Life & Work with Kalen Doleman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kalen Doleman.

Hi Kalen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Before I start, I must say that I attribute all of my success to God. That is the point of reference for my success. My story started when I was a child. But the story of who I have become now started later. To keep it short, when I was a child, I always said that one day I would travel the globe and invent a new way for people to see the world.

By the time I was 20, I was already traveling the world even though I came from a low-income family that couldn’t afford many things. By then, I had been to a few countries, and I decided I needed to know more about my land, so I went backpacking across the USA throughout 38 states. I did a combination of walking, taking the train, and hitchhiking. I took 500 dollars and lived on that in the USA for most of the summer. Halfway through my journey, the thought came into my head that now was the time for me to become an author and fulfill the mission I received as a child. That mission was to change the world with new thoughts and actions that backed it up.

So when I returned to University at the end of the Summer, I started writing my book. This was in the summer of 2016. When I first started, I had little money. I was just a young man full of a vision that I knew could impact many people. I always remembered the ancient wisdom of the past and wanted to make modern wisdom for the future. Not only that, but I wanted to help people expand. I always believed that humanity as a collective advanced so much materially, but while in this pursuit of technological advancement and power, we got lost and forgot to continue to advance the mind. So our material world is way beyond our mental capabilities, and we mismanage, misuse, and abuse the power of the technology we have at our fingertips.

So I started writing my book. Then part way around 2018, I stopped because I had an idea for two other books. These books became “Super Sayings to Essential Power” and Becoming Your Key,” So I wrote them and then self-published them. At the time, I had no money, so the book looked like garbage. The cover was just so ugly, but I believed the book’s content would make it successful. Within a few months, I saw I had made a few sales and freely gave out the book online. All of a sudden, I started receiving emails from people as far as Japan praising my book. A few months later, I received a message from someone in Nigeria. They told me my book was popular in their country and wanted me to attend their writer’s conference. So I agreed, and in the Spring of 2019, I went. For the first time, Iberia spoke at the event as a writer. I inspired many people and was invited to do all types of things in that country. While there, I could visit a couple of schools where I donated about 1,000 of my books. I was there for a couple of weeks, then returned to America, a changed man from that experience. And not only that, but from that point onwards, I knew that this was what I wanted to do every year since I am annually invited to Nigeria for various events. After this, I also had the money to change my book covers and make them look much better. Anyway, I believe the people there and people in other countries value what I have to say and what I have to offer to the world. And that is why they lend their ears and actions to my cause. Even though I say that, I want to clarify that I didn’t come to say I have the answers to everything. I came to be one of the people to give some new insight and directly help people, not just with my writings but by serving them. I truly believe in serving. I believe serving (helping) others have more of an impact than anything you can do in the world. You can change the world.

I believe serving is the best way to change the world because if you research the most famous person in history, you will see that it is Jesus. I bring this up because this man was not a great conqueror like Alexander the Great. He wasn’t a politician, he didn’t invent anything, he wasn’t a famous musician or anything that we would typically praise and value and try to remember, but over 2000 years have passed. He is still known by almost 6 billion people, regardless of religion and ideology. If you say that name, people know who you’re talking about. In some languages, you even have phrases using his name. Like in English, when people say “Christ!” Or “Jesus Christ man” See, he did nothing but walk around talking and serving other people, and he is remembered more than all the people they teach us about in history classes. And more known than any celebrity, he walked the earth long ago. In fifty years, most kids will hardly know any popular celebrities today, but they’ll probably know who Jesus is. He is remembered because his service to others far impacted people and the world more than any conquest, invention, or technological advancement. If not, we would remember the name of inventors or celebrities from the 1930s more than we remember them.

Again I bring this up because service is an important part of what I do. I travel the world working on projects with people. I’ve been to many countries in Africa and Europe, and now I’m in Asia. I’ve worked with producers, acted, taught, donated my books, and regularly spoken at events in different countries. My life has been very fulfilling because I served others and did all of that before I was 23. Now I am 26, and I am ready to expand and grow to the next level to do even more for the world.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
Yes, it has been a very smooth road in my dreams. But in real life, that has not been the case. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up in a not-so-economically secure environment. My mom was a single mom who also had five other kids besides me. I was the oldest, so not all of my needs or desires were attended to. But that’s always how it is for the eldest child. We get so much responsibility. I want to make it clear that my mom was not bad. She was amazing. She constantly worked multiple jobs but was paycheck to paycheck and resourceful. My mom’s hard work taught me a lot. It taught me that life is not fair but that I needed to surpass my parents’ capabilities to become the person I wanted to be. And this brings me to a theme I see in life. Adapt your strategy, whatever it may be, and do not be a weak, bumbling fool. Accept the reality of the world and seize destiny with your own hands. I knew I had great potential but was starting at a disadvantage.

As a kid, I always felt like catching up with the people around me. It was not like I was competing with them but more that I had to do more work to get the same thing. Because I was poor, I had to do all kinds of extra stuff that a kid in a stable family didn’t have to do. By the time I graduated Highschool I had confirmed that, but by then, I had excelled beyond the people I had started behind. But when I went to college, I saw it again. I was doing more to achieve the same things. For example, some kids just asked their parents for a car, and they got it. Not only that, but the parents paid all the bills and even paid for their apartments. For me, that wasn’t the case. I wasn’t allowed to work in high school, and my family didn’t have enough money to let me take the driver’s exam to get my permit or license. So I did all that in college, worked all the time, got my license, and eventually got my car and shared apartment. And as mentioned earlier, it was when I was at University that I started my writing Career. It was the end of my second year. And I had many challenges in my writing career, but I kept the idea of surpassing my limitations. One of my first major challenges came when I was going to Nigeria. When I was invited, I did not have much money, mainly because of college and some unfortunate financial events that took place during that time, so it took a lot of financial planning to organize my travel to Nigeria.

Everything from the Visa to the Airplane ticket to my actual arrival, I had no resources, and there was no one I could go to for help, so I had to figure it out all alone. Another challenge was when a publisher wanted to pick up one of my books. Negotiating for the rights and profits was a challenge as it was my first time doing something like that. I’ve had many other challenges as well, personal, financial, physical, mental, and spiritual. Writing takes a lot of energy; putting yourself and your ideas out before the world and going to places you’ve never been, where you don’t know anyone, and where people say it’s dangerous takes a lot of courage. I could go on and on about my challenges and hardships, but instead, I’d like to say something else. To succeed and achieve what you want means to have relentless faith that no matter what happens, what you aim to achieve will happen. You must look beyond what the eyes see, and you must be able to adapt your strategy.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I always consider myself primarily a writer though I do these other things. I am an author, speaker, and actor. I also had my radio show at one point and have been involved in some movie production. And I am known for my two bestsellers, “Becoming Your Own Key” and “Super Sayings to Essential Power” I say I am most proud of God. Besides that, I am proud of my mindset because it got me to where I am today and will get me to where I am going. The thing that makes me a unique individual is my perspective on the world. None of the things I have accomplished are me, meaning nothing. Those are just events that are turned into distractions by the ego. Instead, come and get to know my soul. Now that is what anyone can say as we all have a perspective.

Had we love to hear about any fond memories you have from growing up?
My favorite childhood memory is when I was still in maybe kindergarten or first grade, and I would go outside at home in March and stand on top of a hill, open my arms close my eyes and face the sky as a nice March breeze pushed my body. It felt amazing, and I felt one with nature and the universe then.

Pricing:

• Affordable books on Amazon
• $0.99 for Super Saying to Essential Power digital
• $4.99 for physical
• Becoming Your own Key $5.18 (digital)
• Becoming Your own Key $5.51 (physical)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kalen_doleman/?hl=en
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Kalen-Doleman/e/B07FQWVV65%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Image Credits
Tasha Cooney