- Meeting with the officer who shot me
broke down a huge wall.
It was a very scary moment.
Very uncomfortable, I think for both of us.
I thought about my son in that moment,
and so I decided to make a conscious decision
not only to prepare my son for the world,
but how can I prepare the world for my son?
(solemn music)
My name is Leon Ford.
I am a author, entrepreneur, and public speaker,
and also the co-founder of the Hear Foundation.
Back in November 11th, 2012,
I was shot five times by a Pittsburgh police officer
during a traffic stop where they thought I was another guy.
I thought to myself, I can easily go on social media,
you know, slander, police officers, slander my mayor,
or I could build relationships with these people
and leverage those relationships to, you know,
share my ideas and build things that would be sustainable.
I saw a a golden opportunity
to leverage my story and my voice.
I slowly began, you know, building relationships
and connecting people to have conversations
around change and impact.
To have these meaningful, you know, conversations,
this dialogue, about issues,
but also about solutions that was rooted in love and respect
was very inspiring for me.
And it, you know, those moments encouraged me
to continue on that path.
We launched the Hear Foundation June of 2022.
Interesting, because the former Chief of Police
is my co-founder.
Our three pillars are, we focus on mental health,
we focus on workforce development,
and gun violence reduction.
And those are the three things
that the chief and I had in common.
We fund organizations.
We're empowering those leaders on the ground.
They're committed to our mission,
which is building stronger relationships
between, you know, the police and community.
And so it's just been a beautiful journey
of collaboration, of reconciliation,
of justice, and redemption, and I'm proud of it.
(solemn music)
It is very easy, you know, when you're harmed
to want some type of retribution.
You know, some days I would wake up
and be extremely positive,
and like, yeah, I wanna change the world.
And other days I'm like, 'yo, F the police' right?
And it was just this dance, you know?
But during that dance,
the light felt so much better than the darkness.
I think it was a process of acknowledging the darkness
and saying, these feelings are justified,
but making a conscious decision to move beyond the darkness.
And one of my biggest inspirations was my son,
because I began to think about
what type of world do I wanna leave from my son?
Life is complicated.
We experience some things in life
where we may end up making generalizations
about people, about places, about things,
but when we scratch beneath the surface,
we realize that life is much more complicated
than those generalizations.
I do consider myself a change-maker.
A change-maker is someone who's committed
to having a positive impact on society.
Just like, relentless in this journey of activism,
love, understanding, respect,
and just spreading ideas that matter.
I hope to change people's hearts.
I feel like there's a lot of division in the world,
there's a lot of, you know, self-hate in the world.
There's a lot of hatred that we have amongst one another,
and so I like to leverage my story and my lived experience
to pour more light into people's hearts.
But no matter how dark your life,
you know, may feel or seem, lean into that light,
lean into the smile.
You know, the love of friends, or family, or a mentor.
Embrace who you are.
Some of the most painful moments in your life
could be so transformational,
and could literally empower you
to add value to so many people around you.
I believe that there are more people working for good
then there are working for bad.
And as long as we put a spotlight
and the focus on those change-makers in the world,
we will continue to inspire one another,
encourage one another, and become that hope that we need.
There's stories that I share in the book.
They were some of the most painful moments of my life.
Now I realize that, yeah,
there's so much purpose in those moments
where I wanted to give up,
and it was just one decision that I made
to just keep pushing, to be resilient.
That really transformed my life and put me in a position
where I could inspire millions of people.
- 'Keep pushing.
Keep pushing.
Don't give up, keep pushing.
Keep pushing.
Keep pushing.'