Duane West’s personal journey from poverty to achieve success is inspirational.  He progressively moved from being a special needs, at-risk, homeless student living in poverty to a first generation college graduate, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, national fitness guru, health and wellness spokesperson for Nike, Inc., to author, pro football player, to national on-air motivational TV personality on NBC Television.  He turned adversity into opportunity.  Failure and giving up were not options.

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As a child there were nights he went to sleep with hunger pangs and woke up to a bitterly cold home that didn’t have heat or hot water.  Today, he dedicates quality time to feed the homeless and people in need.  At the age of 3, he accidentally drank an acidic household liquid drain cleaner. He was hospitalized for two months without a guarantee of a full recovery of his speech.  Miraculously, Duane made a full recovery and lives to tell his story!  In elementary school he was classified as a special needs student, a slow learner.  He had a challenging time reading and writing at his grade level.  Today, West reads books to students in schools from books he has written.  Resilience helped him become a writer and an accomplished author of over 17 books.

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He is a selfless man who walks with unconditional love and humility.  He’s a hero!  He rescued a trapped senior citizen from a burning car.  D West was taken by helicopter to a trauma medical center after a paralyzing slip and fall accident while touring schools as a speaker.  With extreme determination and resilience; two years later at the age of 33, he was playing professional football.  The average career of a professional football player comes to an end at age 23 - 25.

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West continues to defy the odds and achieve the unthinkable.  From poverty and despair, the tough Inner-City of Newark and Irvington, New Jersey, to national television inspiring millions.  Nothing can stop you if you have the audacity to dream big and believe you can accomplish anything in the world.  If

D. West can do it, you can too!  Anything possible.