Devon Harris
International Keynote Speaker | Founding member of the original Jamaica Bobsled Team
Keep On Pushing
Episode Summary
Are you ready to be inspired by an extraordinary tale of resilience, determination, and triumph? Listen to this episode of the Keep Leading!® Podcast, where I have the honor of interviewing Devon Harris, a legendary figure who embodies the spirit of perseverance and leadership.
Don’t miss this captivating interview that motivates and prepares you to push through life’s challenges.
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About Devon Harris
Devon Harris grew up in a violent ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica, but his positive attitude and determination led him to success. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England, received a Queen’s Commission in 1985, and served as a Captain in the Jamaica Defense Force until 1992.
He joined the first Jamaican bobsled team and competed in the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, inspiring the Disney movie Cool Runnings. He also competed in the 1992 and 1998 Winter Olympics.
Devon founded the Keep On Pushing Foundation in 2006 to support education in disadvantaged communities and currently runs breakfast and school supplies programs. As an athlete ambassador for Right to Play, he supports child development through sports in refugee camps. Devon has been recognized as an Olympian For Life by the World Olympian Association. He authored the motivational children’s book Yes, I Can! and the semi-autobiographical motivational book “Keep On Pushing: Hot Lessons From Cool Runnings.”
Website
https://devonharris.com/
Other Website
https://keeponpushing.org/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/keynotespeakerdevonharris/
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/keeppushing
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/officialdevonharris/
Leadership Quote
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams
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About the Keep Leading!® Podcast
The Keep Leading!® podcast is for people passionate about leadership. It is dedicated to leadership development and insights. Join your host, Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®, as he speaks with accomplished leaders and people of influence across the globe about their journeys to leadership excellence. Listen as they share leadership strategies, techniques, and insights.
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Transcript
Eddie
Hello and welcome to another live recording of the Keep Leading podcast. A program dedicated to leadership development and insights. I’m Eddie Turner, the leadership accelerator. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact through the power of executive coaching, masterful facilitation, and professional speeches. My goal is to help you stay inspired, stay motivated, so you can keep leading.
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Are you ready to be inspired by an extraordinary tale of resilience, determination, and triumph? If so, you’re in the right place. Because today I have the extraordinary honor of interviewing Devon Harris, a legendary man who embodies the spirit of perseverance and leadership. He is an international keynote speaker and the one of the founding members of the original Jamaican Bobsled team. Now, he grew up in a violent ghetto in Kingston, Jamaica. But his positive attitude and determination led him to success. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in England and received a Queen’s Commission in 1985. He then went on to serve as the captain in the Jamaican Defenses until 1992. He joined the first Jamaican Bobsled team and competed in the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary, inspiring the famous movie, Disney movie, Cool Runnings, one of my all-time favorites. He also competed in the 1992 and 1998 uh Winter Olympics.
Devon Harris founded the Keep on Pushing Foundation in 2006 to support education in disadvantaged communities and currently runs breakfast and school supply programs. As an athlete and ambassador for Right to Play, he supports child development through sports and refugee camps, and he is the author of the book, Keep on Pushing, Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings.
Devon, welcome to the Keep Leading podcast.
Devon
Eddie, thank you so much for having me, man. I absolutely love uh the title, Keep Leading. You know, my my mantra is keep on pushing and so clearly there’s a some synergy there, the keep. Um but I think what both both of us are saying is that whatever when it comes on to success, Eddie, it’s it’s not a one and done, right? It’s consistency. You don’t just lead once. You you don’t just, you know, push towards a goal once. It you have to keep at it. So, yeah, I’m I’m really happy to be here with you.
Eddie
Well, I’m it’s an honor to have you and I’m glad you uh honed in on that because I absolutely or it’s a never when I saw the title of your show that uh you were so kind to have me on. If you haven’t seen this episode, folks, uh Devon had me on the Keep Pushing talk show. Keep on pushing talk show. And yes, uh this idea that success, uh leadership, pushing for perseverance, it is not a one and done. It is something we must continuously do. So we’re on the same wavelength there and I labored long and hard to come up with my my title and that was my thought. So it’s good to know that we’re we’re right here, my friend.
Eddie
Now, I I I got to ask you, you know, I talked about it in the in the intro, you know, most people uh who are tuning in and who will hear this or as the as a regular podcast and not just see this video, they have seen Cool Runnings. And I have talked to you a couple of times, but I have not asked you this question until now.
Devon
Mhm.
Eddie
Which member that is on there, uh and I’m going to show right now for those who are listening to audio, you won’t see it, but video, here’s the original Bobsled team, Jamaican Bobsled team members…. And in the Disney movie, which one represents you?
Devon
Well, Eddie, you know, I like to tell people I was the handsome one, but you know, whenever I do that, people just burst out laughing. They’re like, there’s nothing handsome about you. So what are you going to do? Um the truth is that the characters in the movie are very different from real life characters. So if I had to choose one, I would say I was Yul Brenner, played by Malik Yuba that Really?
Devon
Well, you may remember, he’s the guy that wanted to go to Buckingham Palace to live. He was a dreamer. And that’s how I see myself as well, a dreamer. And and so I I see my personality, my character, uh my personality most uh closely aligned to his.
Eddie
How about that? See, now I was thinking, okay, I knew from your background, you wouldn’t have been the the the the rich kid. But I thought you were more the gruff one and so I thought you were going to tell me you were Derice, okay?
Devon
Yes. And and that’s the thing though, you know, when you I’m sure we can all see elements of our own personalities and characters in the different characters in the movie. You know, Derice was a leader, he was a team captain. I was a captain in the army. On that very first team though, Dudley Stokes was the driver and team captain. Uh so but yeah, I’d say um Malik, not because he was a mean one and you know, I am a little bit intense when I compete, there’s no doubt about that. But yeah, I love the fact that uh you know, he he was very frustrated with his current situation in life and wanted better and was eager, let’s say, to get better. So I related.
Eddie
Yes. He was also the strongest one on the team, right? He was the toughest one.
Devon
up here, yes. I I would say I was the strongest one on the team, but you know, I did have some muscles. I had a few.
Eddie
I have to tell you something. Uh until I was getting ready for this interview, I had never watched the actual original footage. I only knew what was in the movie. So I watched that original footage and it I was even more impressed with what you all accomplished because as as as uh if you watch the original footage from the Olympic uh team, you see how you all came around that bend and it wasn’t just that that thing flipped over. You guys could have really been seriously hurt or even killed.
Devon
You know, that’s the thing. I I remember when I just started uh Bobsledding, Eddie, my dad was watching some footage and he just sat there in silence staring at the screen, right? And then he goes, but this thing is really dangerous. And I go, yeah, that’s why we wear a helmet.
Eddie
Oh my goodness.
Devon
But um yeah, you know, here’s the thing, the the the crash um looked way more violent than it felt. I’m not saying it wasn’t violent. I mean, there’s no way you’re going to crash in a bobsled and not be prone to injury or even death, you know? And and definitely that crash in ’88 was right right up there in terms of how badly it could have ended. But uh you know, honestly, I was in the sled, like my hit my head hit the ice and all I felt was embarrassment, man. I was like, oh my God, we crashed in front of the entire world. How embarrassing, how awful it was, you know, but yeah, we walked away. Like hey, did that.
Eddie
You got up, you walked away and you walked away with uh new lessons. Tell us about some of those lessons you walked away with.
Devon
You know, well, um I want to the first thing I want to say about that is just, you know, how far a little bit of gratitude um and um graciousness can can take you. You know, when we were walking up that breaking stretch, I was as embarrassed uh like nobody’s business and trying to exit stage left and you know, the the the crowd there in Calgary at the track that day were they were so gracious, Eddie. People just started to cheer. We love you, we love you. I remember one guy reached over the track to shake my hand and I had to shake practically every other hand as I tried to get off.
Eddie
I noticed that.
Devon
Yes…. And I’ll tell you this as a kind of a side note, you know, when a Jamaican tells you soon come, be worried because that could be five minutes, could be five years, could be 30 something years. Okay. Because after that crash, they asked me, I think ABC was uh the channel at the time carrying the Olympics. They asked me to come do an interview. And think about it though, I’m 22 years old. I just failed in front of the entire world. What the hell do you say to on live TV? I didn’t know what to say. So I told them soon come. I haven’t been yet. I think that’s I think they’re still looking for me. Oh my.
Um the the one there are many lessons, but I think the one thing that all of us took away from that particular crash was um this was not the end. It made us more resolute. We were so much more determined now because we we actually believed in ourselves and we were annoyed with ourselves for crashing, failing, in our mind um bringing disgrace to our country, but perhaps even worse, giving credence to the people who believed we could not do this. We were not we did not belong. And so um ending like that with a spectacular crash just made us more determined, more resolute to come back and prove the naysayers wrong.
Eddie
Yes, you were carried literally the weight of the world on your shoulders as you mentioned because of not just your own personal and familial pride, but the pride of your nation, especially being the first. But you still accomplished so much. So much so, you made a you wrote a great blog a couple of days ago where you talked about the role that failure plays in success. Can you just talk about how that dovetails off of what you’re talking about here?
Devon
Yeah, man. I actually, you know, as a motivational keynote speaker, I do have these conversations around failure and I use that crash and, you know, ask the audience how many people have ever failed? How many people have ever failed and felt like a loser on international TV? And that’s exactly, if you watch the footage, that’s what it felt like. Um but here’s the thing about failure. Yes, it sucks. It doesn’t feel good. Nobody, no honest person will tell you, yeah, it’s fine. No, it doesn’t feel good, but it’s such a necessary part of our success journey. And if you are not failing, it means that you’re sitting in your little comfort zone and you’re not dreaming enough, you’re not trying enough, you’re not you know, pushing yourself hard enough uh to forget, you know, achieving something spectacular. You’re not pushing yourself to become all that you can be. And and so you might sit there thinking, well, this is nice and comfortable and I’m doing okay, but you’re you’re inadvertently failing because we do live in a a world that is constantly changing and if you’re not growing, you’re regressing, you’re failing. So, yeah, I would encourage challenge everyone to yeah, kind of step out there, you know, keep keep on pushing, keep pushing the boundaries, keep pushing what is possible for you. And yes, um every now and again you’re going to experience these setbacks, these failures and you use them as um as a learning tool. You use them as motivation to push yourself forward.
Eddie
As you did and you set the example by getting up and competing two more times in the Olympics. Uh most people can’t say they’ve done it once. You’ve done it three times and so uh you’re living what you preach.
Devon
Well, you know, I hit my head on the first one and uh I’m not responsible for my actions after that.
Eddie
Well, uh we won’t uh gloss over the fact that you mentioned that this is something you talk about in your keynote speeches. So we mentioned in the bio and we’ll mention it again here that Devon Harris is an international keynote speaker where he spreads his message and to book him, you uh visit his website Devonharris.com to be able to book him.
Devon
And thank you for that. I like to think that I’m the easiest guy to find, Eddie. So yeah, Devonharris.com.
Eddie
Excellent. Well, we have uh joining us from LinkedIn, Troy Ottmer. Troy says thanks for sharing. Troy, thank you for joining us and thank you for letting us know that you’re here and sharing your reaction. If you are listening to this conversation with Devon Harris where we’re talking about the need to keep on pushing, uh we invite you to share your reaction and if you have any questions, ask him as well.
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All right, Devon, well, I am absolutely enjoying uh this conversation with you as we learn more about this idea of keep on pushing and it’s a continuous action. Please tell us a little bit if you will about the great work of your foundation that you created.
Devon
Indeed, thank you. Um the Keep on Pushing Foundation. I notice everything has this keep on pushing thing. Hey, I’m a Bobsledder, man. That’s all we know how to do. Um but you know, I I I think you mentioned that I’m from a rough neighborhood in Kingston, Olympic Gardens, believe it or not. Uh one of the uh really challenging, impoverished, violent neighborhood. And so this is back in 2006, I was visiting Jamaica, went back to the old neighborhood, went to my old elementary school and was speaking to the principal and um he proceeded to tell me that a lot of the kids attending school were turning up in the mornings without breakfast. They were hungry. And I think we know that if you’re hungry, you don’t learn. If you don’t learn, you don’t get educated. You don’t get educated then it’s kind of difficult to become a uh uh contributing member of society. And in Olympic Gardens and places like that around the world, you know, if you’ve missed the bus, if you miss the bus, you’ve missed the bus, as it were. And I know what that, you know, growing up in that environment uh felt like.
So we started the the the the foundation, Keep on Pushing and we started supporting a breakfast program at the school. We have we have fed about six 6,500 students there now so far um in that one particular school, but we have had a school supplies program. So every September uh the every child in the school gets a book bag with school supplies in it, you know, notebooks, pencils and so on and so forth. We have supported about 10 schools and in the old neighborhood over the years. Um we’re actually in the process of we just established a computer lab at the school actually and in the process of doing a second one at another school. And the goal here is not just to provide the digital training for the kids in the school, but eventually to provide uh similar kind of training for to the young people in the neighborhood who are, you know, clearly not in school, but who could benefit from that kind of knowledge and hopefully develop them to the point where they can be contributing in the job market and or starting their own business.
Eddie
Well, I applaud you and the great work that your foundation is doing and I saw some of the staggering numbers of how many people you’ve helped and that’s just people you’ve put food in their mouths. But I don’t think you even know the impact you fully have had on people because of what they’ve been able to do as a result or will do in the future.
Devon
I think all of us I think though Eddie benefit from that, you know, call it pay it forward if you will, but I think that, you know, you and I have had mentors in our lives who um we don’t know how many generations back it went where somebody did one this one little thing for someone else who helped somebody who helped somebody and here we are, you know, benefiting uh from that uh kind of support and and and help. And so if I can do something to help one child, one person, then I’m happy to do it.
Eddie
Outstanding. And I want to acknowledge we are um broadcasting on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Uh we have Dr. Terry Jackson joining us on Facebook and he is uh sending you an emoji saying thumbs up. He likes what you’re saying, likes what you’re doing. So outstanding work there.
Now, when you talk about when you how you went back to help and you realized that this was the biggest area that you could help in, it’s not easy to escape the kind of circumstances you were able to escape from and then to succeed. What advice do you give other young men who find themselves or young people who find themselves facing similar circumstances as to how they can do the same?…
Devon
Yeah, it’s you know, it’s uh it’s when you’re in the middle of it and you’re looking out and dreaming, it can seem like a world away and the circumstances that you find yourself in can feel somewhat overwhelming, you know, quite daunting. But I would encourage them not to stop dreaming, you know, to to recognize that yes, there is a world outside of your immediate circles, your immediate circumstances. Um and not to be discouraged or be allow yourself to be phased by it. Um but then to follow up that dreaming with working. Like, you know, you there’s work that needs to be done. So uh you know, I tell kids all the time, your most important job right now is to get educated. So focus on um getting as much as you can out of school. Um and allow that work that you’re doing to fuel the dreams that you have uh you know, beyond school after after you’ve gotten up. And and then don’t don’t allow others to trample your dreams. Don’t allow them to discourage you, you know, they there are a lot of people who are afraid to dream big and to push themselves outside of of of what they know. Um and sometimes when they are trampling on your dream, is not because they mean you any ill will, they are projecting their own insecurity and lack of belief in themselves. Don’t allow that to stop you. Keep pushing yourself.
Eddie
Excellent advice. Thank you for sharing that. Now, in in this ties back to what you were also saying uh about which character you played, right? Because you’re you’re a dreamer and you’re a vision. Now, some people can only dream as far as what they have seen or experienced or heard of. Is there any advice for how to have a dream when you haven’t even seen it? Like you went on to become a military uh leader, you know? Is that something you’d seen?
Devon
Uh certainly heard of. So so here’s the thing. I I I something I I I heard a while back um and I’ve said it many times, go as far as you can see.
Eddie
Mhm.
Devon
But when you get there, you’ll see further. And if you think about just in the physical.
Eddie
Go as far as you can see and when you get there, you’ll see further.
Devon
You will. You absolutely will. And when I was growing up in in the hood, um yes, I I I dreamt of being an army officer. And then I also had this dream of being an Olympian, not a winter Olympian to be honest, but um I became an army officer and then I’m like, whoa, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? I’m 21. Oh yeah, the Olympics. And then I ended up on the Bobsled team. And I started to see a world that I never could have imagined from my vantage point back in the old neighborhood. Uh but because I had the courage and I put the work into to go as far as I could see at the time, being an army officer, that then opened up new doors, opened up a new vantage point from which I could look further out into the world and here we are. You and I having a conversation.
Eddie
Here we are indeed. Wouldn’t be otherwise. So that’s excellent advice. I like that. I’m going to actually share that even separately because that that’s that’s a powerful piece of advice because as you said, it’s not it’s one thing to dream, but you have to put work behind the dream. Mhm. Right? And so this is if you’re not sure where to get started, I’m just going to have to say it again because that’s so so beautiful. Go as far as you can see and then when you get there, you’ll see further. Excellent advice.
Well, I uh I I also want to share with with folks something else that I saw that you wrote here about the idea of the the the the mindset that it takes to become an Olympian and how that mindset gets transferred to other areas of life as you have done. Mhm. Tell us about that that mindset.
Devon
You know, they say that most Olympians, Eddie, are inspired by other Olympians. So you’re a young kid and you see a guy or a girl and you’re like, wow, I want to do that. I don’t know if I could do that. And that’s true for me. Long story short, I’m 15 years old and I’m watching this program ABC Wide World of Sports, Road to Moscow because the Olympics were coming up in 1980 in in Moscow. And I’m seeing, you know, when you think of an Olympian, you think of these superhuman people. And I realized that they were very average and ordinary. But but they had these extraordinary dreams and they had these an equally extraordinary desire to do the work to realize those dreams. And and so when you think of an Olympic, having an Olympic mindset, it it is this dare to dream kind of mindset…. That’s where it starts, you know, with this clarity of what you want to achieve and then having the discipline, having the drive, having the determination, um the resilience to go after it. It’s definitely not an easy road and nothing that you dream of that that is huge. If you want to achieve in an extraordinary way, you are going to be challenged. Life is going to test you and you have to now be willing to be frustrated and then pick yourself up and keep on pushing.
Eddie
Keep pick yourself up and keep on pushing. Excellent. Devon, I could talk to you for hours. But tell me something, what is the most important message you want those who are listening to us live, uh watching us live or who will listen to this later on as a podcast, what’s the most important message you want them to take away from our conversation?
Devon
You know, all of us um Eddie, as individuals and as teams as well, you know, because we’re talking to leaders who are leading, you know, people in their charge. We have to we all face these situations, circumstances that are beyond our control, right? We didn’t create them, but we have to deal with them. Um and I want them to know that your current circumstances don’t dictate where you can end up. It might dictate if you allow it, it will dictate where you end up, but it doesn’t have to. And that’s you know, part and parcel of this keep on pushing mentality. I don’t want to sound too much like a cliche here, but it’s just to kind of you know, as we talk about dreams, you have to be able to take some time to visualize that that other world that you think you’d want to, I should live, that you deserve to live. And then look, it’s not an easy road. Uh it requires effort. It requires you bouncing back from setbacks and and all of that and also collaborating with other people. So hey, don’t settle for where you find yourself. Team up with some people, go pursue some big dreams and I promise you if you stay in the game long enough, you’ll make it happen.
Eddie
Don’t settle for where you find yourself. I love it. Excellent. And I always ask, what is your favorite quote or piece of advice you’ve received that you use that helps you keep leading?
Devon
Um uh jeez, I’m drawing a blank here. It’s uh it says what I’m paraphrasing, what’s inside of what’s behind you and in front of you is totally and in and completely insignificant to what lies inside of you.
Eddie
Beautiful. Thank you very much. And we want to reiterate, folks, that uh Devon Harris has a book available. That book is Keep on Pushing, Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings. And of course, if you haven’t seen the movie Cool Runnings, you’ll definitely want to check it out uh especially now. And uh he is a keynote speaker. You can book him by visiting uh I was going to say keeponpushing.com. By visiting Devonharris.com and you’ll see the picture there of his website where he’s talking about how you can learn to keep on pushing. Devon, thank you so much for being here today. It’s been an encouraging, inspiring conversation uh to have you here.
Devon
Eddie, thank you for having me and yes, keep on leading, my friend.
Eddie
Thank you. And thank you for listening. That concludes this episode of the live recording of the Keep Leading podcast. I’m Eddie Turner, the leadership accelerator, reminding you that leadership is not about our title or our position. Leadership is an activity. Leadership is action. It’s not the case of once a leader, always a leader. It’s not a garment that we put on and take off. We must be a leader at our core and allow it to emanate in all we do. So whatever you’re doing, always keep leading.