LION SPEAKING
PEAKING
DAVID KENDRICK is the owner of Lion Speaking Agency, LLC in Atlanta, GA. As a native of Rochester, NY, he has overcome adversity to become a beacon of hope and voice of empowerment in his community. His life story is one that he uses to provide inspiration, motivation, and leadership to others. While deployed to Iraq, a sniper fired rounds into both of his legs, leaving his military career in shambles. Yet, he was determined not to let the near death experience stop him.
His story is familiar amongst service members who had to leave their military careers behind because of visible and invisible wounds. He served in the United States Army for five years, before his service was cut short by a sniper's bullets, resulting in a broken femur bone, a severed femoral artery, and loss of use of his toes. He spent three months in the hospital and over two years in physical therapy before receiving an honorable discharge in 2010 at the age of 23. But, his story does not end there.
Currently, Kendrick lives in Atlanta, Georgia where he founded Lion Speaking Agency, LLC, a professional speaking agency that works to provide leadership training, resume writing, youth counseling, and community outreach. These services are designed to provide veteran empowerment. Having experienced the anguish that sometime accompanies physical therapy, he learned valuable lessons during his healing process that he uses to inspire others.
Kendrick learned that you have to focus on making progress. That is where he got the slogan for his company, “Slow Progress Is Better Than No Progress”. His slogan can become an everyday mantra. David says, “People rebound from injury but the most important thing you can do is make progress every day.
When you are injured, your recovery is up to you. No one else can go to physical therapy for you, you must own it and what you put in is what you get out.”
Kendrick personally applies his focus on progress in pursuit of higher education. “It seems like I have been in school forever, but greatness takes time. Many people want life to be a lottery where they can just have success dropped on their laps instead of working hard for it.”
True to his message, Kendrick chooses to do the work, which also empowers him as a leader and motivator. As a young man, he attended summer school, seemingly; all four years of high school. He even had to go to summer school during his senior year just to become eligible to join the Army. Not letting his past educational difficulties distract him, he recently made the Dean’s List at DeVry University due to his investment into his education.
There’s more to him than meets the eye. David is a member of The Mission Continues Service Platoon in Atlanta. “We are a nonprofit veteran group that also gets involved in the community through volunteer service. There are Service Platoons all across the United States.
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12 MILITARY GREEK LIFE Magazine JAN/FEB 2016
by R. Watts