Captain Gerald Coffee Speaking Topics

• Overcoming Adversity: Beyond Survival

• Teamwork: Partnerships to Win

Leadership: Empowering & Inspiring Others Time for Heroes

Beyond Survival

Captain Coffee gives a moving account of his incredible experience from capture to ultimate release. His faith • in himself, others, his country, and his God • was the key to turning an unbelievably difficult, potentially devastating experience into an opportunity for personal growth. Captain Gerald Coffee is an inspiring example of the power of the human spirit to survive and triumph over the most adverse circumstances. His story conveys a positive message that we each have the potential to survive any ordeal, overcome any obstacle, achieve any goal. After hearing him, those in the audience will look at their challenges and adversities in a totally different way.

Captain Coffee uses "tap code" to personalize his message. Prisoners were forbidden from communicating with each other, so they employed the centuries old prisoners tap code based on this alphabet matrix to tap out covert messages to each other on the walls of their cells. Captain Coffee demonstrates tap code to illustrate the importance of communication, both in prison as well as in corporate and personal lives.

HIS MESSAGE FOCUSES ON ...

**COMMUNICATION** Prisoners weren't allowed to communicate, but we still found ways to do it. We created a new language. Tap Code. It consisted of five rows of five letters each. By tapping on our cell walls, we passed information, poetry, even learned new languages.

**LEADERSHIP** We kept faith in the leadership of our senior officers, who taught us that commitment, courage and character really count. In solitary, I learned that leadership starts with self knowledge and understanding, accountability, and integrity.

**MASTERING CHANGE** I suddenly found myself thrust into a totally foreign, hostile environment with no source of strength except that which I found within me. Ultimately, that was enough.

**TEAMWORK** Our motto in prison was simple: Unity Over Self. Our very survival depended on it. It was based upon faith in and loyalty to one another. Unity over self...not a bad corporate motto.

**HUMOR** My first shower was in a dank, converted cell with water dripping down from a rusty pipe. Totally dejected, I looked up to let the water splash on my face and saw the words scratched on the wall by another POW before me: Smile you're on Candid Camera.

**OVERCOMING ADVERSITY** I walked several miles a day in my tiny cell • three steps and a turn. I vowed to find the purpose in my adversity and pain and come home better, tougher, and stronger in every way. Our mission in prison was to not just survive, but go beyond survival and return with honor.