My Beginnings….

I can honestly credit one experience in my life that has permanently altered my life’s path to the direction it is going now. It was the spring of 1999 and my sophomore year in college. I was attending Univ. of Wisconsin- Madison and having a hell of a time partying and having fun. I had decided to go to school there to get away from my parents that I had built a lot of animosity towards. I guess going their and being so free was a bit much for me. I got lost into the world of drugs and alchohol but I’m sure it was me covering up my pain. I was at the brink of failing out of school. I had credit card collections calling my cell phone constantly, I was eating my roommates food just because I had no money to buy my own due to it all going to buying weed, opium, mushrooms, LSD, etc. My mom had disowned me and cut me off. I do have to thank my dad for his unconditional love and sending me money without my mom knowing…

SO that spring, I met this girl named Michelle Mitchell, who convinced me to go with her to Arkansas that summer and sell books door to door with the Southwestern Company. All my friends kept telling me it was a cult and that they were going to brainwash me. Well they were half right, they did brain wash me… but only for me to believe that I could be better. That summer, showing up at sales school and meeting so many people that were so positive and motivated made me want to change. That summer, I spent the whole day with only my thoughts. The first few weeks were pure mental hell. You don’t realize how weak you really are until you are forced to walk around in the middle of Arkansas starting at 8am with a 20 lb bag of books, in 100+ degree weather getting door after door slammed in your face until 10pm at night. All those skeletons in my closet started to surface and with no drugs to escape it, I had to do a lot of self talk and self reflecting. I cried a lot that summer…. Maybe more than my entire life. While sitting on the sidewalk or under a tear crying, every tear that rolled down my cheek felt like a small weight being lifted from me. I still remember a day where I sat in a cul de sac and a little boy came up to me asking me why I was crying and I just told him that I was happy… then I realized that even though I had cried more than I ever had before, I was the happiest I had been in a long long time.

That summer, I met 3 people that I feel are my kindred spirits. My student manager Michelle Mitchell, was the only person that believed in me at my darkest hour. Whether she was doing it because of business or genuine care, it did not matter. All that mattered was that she was that lonely hand that reached out and pulled me out of the quicksand I had fallen into. I felt like my weekly meetings with her was the only time of the week that made me happy. I remember our first meeting, she made me sit and read a quote, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t want to do.” I still remember that as the day that changed my life…..

The second person was Marty McCrea. He was actually the student manager that I had to stay with that first summer in Arkansas along with Larry Johns who would be the third. The greatest thing was that Marty treated me just like his own recruit (Larry). The good thing was that I didn’t have to share the same bed with Marty like Larry had to for a full summer. If you ever meet Marty, you will know what you DON”T wanna sleep with him… lol. For all you girls out there.

But to be serious, Marty was always supportive when he picked me ad my trusty book bike up from my usual corner at the end of the day. Half the time, I’d be feeling down and he was always so positive and always made me feel better. Larry, I think, knows me very well. He is one of those people in my life that has seen me at my weakest. We shared the same experience that summer and actually the following summer since we both continued on for 1 more summer.

That summer I realized that my parents didn’t always do things right but they had good intentions. I also learned that the importance of setting goals, working hard, taking risks and doing things that unsuccessful people didn’t want to do. This was the start of my journey to success and my awakening to a greater purpose. Thank you Southwestern, thank you Michelle, Marty and Larry for being their to pick me up and dust me off every time I fell down. Life is about giving, so you have all given me so much, I must return the favor one day….. that day starts today!