The Glenn and Helen Show: Adam Shepard on Making it from Scratch

Great idea and great story--the notions of personal responsibility, positive approach and gratitude resonate very well with me. In fact my own book, Don't Die With Your Helmet On, emphasizes the need for each person to take responsibility for his or her own life and become accountable for the resultant outcomes. My persistent comment/question to people who are struggling is "I'm not interested in why you're in this position--tell me what you're going to do about it and how you're going to do it."

Not having entry level jobs when you're young impairs the ability to understand some of the realities of life. We've lost sight of the need to be resilient--rather there is a generalized sense of entitlement that, in my view, is the real bad apple in the American barrel. Congratulations to Adam--I'm looking forward to reading the book!

Sep 30, 2008 08:38 AM

This is great. It should become a text book for 8th graders.

Sep 30, 2008 05:20 PM

There are plenty of examples of "starting from scratch and making it in America" among immigrants. (Note: I'm talking here about the legal immigrants.) I am one of them. My wife and I landed in the US as political refugees 20 years ago, with a 6-year old son in tow, and one backpack each. I spoke decent English, but my wife and son did not. I had a high school diploma and behind me years of working various jobs, mainly physical labor, in the communist system I hated.
10 years later I had a Master's degree from a top university, a good job, and we bought our first house. My wife and son soon had their own degrees. We're currently in the 25 percent income tax bracket. I became a US citizen in 1995 and, unlike some, have always been very proud of it.

The immigrant "community" in the town where I live is pretty big and diverse. I don't know everybody, but I do know a fair number of them, and all of them are either middle, or upper middle class. Those are people from all walks of life and professions, from truck drivers, to beauticians, to small business owners, to Ph.D.'s. Some are better off than I am, especially those, who years ago decided to go into business for themselves instead of working for someone else.
I know a single mother, who does not have much in terms of formal education, works as a part-time beautician, and part-time house-cleaner. She bought her condo a year before we bought our house, and has paid it off completely a couple of years ago...

We all are very different and yet somewhat similar. We value hard work and self-reliance. We hate debt. (None of us is facing the risk of foreclosure, although many of us have mortgages.) We are not Scrooges, but like to live within our means, and having started from scratch, we don't want to do it again. :-)

We try to instill the same values in our children, with varying degress of success, because the surroundig culture is telling them something different. My son started working and earning some money when he was 14, and I gave him his own credit card at 16, so that he would learn how to manage money. I'm proud to say, that, like me, he never carried a balance on his ccredit cards, always paying them off within the grace period.

I could go on and on - heck, maybe I should write a book! :-) - but the bottom line is: yes, not only you can make it in America while starting from scratch, but it also isn't even very difficult. Like in Mr. Shepard's book: it's the attitude, stupid!
I did read "Nickel and Dimed" and was annoyed by that book, especially the author's condescending tone and her sense of disappointment that the people she worked with did not hate their "oppressors", the rich people they worked for. Instead of "class consciousness" she hoped to find, she found people, who simply wanted to one day be able to hire their own housecleaners. She wanted to see resentment and bitterness, but instead found good work ethic and dreams. The left hates that - you can't start revolutions with people like that.

Oct 1, 2008 03:56 AM

I loved this book! I passed it along to my sister who is a self described liberal. She also enjoyed it. She asked my permission to share it with friends and all the feedback has been positive. I fear that I will never see it again.

As a college dropout that now earns $65,000 a year, I know it can be done. Don't we live in the most amazing country?

Oct 1, 2008 04:33 PM

Starting from scratch is certainly still possible in America. About 25 years or so ago I showed up in Atlanta with about $400 and two free nights in the Motel 6. I was going to transfer to Georgia Tech and study robotics. I had applied already. My folks couldn't afford much, but they said they could cover at least two quarters of tuition if I could support myself. I showed up two months early to check on the status. Unfortunatley, Tech didn't think I'd met all the requirements and wondered why I was in town. Before the day was out I was over at Georgia State applying to go there.

Two days later I got a job working split shift at a local run-down motel. Two weeks later I found a room at a boarding house. (Don't ask where I slept before then.) After a couple of quarters at Georgia State, I eventually got accepted at Georgia Tech. I then proceeded to almost fail trying to work and maintain a full schedule. After a break, I was back at Georgia State and eventually got a bachelor's in accounting. It took a lot of work, but I made my goal of graduating before I turned 30. I made it with 3 months to spare and a cum laude. Other than the two quarters of tuition from my folks, my wife and I paid for the whole thing with money we earned working.

By the time I graduated, I already had my own software consulting and development business. Prior to starting my business, I'd worked at 6 hotels, The Red Cross, a large corporation and a small CPA firm. I also had a wonderful wife, a young son, a house, two cars and all the normal trappings of life. Since then I've had and sold other businesses. I've had jobs at small and large companies. I've had two more children and recently a grandchild. I've bought and sold houses and cars. I've come close to bankrupcy, but never actually gotten there yet. Currently, I'm an IT manager at a large company in Atlanta.

My life has been a normal middle-class life. It has had stress and trials and successes and joy. It has always been fun. I'm certainly not special. I just kept going. I've been fortunate to not need help from charity or the government, but I'd take it if I needed it.

Any notion that you can't start from scratch in America is just denying your responsibility for your own life. If all you have is scratch, what are you supposed to do, sit in the middle of the floor and do nothing? Wait for someone to take care of you? If you can't afford jelly with your peanut butter, buy apple butter, it's cheaper. If you can't afford beef, eat turkey balogna. Get a job paying minimum wage and make yourself so indispensible they're afraid you will quit. When you've learned enough at one job, go get a better one. If a better one isn't around, stay where you are and keep plugging.

It's your life. If all you've got is scratch, start scratching. If you can't afford something, live without it. Take responsibility for yourself and everyone depending on you, including your current employer. If you wait for others to take responsibility for you, you'll never get anywhere. If you take respsonsibility for yourself and others, you'll never had a problem moving up. If you stumble, just keep going. No one is going to fix it for you. It's your life, choose to live it. You only fail if you die when you're down. If you are still alive, you are on the road to success.

Oct 1, 2008 08:19 PM