An excerpt from Chapter 1 from the book titled, The Quiet Rich: Ordinary People Reawakening an American Dream.“
Shaun’s Success Story
I was the only one of my friends who knew how to drive a car before I was sixteen, and I was the only one who had a car,” Shaun said with pride. “The last year and a half of high school has been great. That car helped me win some friends, and I’ve shown off my mechanical hand by honoring it—I can now do things that were impossible with my other arm. I can pop off bottle caps and pull hockey pucks from the ice-cold lake. My hand is like a wrench I never have to put down! (Shaun’s hand was severed in an accident at a local wood-processing plant) Maybe I can take you for a drive soon. Hey, will you be here for my graduation?”
I said that I would like to ride with him, and that I would come to his graduation. By now the hot chocolate was long gone, and Sarah offered to go back home, prepare dinner, and call us when it was ready. Then Andy went on with Shaun’s story.
“Although Shaun accepted that he was different, he never accepted limitations. That’s where I think he discovered the power of not judging himself. He learned to trust that he could adapt with dignity to any insult thrown his way. He knew this because in overcoming his suffering, he had established peace with who he was and what his divine spirit was capable of achieving.”
I saw that Shaun was listening to his father speak about him with serenity in his face. “Thanks, Dad,” he said. “I also have good friends.”
“Tell me about your friends,” I said.
“Steve and Victor. I’ve known them since the first grade. But Steve’s going off to college after we graduate. Victor’s not going to leave; he can’t afford college.”
“What are your plans for college?”
“I’ve already been accepted into an electronics trade school that’s about twenty-five miles from here. I got a scholarship because of my arm and hand.”
That first dinner invitation from the Simons led to many others, and I was able to reciprocate over the six months I lived down the road from them. I went to Shaun’s graduation from high school and gave him voice-to-text software as a gift. I asked him to keep in touch with me in e-mails that he could speak instead of type. He sent me a thank-you note that included his e-mail address and kicked off our continued correspondence by computer. I often wondered during that time whether he would be running a stock brokerage office for me some day.
Through our e-mails, I learned that Shaun had excelled at the two-year trade school program and graduated ahead of schedule, and then he took a job with a radio-tower-operations company, driving to remote broadcasting tower locations in a four-wheel drive with the chief engineer and assisting in checking or repairing transmitters. He loved the freedom, the long drives over rough terrain, and the smell of small transmitter huts powered day and night by megavolts of electric power.
On one slow day, Shaun got a call from his friend Victor, who told him that someone couldn’t pay a repair bill and had left behind a 1956 Chevy. The two friends spent weekends fixing it to sell. After four weekends, they had it running, washed, waxed—and sold.
Shaun wrote that it was the easiest money he’d ever made, and it was fun because he was focused and collaborating with someone he cared about. Fixing and selling this Chevy was a big milestone for Shaun. Shortly after the sale, he was promoted at work and relocated to his company’s corporate office in Colorado Springs. He moved to an apartment, and for the first time, he was managing money on his own. Twice a month, he’d cash his paycheck and put money in separate envelopes to budget for particular bills. He never had much left to spend on socializing, but he managed to go to the happy hour on Fridays at a nearby restaurant and bar frequented by young locals.
Continue reading the rest of Shaun’s success story in the book, The Quiet Rich: Ordinary People Reawakening an American Dream.
Kevin J. Palmer, Author
