What famous person would have you starstruck if you were to ever meet them? I’ve heard so many stories about people who have met their idols and then been disappointed to find out they are not as perfect as they thought. When someone overcomes great odds because of a life situation, we often think those people are somehow superhuman, but in most cases, if you meet them, you’ll realize they are just like us.
Season 3 kicks off with highlights of four previous stories we’ve told on ReAudio. You can access the full episodes here:
If you know anyone whose story should be told, email me, Todd Loomis at Todd@ReEmployAbility.com.
What famous person would have you starstruck if you were to ever meet them? I’ve heard so many stories about people who have met their idols and then been disappointed to find out they are not as perfect as they thought. When someone overcomes great odds because of a life situation, we often think those people are somehow superhuman, but in most cases, if you meet them, you’ll realize they are just like us.
Season 3 kicks off with highlights of four previous stories we’ve told on ReAudio. You can access the full episodes here:
If you know anyone whose story should be told, email me, Todd Loomis at Todd@ReEmployAbility.com.
R-E-A-R-E-A-R-E-A-R-E-A.
Speaker 2:Audio R-E-A-audio. R-e-a-audio.
Speaker 1:R-E-A-audio. R-e-a-audio. R-e-a-audio R-E-A-audio Reemployability. Reemployability.
Speaker 2:Reemployability.
Speaker 1:Season 3.
Speaker 3:Who's the most famous person you can think of? I can remember seeing how kids would react to the Beatles when they arrived in the US for the first time, or when Elvis would swing his hips and teenage girls would literally pass out. Who would make you starstruck, so much so that you'd be at a loss for words. Now, i'm a big history nerd, so I can think of a bunch of historical figures that would kind of put me in awe. Now, don't laugh, but for me, like the chance to meet Ronald Reagan or George Patton would totally blow me away. So who would you want to meet, living or not? You can choose a few. That's fine too. You got a few in your head, good. Well, here's the thing. As awesome as it would be to hang out with your idol, the fact is that they came into the world just like you did. Maybe you'd do a different financial or social situation, possibly there of a different race or gender, maybe luckier or less fortunate than you, but at the very moment that they were born, they were naked and they were slimy, just like you.
Speaker 3:All people who have accomplished anything are at the end of the day, just like you, my mom used to say, they put their pants on one leg at a time. They're people with thoughts and feelings and dreams, and fears and disappointments. You name it Same things you have Sometimes. It's hard to see that, though. Last season on REA Audio, we interviewed people who had overcome odds and achieved positive outcomes in their lives. They were just people, people that either buy choices that they made or, because of circumstances beyond their control, faced challenges and overcame them. I think of Daniel Mendez, who was working as a maintenance manager at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami when he was hit by a car in his golf cart. He had under a 10% chance of even surviving the injury.
Speaker 4:There was a crack skull and I found out later on there were three parts of cracked. I had broken ribs on both sides, a broken collar bone Again. The leg was broken six pieces, a bone I believe was protruding from the skin. I had broken pelvis too. A broken front was cracked on the middle. I had bleeding on the left side of the temple that they had to drain three times because they were afraid the pressure from the blood might affect my brain.
Speaker 3:Through the support of his loved ones and involved employer and some unique therapy. Daniel was training for a mud run. when we spoke earlier this year, there was David Weller, an employee of Tesla that was injured on the production line. He loved his job and the people he worked with, so, with his injury not allowing him to go back to work, it really put him in a dark spot. He was assigned to work in a not-for-profit in Austin for his modified duty and, through an ordinary casual conversation, mentioned that Tesla has a program where they hire people without high school diplomas for certain jobs. This opened up opportunities for dozens of folks that were being helped by the not-for-profit, giving them jobs and a firm foundation to get their lives back together.
Speaker 2:Because I know they're back when everything else. When I came into Caritas and when I was working with Tesla, i know Tesla's guidelines about employment referring people. So I approached the case managers and the program managers saying Tesla's hiring people even without a high school diploma And that was a big, big obstacle to a lot of our clients here at Caritas. We didn't have, like, a high school diploma or any kind of job skills. I'm pointing out that Tesla will hire them and train them even without a high school diploma. So that was a big hurdle And my understanding is nine to ten of our clients here at Caritas were hired into Tesla, just as not aware of it. But I've been keeping track. I don't know who the clients are, they just tell me how many clients I hired and I was very excited about it.
Speaker 3:Luis Amano. He was walking home one evening and heard his cousin being mugged by gang members. When he went to her rescue, he was shot in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down and confining him to a wheelchair.
Speaker 5:I was coming home and just on a regular night of jogging and I run into some noise and some rally, You just back and forth and then I realized somebody's in trouble here. I hear somebody desperate need of some help. As I get closer and closer I see two gentlemen It's a getaway driver and then there's one gentleman trying to stick her in the car. As I approach him, type him on the back, ask him what's going on, He tells me we're going to rape this woman. This is part of our gang initiation. I was able to fight the gentleman off, get her loose. She ran inside the house. I told her to close the door and leave it alone. I'll get back to you when everything's done.
Speaker 5:Soon, as she went inside the house she heard the gun, The noise go off from the gun. Sure enough, I was actually shot at six times, but hit twice. First one was hitting the kneecap. That kind of slowed me down a little bit, but the adrenaline was going, So there was no stopping me. I kept running. As soon as I went to jump behind a vehicle for cover, I was hitting my spinal cord by a bullet. So about T10, so it's about my belly button came straight through the back still lodged inside. And here I am, 23 years later, living as a paraplegic.
Speaker 3:Obviously, he survived his injuries and Lewis now works with other paraplegics, helping to coach them into recovery, pointing out resources and empathizing with their struggles. Finally, there's the story of Erica Hazleton, a new wife and mom who was taking a trip with her husband to their alma mater for a football game with their young son. With her young boy getting antsy, she did something that my wife has done dozens of times She unbuckled her seatbelt, turned around in her seat to comfort him. At that very moment, her car was hit by a tractor trailer and she was ejected from the car and sustained a terrible traumatic brain injury. The doctors didn't think she was going to survive either.
Speaker 1:My son had fallen asleep in the car, okay. So he woke up from his nap and he was going crazy, just losing his mind, just wanted to do something, wanted attention. So Josh and I were like buddy, oh, it's okay, it's okay. And he wouldn't stop crying, would not stop crying. So what I did? I took off my seatbelt to get in the back seat And in those 10 seconds we were hit by an ATV wheeler. I was I ejected from the car, i was hit by a windshield and I landed in the median. Josh and Hall were restrained, so they were fine.
Speaker 1:I was airlifted from the hot, from the median of the highway to the closest trauma hospital, which was in Memphis, tennessee. At that hospital I remained in a coma for eight weeks And my family was told to prepare for the worst. There was a chance I would not survive. And if I did survive if I did survive, there was a chance I would be mentally handicapped for the rest of my life, meaning I would never watch my son alone again, i would never walk again, i would never hold a job, i would never Um Take care of myself.
Speaker 3:She did survive and was training to run a half marathon when we interviewed her. These people are all heroes famous to someone, their families, their co-workers or others who've been put into similar situations, and the one commonality that I've seen in all the interviews we've done with these folks is their will, their willingness to overcome and their overwhelmingly positive attitude. I love listening to these stories because I put myself in their shoes and try to figure out if I could overcome the hurdles they've overcome. How would I react to being thrown out of a car or shot in the back? What would I do with my life if it was changed in an instant? Well, how would you react? What would you do, Especially knowing that these people are just like you and me? They put their pants on one leg at a time. So that's what we're going to do in season three of REA Audio Explore and tell the stories of more people who've overcome not life's obstacles but canyons, so that we can better relate to them and our fellow human beings, so we can connect with others that we're in contact every day and see how similar we all actually are.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to REA Audio If you want to hear the full stories of the folks I mentioned in this episode. You can click on the links to the original podcasts in the show notes. Now we need you to help us out. If you know someone whose story should be told, please let us know. Email Todd at reemployabilitycom. That email address link will be in the show notes as well. We'd love to have you follow REA Audio on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Stitcher, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also check out more content at listentoreacom. Remember, lead with the good and have a great rest of your week.