chance meets determination
my dad wasn't able to be a part of my day-to-day life in my early years. he was a long-haul trucker & regularly drove to America. he was away from home for days to weeks at a time, and hated that he couldn't be there for me & my sisters.
so, like most people, he and his friends met at Tim Hortons, ordered coffees, and started talking business. what was going to be the next big thing? how could they get out of trucking and into knowledge work? how could they increase their time spent with their children without losing everything?
and, like most of those hang outs, nothing was decided. there were no good ideas thrown around.
but as they were leaving, he found a ripped up ad in a parking lot.
INSURE YOUR LIFE. CALL 1-800-236-
the last 4 digits were gone. he picked it up and put it in his pocket as he was leaving. he didn't even end up going home, he went to the library, checked out anything related to life & disability insurance, and got to studying.
he spent his nights & weekends trying to figure out the last 4 digits of that number. 10,000 possible combinations, it took him weeks, but he finally got it. when the insurance agent picked up the phone, my dad asked him to take him under his wing, he was hungry to work - he was an engineer spending time away doing something he didn't love.
my dad ended up becoming one of the best performing insurance agents in the city, and I see him all the time now (maybe too much)
it's funny how life works. that wasn't even an opportunity! he just made it one! he went out of his way to show that he was serious about changing his circumstance. the last 4 digits not being there were actually a blessing, because in those weeks that he was trying to dial the number, he learned enough about the industry to have a productive conversation.
sometimes I think about how hard it was for my parents to restart from zero to raise us in canada. it would just be disrespectful to not make them proud