The Path of Rocks and Thorns: Leadership Lessons from a Prison Cell

Not all leaders rise. Some are forged in fire.

Doug Smith was a social worker, a policy insider at the Texas Capitol, and a father—until untreated mental illness and addiction led him to rob a bank and land in prison for nearly six years.

The Path of Rocks and Thorns isn’t a redemption story dressed up for TED. It’s a descent. A reckoning. And, ultimately, a resurrection.

Structured like Dante’s Inferno, this unflinching memoir follows Smith’s journey through the darkest corners of his past—childhood trauma, shame, self-sabotage—and into the brutal clarity of prison. But within the chaos, he found something most leadership books never fully embrace: truth.

This is not a “five steps to better leadership” book.

It’s a call to strip away the lies we tell ourselves and lead from a place of radical honesty, humility, and earned wisdom. Smith shares what he learned teaching sexual assault prevention inside prison walls, what it means to rebuild a life from nothing, and how leadership isn’t about status—it’s about service, integrity, and the ability to rise from your own wreckage.

For those stuck in cycles of failure, fighting to recover, or questioning their worth—this book doesn’t offer comfort. It offers something better: permission to lead anyway.
The Path of Rocks and Thorns is a raw and necessary read for anyone tired of corporate platitudes and hungry for something real. The truth is ugly. So is growth. But that’s where real leadership begins.