In July of 2018, almost a year after my third and final brain surgery, I sat alone at my desk to start my memoir. I was excited to begin the process. I had a riveting story to tell, and no one was going to stop me. I planned to get up early every morning and write continuously for two hours. I had to be up each day before the sun, my tea hot, and fingers well lubricated between the joints.

For weeks I kept this nonstop pace, some days writing for five-hour stretches, until one day, I just stopped. I stopped feeling the excessive energy to get up and write or the primal fervor to pump out pages. The story I was writing, my story, wasn’t important to me anymore. Writing about myself felt self-indulgent, almost narcissistic, and the trauma of my experiences hadn’t left my spirit just yet. So I stopped writing seriously.

For over a year.

Sometime toward the end of 2019, I had an epiphany. I had gone through more physical, emotional, and mental trauma in the last five years than some go through in a lifetime. It eroded my confidence, dismantled my sense of self, and permanently borrowed my life energy. I had become a hollow shell, a far cry from who I was once upon a time.

Then one day, I watched the Tony Robbins documentary “I am not your guru,” and I heard a voice speak softly at first. But, then, that voice continued to get louder and repeat the same phrase: “It’s not your fault” And at that moment, I was free. Free from the shackles of inadequacy, the bondage self-torment, and free from the constraints of the false narrative I created for myself. So I went to my desk and started writing.

In September of 2020, I published my memoir called “Favor: How Stroke Struggle and Surgery Helped Me Find My Life’s Purpose” I have had three brain surgeries, a stroke, opioid addiction, suicidal ideations, depression, and anxiety, but I’m still here because there is still more for me to do and Stage 32 was another way to execute my purpose.

I started a business called Overcome Adversity, LLC for something I call Victory Coaching. This is my way of coaching others out of the ideology of victimhood into the mindset of Victory. In the summer of 2021, I started speaking at schools, despite the pandemic. I used my gifts and story to inspire, change, and maybe even save a few lives. Around that time, my best friend said I should look into a platform he was already using. “It’s like LinkedIn for the entertainment industry. You should pitch your story.” So I pitched other stories, not my own, until I saw this woman with two-toned hair.

Tessa Shaffer was taking pitches here on Stage 32, and I thought, what else do I have to lose. The day of the pitch came around; I felt like a microwaved hot pocket. Warm, calm and collected on the outside, but completely undone on the inside. I was to be her first pitch that day. When she came on the screen, I knew immediately that she was the manager for me. Her aura, her attentiveness, and of course, her hair closed the deal for me. So, the story flowed out of me. That was in October, and now we’re officially working together.

For starters, we will be working on a feature film script adaptation of my memoir, and then the possibilities are limitless. Some might call it luck, but I call it Favor. And like my grandma says, “Favor ain’t fair. It’s just Favor.”

So if you’re a writer out there and you’re reading this, keep writing. Tell the story that is authentic to you, and share that story with anyone who’ll listen. All it takes is one. I only have use of my left hand, but all I need to do is use the right words to tell my story or the many other stories waiting patiently for me to share them.

Writers write, but no one that’s been or will be born writes like you. So keep writing, keep sharing, and no matter the obstacle, all you need is one break. And watch the world open its arms and embrace you.

With Love & Gratitude,

Kawan Glover

Kawan Glover is a Survivor because he has lived through a stroke and three brain surgeries. Despite these hardships, he has started his own company called Overcome Adversity, which leverages his ordeal to help others, as the name says, Overcome their Adversity no matter the shape or form. He is a writer, public speaker, and a self-published author of a memoir entitled “Favor: How Stroke Struggle and Surgery Helped Me Find My Life’s Purpose” He is represented by Tessa Shaffer of the Corvisiero Literary Agency.

As an aside, he is currently in production on a documentary called “The Art of Resilience” serving as co-director.

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