WEBVTT - He Worked for Free—Then Changed My Life (From The Vault) 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:05.280 Hey, everybody, welcome to Shop Talk, episode three of three 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:10.080 on our mini cast. Give you just a ten to 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:12.320 twelve minute thing to listen to, and today we're going 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:17.880 to be talking about commitment or dedication or dedication and commitment, 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:21.560 but we're going to look at it through the lens 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:29.000 of a very special person who entered my life and 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.960 recently left this earth right after these brief messages from 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.920 our generals sponsors. All right, everybody, welcome to three of 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.159 three Shop Talk. We're going to talk about commitment or dedication. 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:45.920 I can't really decide which word best describes what this 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.040 shop talks about, but we'll call a commitment. And when 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.839 you think about commitment, you think about, I don't know, 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.360 being on time, a commitment of marriage, a commitment to work, 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.440 being dedicated to your word, doing what do what they're 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.440 gonna do. All of those things are true. But I 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:13.119 think there's levels of commitment maybe or depth of dedication. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:20.680 And I think when you run across people who demonstrate 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.959 a depth of dedication and a deep level of commitment, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.840 that they are inspiring. One of the most inspiring people 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.200 I've ever met my wife as a guy named Sam Quinn. 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:40.880 Sam was a marine and after the Marines, he entered 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.800 a world in the sixties as a young black guy 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:52.920 looking for opportunity, looking for love, looking for work. Sam 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.200 didn't find much of that. But what he did find 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.920 was he found alcohol and he found trouble. I didn't 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.560 know Sam then. When I met Sam was in two 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.400 thousand and one, shortly after I started my business. We 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:10.240 were on a wing and a prayer. I didn't have 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.240 much money, and the equipment that I was installing to 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.679 start this fledgling business was it was wore out when 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.520 I got my hands on it, and literally I drug 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:26.640 old pieces of equipment out of the weeds behind large 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.960 furniture manufacturers and paid three hundred dollars cash, and frankly, 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.520 the people that owned those furniture manufacturers just glad to 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.600 see that stuff go and brought it back to my 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.760 place here in Memphis and fixed it up and started 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:43.320 using it. That's really the genesis of how I started 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:48.639 my business. And we started operations in September of two 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:54.040 thousand and one. And when you're running lumber in a 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.080 manufacturing process, you've got packs of lumber with board stocked 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.640 on top of each other, but you got a great 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.720 got to do things to them. So you got to 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.600 get them in single fashion, and you don't want to 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.160 sit there and hand handle every single board. So there's 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.040 a machine called a tilt toist, which tilts the pack 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.280 to a forty five degree angle, then hoist it up 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.160 in the air so that each level, each layer of 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.160 the lumber slides out onto moving chains that then take 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.440 it across the face of an inspector who looks at 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.840 the lumber and boards and inspects it as they pass 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.959 them by. And then once it passes in by, they're 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.560 then pulled back off the chain and made back into packs. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:39.480 That's kind of how lumber is handled in our industry. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.480 And we just started operations. I'd spent all the money 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.280 I'd had, I was way in debt and we needed 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.840 to generate sales, and we were operating then going, and 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.480 the reality was I was grading lumber and working outside 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.000 on the yard every day. And then when three o'clock 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.840 happened and the shift shut down and the hourly guys 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.040 went home, then I spent the next six hours on 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:08.520 the phone calling customers buying lumber. And it was stenuous, 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:15.960 and one Friday, our til toys broke. And that sounds 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:17.880 like a bad thing. But when your til toys breaks 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.599 and you're already broke and you've got great revenue the 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.760 next week by making lumber and shipping lumber, and you 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.720 can't do it. You have to get that thing running. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:33.880 And so my maintenance manager, my yard manager, and I 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.160 knew that this was going to be an all weekend deal. 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.039 We saw the sun rise and set three times before 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:45.560 we ever went home. We had to basically take the 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.360 entire till toys apart with torches, remove chain, fixed brockets, 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.159 rewire a motor, and put it all back together. And 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:59.119 it's very heavy industrial stuff. And about five point thirty 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.359 that Friday evening we started working. In about six point fifteen, 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.400 I looked up and there's this guy, Sam Quinn, a 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.000 guy hired only a month and a half early earlier 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.400 to pull lumber. Six dollars and seventy five cent an hour, guy, 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.679 just manual labor. And he walks in and he picks 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.040 up a ball pen hammer and starts heading to the 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.520 other side, and I was like, oh, Sam, what are 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.520 you doing? He said, Well, we need to get this 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.800 toilt hoys running so we can run Monday and we 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.599 can make money and I'm like saying, yeah, you're right, 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.520 but I can hardly afford to pay you forty hours. 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:37.599 I can't pay you to be here, and I sure 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.240 can't afford time and a half. And he looked at 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.239 me and said, I hadn't been a part of anything 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.200 since the United States Marine Corps, and I feel a 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.680 part of this company. I don't want you to pay me, 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.000 but I ain't going home either. I'm not going to 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.360 let you guys work and me watch. And he went 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.839 to work. We slept on the floor or the deck 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:06.240 when I say slept a couple hours covered in torch, soot, 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:15.120 hydraulic oil, grease, filth, sawdust. Woke up, Lisa brought some biscuits, 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.480 and we worked all that Saturday, and then we worked 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:24.360 all that Sunday and literally Monday morning, about five point 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.520 thirty in the morning, we finished and finally got that 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.000 stupid thing put back together in operational thirty minutes before 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.120 the line crew showed up start running again. Monday. None 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.280 of us went home, none of us had a shower, 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.800 and Sam did all that with us for nothing, And then, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:48.000 to my absolute shock, when the line turned on, Sam 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.120 came out of the bathroom after cleaning himself up and 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.240 pulled the lumber for eight hours behind that chain to 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.840 hit his Monday shift before he went home Tuesday night. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.880 Over the course of that weekend, and you got nothing 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:04.839 else to do, you learn a lot about one another. 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.480 And I found out about Sam's past, and I found 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:14.160 out he had no major violent issues with the law, 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:20.360 but lots of DUIs and things he hadn't paid, and 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:30.640 really became systemized, institutionalized like many are that come from 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.520 where Sam comes from. Because you got to have a 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:35.000 car to go to work. But if you can't afford 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.440 a driver's license, you get pulled over, you don't have 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.760 a driver's license, get a ticket, you can't afford to 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:41.880 pay for the ticket. If it's between paying the ticket 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.400 or putting gas in your car and paying the light bill, 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.920 you don't pay the ticket. Then you get a warrant. 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.560 Then the county starts putting interest on top of your 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.520 ticket and penalties, and what was a forty dollars ticket 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.640 becomes a thousand dollars ticket, and then there's a warrant 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.840 out for your arrest. Then you're arrested, then you got 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:06.520 a post bail. It's a never ending downward vacuum spiral 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:11.160 of misery that people find themselves in. And I'm not 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.280 excusing it, but it's just the reality of what happens 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.320 to a lot of a lot of poor folks. And 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:21.200 that was Sam's world. And he told me about it, 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.720 and I told him, I said, Sam, you know you 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.200 got to take care of responsibilities. I kind of get 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.880 why you ended up where you are, but if I 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.200 help you out and we find a way to get 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.160 all this cleaned up and straight, he looked at me 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:39.880 and eyes he said, I'll never go back. He was 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:46.719 living at Lighthouse Ministries, which is a daily rented room 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.280 for eight hours a night thing. He literally was almost homeless. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.000 The next two and a half years. We worked with attorneys, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:02.200 We worked with all kinds of people to clear his record, 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.679 pay his fines which I loaned the money for, and 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:13.760 he paid me back and get himself straight. Then his girlfriend, Regina, 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:19.079 he married and he adopted her children because he believed, 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.160 if you're going to commit to a woman, you need 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.760 to commit to the children, and they don't need to 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.360 be living in the same house. And he actually got 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.600 a marriage license, got married, and adopted the kids as 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.720 his own. And then I'll never forget the pride on 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.920 his face when he'd saved himself thirty five hundred dollars 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:40.760 to put a down payment on a home which he 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:45.200 bought for his wife and his children. Over the course 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.600 of time of the company, he went from that low 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.680 level common labor job and ended up being a manager 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:56.240 on the yard at my company. There was no prouder 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:58.880 human being on the face of the planet than Sam 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.880 Quinn because what he found out was this life that 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:07.200 he'd screwed completely up. He was able to fix with 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:12.040 commitment and dedication. Commitment to a wife, commitment to his bills, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:18.680 commitment to his children, commitment to his job, dedication to 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.840 those things. And it changed his life, and it changed 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:23.640 the life of his wife, and it changed the life 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.520 of his children. But more importantly, not more importantly, but 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:33.800 maybe with greater perspective for me, it changed mine. I 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:42.160 watched a formally homeless, alcoholic drug using person living at 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.880 Lighthouse Ministries with half a chance to be committed and 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:54.920 dedicated to something better become my friend. There was never 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.360 a time that this company was dealing with difficulties, the 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:00.679 same one the first in line to volunteer out. There 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.000 was never a time that I didn't have a need 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.640 that Sam wasn't the first to volunteer to help. He 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:11.240 was so ultimately committed as a friend and an employee 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:16.880 and a father and a manager that he inspired everybody 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:24.199 at this company and me. About two years ago, Sam 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:29.440 got diagnosed with a really terrible form of cancer. And 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:31.360 when he told me about it, he looked me dead 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:33.960 in the eyes and he said, I don't think I 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:35.800 can beat it. I'm going to try to extend my 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.200 life as long as I can. And he said, I'm 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.679 paying for some of the things I did when I 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.320 was young, And he told me there were times he 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:52.559 sniffed paint, and there were times that he drank rubbing alcohol, 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.360 and there were things he did to his body that 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.520 his body was now no longer to off and he 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:05.160 was paying for. But he he wasn't a victim to it. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.440 He didn't even gripe about it. He kind of said, 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.160 I'm a man. I made those decisions and now I'm 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:13.520 paying for them. And he just looked me dead in 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.680 the eyes and he said, Bill, just no, I want 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.280 to work. I don't want to miss a day. And 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.240 I'm like, Sam, you got cancer, I mean, come on, 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:27.880 and He's just with this steely look in his face, 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.240 said I'm going to deal with it, but don't not 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.199 let me run my line, don't let let me work. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.760 It was his dedication and commitment to work and the 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.439 dedication commitment of the business and the people in the 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.400 business to him that changed his life, and that was 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.880 what he cared about most, even when he was dying 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:54.240 of cancer. This man would schedule his treatments early in 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.480 the morning and would show up in the Debta summer 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:02.440 working on a production line in a lumberyard with dust 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.920 and noise and loud stuff, and be at work thirty 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.160 minutes after treatment treatment that most people would go home 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:12.960 and lay in bed for two or three days, and 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.120 this guy would come and stand on his feet for 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.680 eight hours in the hot sun or the cold, brutal 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:23.160 winters in this unforgiving atmosphere that is a lumber mill 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:31.000 and manage his people. I cannot tell you the depth 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.960 of the inspiration that people had knowing that that's what 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:42.200 Sam was doing. See, it was not just his commitment 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.040 dedication the company that mattered, but it was it was 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:51.719 the commitment and dedication that we showed to him. It 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:58.680 changed lives. It changed perceptions, and it changed me. About 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.559 five months ago, I was pulling onto the yard and 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.480 I saw Sam coming across the yard with some of 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.920 his materials, and oh my god, he could barely walk. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.719 Sam was not a tall or big man, but he 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:20.520 was a chiseled guy. And by this time his clothes 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.040 were hanging off of him. You could see all the 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.360 bones and veins in his neck and his clavical through 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:34.560 his T shirt. And he was in pain. And I said, Sam, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:41.320 how you doing. I'm good, boss, Sam, how you doing? 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.720 He looked at me dead as he said, I'm hurting. 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.240 And I said, Sam, there has been no more committed, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.360 dedicated human being that I've ever seen to anything in 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.000 my entire life. Why don't you give yourself a break 0:14:55.040 --> 0:15:00.080 and take a rest? And he said, I'll be fine. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:05.720 He died three days later. His dying days were walking 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.960 around a lumberyard. Because he was dedicated and committed to 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.200 what was dedicated and committed to him and changed his life, 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.000 and in doing so, he changed the lives of everybody 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:21.080 around him. He remains an inspiration. He's been gone now 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.320 for months, but people still call the line that he 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:30.440 worked on. Sam's line. Problems come up around the yard 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.080 and some of the other managers and other employees will 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:39.800 immediately say, well, what would Sam have done? Sam Quinn 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:45.480 has an everlasting legacy on my company, on my children, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:51.720 on my employees, and on me because of what a 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.960 depth of commitment and dedication meant in his life and 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.680 what it meant to the lives of those around them 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:07.800 who experienced that depth of commitment and dedication. So when 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.120 you think about committing to something in the future, I 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.720 hope you might think about Sam Quinn. It's more than 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.880 being on time. It's more than saying yes I will. 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.600 It's more than just being a person of your word. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:31.680 True commitment and true dedication inspires and it changes the 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.080 perceptions of people around you and ultimately will change your 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:42.160 own life. So when you commit or dedicate something, do 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.480 it like Sam would do. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:47.120 you next week.