Kerry Max Cook A story of self-empowerment, hope, faith, determination, and never giving up

Fear is blinding and cripples our natural ability to think. Disarming fear curtails tunnel vision. In this story, Kerry speaks about how he saw through the fog that was obscuring his proverbial mountaintop once fear was no longer in control.

Kerry did not see himself walking into the execution chamber and being put to death. He saw himself walking out of death row innocent. Visualization kept him strong and determined.

Kerry's body was made up of things he ate, but his mind suffered from the negative things he let in and allowed himself to feel - things like, “I’ll never be able to do this alone,” or “I’m not strong enough.” We aren’t just what we eat, but also what we allow the mind to consume.

All around Kerry were agents of negativity: the inmates posed a constant threat; the prison guards hated the inmates, and the inmates hated the guards. Lawyers didn’t communicate because Kerry was was indigent. He refused to accept helplessness and hopelessness. He regained his sense of worth by taking control of his life instead of relying on others to do it for him.

Bitterness and regret only hurt the person they are in. Trauma and hardship will touch all of us at one time or another. The scars of our past can show where we’ve been, but they don’t have to dictate where we’re going.

In school, Kerry was the “class clown” and an unmotivated ninth grade dropout. He was lazy and depended on his parents to do everything. His biggest enemy was himself. This story is about what Kerry could achieve by getting out of his own way and taking charge.

Kerry's three wrongful convictions, and over two decades on death row innocent, is a paradigm for leadership because it’s about self-empowerment, optimizing.

Without hope there is no drive, no goal, there is a wasteland of emptiness inside. Kerry held on to hope and it got him through the darkest of times.

Hope, Empowerment, Assertiveness, Resiliency, and Tenacity are the tools Kerry developed to reach the top of the mountain and walk himself out of Texas death row. After a second 21 year fight on the outside, H.E.A.R.T is what got him to the mountaintop of exoneration.