Spencer West Shares His Inspirational Story in "Standing Tall: My Journey"

Me to We motivational speaker Spencer West has big plans for this coming fall. Upon returning from his summer in Kenya, he’ll be releasing his debut book, an autobiography entitled Standing Tall: My Journey. It’s an ironic title for a book about a man who lost his legs at the age of five, but anybody who’s seen West speak will tell you that his personality and composure scrape the sky.

And while the first part of the title contains the metaphor, it is the second part that is important. Spencer’s journey has been one of struggle, triumph and optimism. Inspired by a trip to Kenya in 2008, Spencer packed up and moved from a life in the States to a job with Free the Children in Canada. Since then, he’s performed for audiences of up to 18,000 youth, speaking in his signature dynamic style about overcoming obstacles with a heavy dose of determination and a dash of humour.

On the afternoon before flying to Kenya, West took the time to talk to Youthink about his personal journey and how he plans to inspire others to pursue their own paths to success.

 

YT: Was it always a goal of yours to write a book?
SW: You know, it’s funny, a couple of years ago I put that on my bucket list as one of the things I wanted to do, thinking, “Oh this is outlandish,” and “I’ll never do that.” And then this is an opportunity that they [Me to We] were interested in and I thought, “Well, yeah! This is amazing, great!”

 

YT: Awesome! How would you describe the tone and the feel of it?
SW: I would describe the tone as like my personality. It’s silly and heartwarming at times and there’s some difficult things that I face and we sort of go into depth [about those]; but it’s also a celebration of my incredible family and my mentors and my good friends and all of those sort of rolled into one.

 

YT: What is the main idea or message that you’re hoping readers will take away from it?
SW: Well, the title is Standing Tall: My Journey and I’m sort of hoping that what people take from it is that we’re all on this journey or this path in life and it’s the people before us and the people after us that help us on this incredible journey. And to recognize that and recognize that sometimes in our journey we may take a different path than we were expecting and it might be difficult and how we all face those obstacles.

 

YT: What were the most challenging and rewarding parts of writing the book?

SW: Oh goodness. You know, I think some of the challenging parts would just be really getting the details to the story. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I kept going back and we would edit and edit and edit and so, I think that was difficult. And because my family is a big focus in this book as well, I would keep going back and forth between them and then be like, “Can you read this chapter? Does it sound right?” And I found that challenging. And it’s hard to write a book sort of about your life. Because there are a lot of things I’m like, “I don’t think that’s that interesting.” But the woman who was helping me write it, her name was Susan McClelland and we wrote it together, she was really helpful in finding those stories and helping me really focus on what would be impactful and what wasn’t so impactful.

 

And I think sort of the celebration at the end was just working through the last year and a half and finally having this final product, which is insane. (laughs)

 

YT: How does writing your story compare to telling it to live audiences?
SW: Well I think that when it comes to live audiences, you typically have forty-five minutes to an hour, if you’re lucky, to sort of paint a picture of the story that you’d like to tell. But what was so exciting and so important for me for this project was that I could really get into detail about some of the stories that I briefly touch on in my speech, and I could really share all of the incredible mentors that I’ve had in my life, how they shaped my journey and where I ended up and, of course, finding Free the Children and working for Free the Children and Me to We and all of that.

 

YT: I know you mentioned earlier that the book’s got sort of a humourous tone to it. How would you say that laughter has helped you overcome obstacles?
SW: I would say that’s probably the number one piece that has always helped me overcome obstacles. To really look at some of the situations you’ve been thrown in, and you can either be upset, or you can just laugh at the situation and continue to move on. And I feel really lucky because I’ve had a lot of really incredible mentors in my family who are hilarious, and so it was fun to be able [in Standing Tall] to highlight them a little and to share their humour, along with my humour. So I think that humour for me is the most important thing. If we can’t laugh at ourselves then we’re in big trouble.

 

YT: Most people would feel some sort of resentment about having no use of legs. How have you managed to maintain your optimism?
SW: You know, that’s one of the other reasons that I wanted to write this book is because I do get that question a lot, and it all started with my parents, with the way that they chose to raise me. I’ll just give you a quick little snippet of sort of what we wrote in the book. I went back and I asked my parents, “Why did you raise me to be the way I am?” and my mum said that my dad and her were afraid that if something were ever to happen to them, they wanted to make sure that I would be able to take care of myself and I could be an independent person. So they chose to raise me as if I was not any different than anybody else because if they started to treat me different, they were afraid that I wouldn’t take the risks that I needed to be able to become my own person. So it really started with them and them constantly helping me to be optimistic and instead of looking at these as challenges.

 

YT: What made your trip to Kenya such an eye-opening experience for you?
SW: It was a couple of things. It was seeing poverty for the first time and seeing it firsthand. I’d seen lots of commercials of a little kid with no shoes and he doesn’t have any food and we’re supposed to send in ten cents a day and this will help them – and don’t get me wrong, I think that’s great – but there’s no personal connection. So when I went to Kenya and I met these kids...You know, I met a student named Duncan and I saw the challenges that he faced in education and I met his parents and I saw the challenges that they faced. So there was that, but there was also the incredible spirit that they had in this community in the Masai Mara. Everybody was so grateful for everything that they had, and they were so excited for us to come and share their culture with them. And then, the moment that really changed my perspective was when I got to meet the children and I helped them build a school and I actually had the opportunity to sit down with some of the kids and tell them my story. After I told them my story, a young girl said to me that she didn’t know that something like this, meaning the loss of my legs, could happen to white people too. And that was really the moment that was like, “Okay, my story has value. I can maybe use this to inspire other people, not only here in Kenya, but maybe in North America as well.”

 

YT: Are there any particular needs that Free The Children fulfills in Kenya that they’re really working on right now?
SW: Free The Children, what’s great is that they work on sort of the same things in all of their countries. So, you know, we focus on the four pillars of our Adopt a Village Model. It’s this model that we have to help break the cycle of poverty with, and the four pillars, they focus on education, clean water, health and sanitation and alternative income. So right now specifically, I mean they do focus on all four pillars, but we’ve just launched Me to We Artisans, which is not necessarily Free The Children, but it’s a Me to We initiative that supports Free The Children. So Me to We Artisans is the incredible jewellery that the mamas bead in Kenya and we sell here in North America to help with their alternative income in Kenya. So that’s one of the big things that we’re working on, but we’re always working on those four pillars.

 

YT: Most youth to whom you speak haven’t faced the same physical obstacles that you have. What types of challenges do you see commonly standing between youth and their ability to make a difference?
SW: I think it’s a couple of things. I think number one, youth are unfairly labelled as apathetic, that they don’t care. And so when students actually do care, I think that people are sometimes like, “Well, we don’t know if we believe you.” So I think there’s that whole idea of apathy and that students don’t care, and I think that in my experience students are actually very empathetic and that they do really care.

I think there’s also the thinking with some of the students that I’ve been in contact with that they don’t know how [to create change]. They have the passion, but then how do they actually do that? And so we really focus on what are their gifts and how they can use those to give back. So starting with something as simple as smiling at one person on the street or holding the door open for somebody or, getting bigger, getting involved in fundraising for Free The Children or a homeless shelter or go volunteer at the soup kitchen. So it’s really taking what they’re passionate about and what their gifts are and how they can use those to make a difference.

 

YT: I know in your speeches you reference a Jason Mraz song that says, “Hold your own, know your name, and go your own way.” What is it about these words that make such a strong impression on you?

SW: Well, you know, the song is entitled Details in the Fabric and the way I interpret it is that it was talking about how you can be faced with a lot of obstacles and you’re not sure which way you should turn and when it comes to it, it doesn’t matter. Just “hold your own, know your name, and go your own way.” And for me specifically it was that I had come back to North America after my trip to Kenya and I wasn’t happy with the job that I was in in North America and I was really interested in maybe getting involved with Free The Children and I was constantly listening to that song and that chorus just really spoke to me. “Hold your own, know your name and go your own way.” It was like, “Okay, I’m getting this message,” And when I heard it, I was like, “Okay, I’ve got to just let go of everything and take a chance and literally go my own way.” And that meant leaving the U.S. and moving to Canada.

 

YT: After releasing Standing Tall, what’s up next for you?
SW: There are some exciting things that are going to be happening in the fall. We’re sort of hoping everybody stays tuned. I can’t talk about all of them just yet because some of them are going to be a surprise, but there’s going to be an incredible campaign that we’re launching this year and I’ll be touring with the book which is really exciting and continuing to speak and to lead volunteer trips overseas.

 

YT: What do want the Spencer West legacy to be?
SW: (Laughs) Oh my goodness, wow. You know, it’s interesting. I don’t know to be honest. The one thing that comes to mind right now is that people start to talk about success and “were you successful?” And I know that at the end of the day for me, I don’t measure success whether it was win or lose or whether we raised this amount of money or not. Success to me is more of an, “at the end of the day, I’ve done everything that I possibly could to work towards that goal or do whatever I was looking to do that day. And if I didn’t achieve it, then that’s okay.”

 

I hope that I can use my story to help other people overcome their obstacles. As a speaker it’s not really about us, it’s about using that story to inspire other people to overcome their obstacles and take that next step in their journey. So at the end of the day I hope I can take some of the things that I’ve learned and impart them on young people and just people in general to continue to overcome their obstacles and continue their journey, whether it’s difficult or easy.
So I think that would be the legacy for me, knowing that I did everything I could to help people do that. That’s a great question that I’ve never been asked before.