Dear Marcus, Rut, and The Wizard,
To begin, thank you for your service and all you do daily to bring inspiration and hope back to all of us who are within earshot of your voices. I know you probably receive a ton of these, so I will try to be brief. Here is my Never Quit story. I am not a veteran, cancer survivor, or even close to the awesome guests you have on your TNQ podcast. I am however, a husband, and a father of 3. For the past 10 years, as part of my morning ritual and workout, I include a gratitude prayer. In this prayer I give thanks for those I am blessed with to have in my life (namely, family and friends), and for those who have had a lasting impact in my life. Marcus is top on this list. You see in 2008 my company shut down a significant portion of its operations, as many did at that time with the onset of the Great Recession. For most, hearing this they would say “suck it up buttercup, join the crowd, there is a lot worse out there”. For me however, this was not the case. As the father of 3 (one child with special needs), a mortgage and married to a stay at home mom (largely due to our special needs child), my options were to 1) uproot the family and relocate halfway across the world to another part of the company, or 2) take a meager severance and walk out the door. Having done the former a couple years prior, I chose the latter. Needless to say, it was gut wrenching, knowing the responsibilities I had on the home front and that I was venturing out on my own during our country’s worse economic downturn in nearly a century. It was precisely during this time that I was reading Marcus’s book Lone Survivor. In all honesty, it was reading this book (cover to cover in a single weekend) which gave me the courage to move forward. Fast forward a little over a year, and I was up for promotion and being offered a permanent position with the consulting firm I had joined as a contractor. Fast forward a couple more years, and my 2 daughters graduated from their charter school and were both accepted with scholarships into the universities of their choice. Today my special needs son is thriving. All 3 children are presently “grabbing life by horns”, exploring the world, and becoming the best versions of themselves daily. Totally oblivious to my Never Quit moment. Thank you, Marcus.
God bless always.
Tim
