real conversations about life and the value of time (feat. Jay Setchell)

I think, I think your story really is so impactful, and I think a lot of people can really learn and hear from it of never giving up, and I think that's why you're here today sitting down having this conversation.

It's, you never did give up that fight, you never did really give up that urge to keep going.

Um, well, everything that's happened to you in life, how are you doing today, and w- what's kind of been some things that you have, going forward, and have on your kind of bucket list to do and m- but more importantly, how are you doing today? With everything that's happened to you, how are you doing today?

I'm, I'm doing pretty good.

I'm, I live in a lot of pain.

Uh, my paralysis is not getting any better.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, my left arm moves pretty good, but I, I've never given up.

I mean, uh, uh, about 10 years ago, my wife and I, my wife mentioned, she said, "Hey, let's, let's, let's..." Uh, about, yeah, right after 10 years, a little over 10 years ago, um, she said, "Let's build a fishing cabin." Well, but it was gonna be to sell.

And, you know, well, but the thing is, if you wanna put, um, get it, get somebody to, um, uh, have to get a loan to buy it, uh, a lot of times they're gonna wanna have, uh, uh, what do you call it? Um, they're gonna wanna have a warranty on it.

Well, I found out that if you do this, well, anyhow, it developed that we started 10 years ago, and I w- I was, I was on a walker then.

I was on a wa- I, I was able to walk, uh, Noah, after I broke my neck.

I, I walked out of the, the hospital not very well.

I walked out on leg braces and crutches and b- a halo cast bolted to my skull and blood coming down, but, but I walked.

And, and, and, uh, and when they took the halo cast off, and I got better, I got to where I had one leg brace on a leg.

Well, till now I'm in a wheelchair.

Um, but I walked with a cane and crutches for, uh, about 17 years, and then I had brain stem surgeries and that put me back on a walker, and because I couldn't, my legs quit working.

And, uh- So I was on a, well, I quit working quite a bit, but I was on a walker, so I went through that for, uh, about another 17 or 18 years, and then about seven and a half years ago, I got in a wheelchair.

[coughs] But 10 years ago, we started building houses, and, uh, we built one house, and we built four houses, and we built 10 hous- or no, 12, and then we built 16, and we built real high-end houses.

So I don't let it slow me down.

I look at what, what's the possibility? Where is it gonna go? And two years ago, a gentleman came, uh, uh, Mark Van Sierra, he's a, he was a CEO with, uh, the Pacific Institute, and they're, they, they've worked with, um...

The gentleman that started it was Lou Tice.

He's ba- passed away several years ago, but he was big into mindset and, and, and, and looking at the future and, and, uh, um, motivational, being inspirational, blah, blah, blah.

And I had been through a class back in '76 that he put on when I just happened to, long story, um, and, but Mark came and saw me, and Mark was, didn't start working for him for 20 years, 25 years.

So I was way ahead of the game.

But I, when I went through that class of mindset and thinking it's possible and can you do things, I already thought that, and I thought that because of the way I was raised.