to go back and get those stories, but then also interweaving our story in there as well. But for him, it was a search for looking at his father's past. But for me, it was the same. I knew I knew where I came from, I knew about my family. Jason didn't know as much, and so it's that quest of looking um to know where you came from, but to appreciate that culture that you came from and be thankful for where you you end up.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

That's awesome. You spend a lot of time with teaching people, teaching students. If there's something that you need to like one lesson, what is one lesson that you can uh tell people right now?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Okay. Um in my classroom, um, because of where I came from, I I never looked at students as like this student's rich, this student's poor. I try to look at them all equal. And I tried to show every student in my classroom that they had opportunity, that hard work would lead to success. Um, and so I think that in that you mentioned earlier that where you start does should not dictate where you end up in life. You know, a lot of times we're maybe we feel like we're dealt a bad hand of cards. Uh, you know, you may think I'm I'm too poor, I'm I'm too uh I'm too backwards, I'm too uncultured, this kind of thing to make it. But I'll tell you right now, everyone can make it. Jason and I are proof that anyone can make it because of where we started. Um you know, so when I was at college, when I was at high school, no one, no teacher would have ever thought that I would be where I am. Um they they would have given me zero chance. Uh, but yet I succeeded. And a lot of that, uh Peter, is what you said before about I knew they thought that about me. So I was I would work that much harder to show them I would not fail. Um But the story and the lesson that I would want to teach students today would be don't give up. Don't don't let your surroundings dictate what you want to become and what you can be. Uh, because um you have a God who loves you, who who cares about you, and has made you wonderfully, and he expects you to be 100% of you. And it's sort of searching out that goal for yourself uh that is a worthy goal. And that that's what I would want people to know. And and I hope I instill that in a few students along the way.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Right. Something that you I kind of want to repeat it is that don't judge people based on what they are right now, because who you are now doesn't mean that you'll be the same person in five, ten years. And no matter where you come from, it doesn't matter. You you never give up and continue pushing and going forward, and I think that that's really powerful because we live in a world where people are you know kind of stepping on each other, trying to get up and up, but just have your own life paths, continue pushing and going, and you'll get there. And I think that's that's powerful.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

No, absolutely. As a 10-year-old boy, I did I never thought that I would go to college, that I would be a teacher, that I would live around the world. Uh as a matter of fact, if I could go back and talk to that 10-year-old boy, the 10-year-old boy Donald, my version of me, would probably hit me and go, that's impossible. You know, at that point. But at that point, really, I didn't think about it, but it was it became more possible as I went along. And I realize now nothing is impossible. I mean, you uh you can you can reach the goal that you want to reach, it's possible.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

Yeah. Make the impossible possible. That's that's what I'm gonna say. If people, if people want to connect with you, follow your work, where is the best place, or get your book?

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Okay, the book is uh it's on Amazon. Um, you know, uh uh Born of Nothing, White Trash Linheads. If you just type in Linhead, it'll probably be the only thing that comes up, but in Amazon, but it's in Amazon Goodreads. I'm I am excited about something. The audio version came out today, uh, and I'm the narrator on the audio version, and it that takes a long time to do that. But uh I'm actually very proud of that. But it came out today, and you can get it on um it's on audiobooks and a lot of different um a lot of different websites. Um uh Audible, it's on there. So you can find the book there. But if you just want to contact me, and all the information is also on my website, but it's I amdonaldwilliams.com. I am donaldwilliams.com. And uh you can uh if you want to get in contact with me, correspond with me. I have links on there. Uh links to where to purchase the book are all on there. More information about me is there. Uh also samples of the book and everything are there. So if you want to go and read it, but you can do that all on Amazon. But I appreciate you letting me plug that in there. Uh that's not why I'm here tonight, but but uh it is a good read. I was I was reading parts of it today and going back because it was a two-year venture adventure and listening to it, and um, it took a long time to do that audio recording. I thought it was a lot of work, and I'm very proud of it. So, yeah, please purchase it and please leave me a review.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

That's that that's would be great. Of course. Yeah, definitely. And that's what uh makes stories like Donald so powerful. This conversation reminds us that your beginning doesn't have to define your ending. Through fate, discipline, education, and intentional choices, it's possible to completely change the direction of your life and even your family's future for generations to come. Donald, thank you so much for sharing your story and wisdom. And we definitely learn a lot about your story, and it's inspiring how coming from where you were born to teaching thousands of students, getting a doctor of education, traveling the world, and I think your story is inspiring. And the more people listen to it, the more people learn about your story, can get a little bit more inspired to to do what they they want to do in life.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Thank you very much. You're very kind.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Of course. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of From Drift to Direction. If this episode inspired you, make sure to share with someone who may need this message today. And remember, where you start is not where you have to stay. We'll see you in the next episode.