BARTOW, Fla. — The road to success differs for everyone.
For Freddie Stevenson, he faced adversity every step of the way with family, financial and emotional hardships.
After a successful collegiate football career at Florida State, the 27-year-old was signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Bears in 2017.
He lasted one preseason.
He tried to bounce around and get back on an NFL team, but was unsuccessful.
The next step in Stevenson's career put him back to square one in his life.
"I just found myself trying to figure things out after football," he said. "It was a tough time because I committed my whole entire life to being an athlete and I found myself depressed."
Unsure of his future, Stevenson felt like his football journey was a fruitless endeavor in his life. With some help from his inner circle, he came to a realization. Success is not defined by the finish line, but the path along the way.
His purpose was larger than blocks or touchdowns. He wanted to talk about the process of chasing his dream.
"My fiance told me to write a book," he said. "She told me 'you've been through a lot of things and I truly believe the reason that things aren't happening for you isn't because of your ability, I feel like God has something else for you.'"
Stevenson took her advice and released his book "Trials to Triumph" in 2019, and in just two short years later, it became a bestseller.
In his book, the 27-year-old talks about growing up homeless in the Bartow area. His father was incarcerated in prison for drug trafficking and his mother had to raise five kids on her own. Stevenson's family moved from place to place while his mother worked two to three jobs to make sure everyone was taken care of.
For Stevenson, there's one specific moment in the book that he believes caught everyone's eye, even those of Hollywood producers.
"When we were homeless, my mother only had a dollar to her name and one time when she took me and my four siblings to McDonald's, she ordered a cheeseburger and the total came out to $1.05," he said. "We didn't know at the time that she only had a dollar to her name and she had to go around and beg for a nickel to pay for the cheeseburger because the cashier was being difficult.
"When she finally pays for the burger, she goes outside and slices it up into five pieces and gives one to me and each of my siblings."
Freddie Stevenson
Officials involved with Netflix and Warner Bros. reached out to the former NFL player about turning his book and personal experiences into a documentary with the same title of "Trials to Triumph."
In 2021, a deal was reached with Stevenson, who is also an executive producer of the film, to bring his story to the big screen.
The documentary was previously released in a theater in Polk County to get the word out with the hope of worldwide distribution one day.
This time around, Stevenson said the film features other professionals who share similar adversities on their road to greatness.
"There will be so many lessons that people will be able to take away from this documentary," he said. "It's not just a film that's built around my story only because I wanted to bring in people that can provide 'Trials to Triumph' stories. A lot of people are coming in and telling their obstacles."
Some of those other people the audience can expect to see are motivational speakers Tony Gaskins and actor Maurice Benard.
Stevenson said the global release of his documentary feels like a full circle moment for him and his family.
Years after being released from prison, his father is now a pastor and his mother continues to play a big role in his life.
The Bartow native also thanks his fiance for being by his side through the good and bad moments of his life.
The biggest thing he hopes people take away from the film is never letting bad times affect the trajectory of your life.
"Every person is striving to find their peace in life, but everyone has their own different story and come from different backgrounds," he said. "A lot of us, we lose ourselves along the way and we may get caught up in some things that we're not necessarily proud of while trying to figure things out in life or make a living or whatever the case may be.
"No matter who comes in and watches this documentary, they're going to find one person that they can relate to who may have went through something that they are going through right now and it may give them a reason to continue pushing forward in life."
"Trials to Triumph" will be released worldwide and available to stream on May 2 on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube and Vimeo.
