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Adam, have you ever thought about becoming a Wall Street investment banker, losing all your money and turning to the government for help?

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I have not.

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Maybe that would be an interesting experiment! Adam, there was a guy in the homeless shelter who said something to you that helped you get a job that paid well. Can you tell us about that?

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That’s my favorite part of this story. That was really the turning point for me in Charleston. I had been applying for jobs and two weeks in, nobody was hiring me. I was having spaghetti dinner at the homeless shelter one night and complaining about the economy. I mean, here I am – Adam Shepard, the king of the American Dream, “you can do it,” I’m proving the Dream – and I was complaining at a homeless shelter! The great thing about the shelter is that nobody is afraid to share their opinion; they’ll tell you what they really think. There was a guy – Phil Coleman – who piped in and said that I had to go out there and get the job. They weren’t going to call the shelter, which was the number I had put on the application. So I went to the moving company the next day, just like Phil Coleman had told me. I said, “Kurt, my name is Adam Shepard. I’m the greatest mover you’re going to find. So hire me or not. I’ll come in and work a day for free.” I just gave him this speech and he hired me on the spot. What’s interesting is that I took advice from a guy at the shelter who I wouldn’t have looked twice at in my “real life.” So that was a great humbling experience and it helped me turn the corner on this whole project.

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Something else – you waited for that guy at the moving company to show up. I think a lot of us expect that phone call. We think we’ve done our part. We went in and filled out the application. Now they need to call us. But Phil encouraged you to go and do whatever you had to so you could have a face-to-face meeting with the guy who would hire you.

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Exactly. And the moving company job was a job that I wanted. I was going to do anything possible until he sent me out the door with a definitive no. It’s a job that requires skill, of course, but it’s a skill you can learn if you’re willing to work. I wanted to meet the guys who were doing this work. It’s crazy – everybody’s moved their little apartment or home. But I wanted to meet these guys who were moving furniture eight to ten hours a day, six days a week, week after week after week.

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Or maybe even eighteen hours a day, at least once?

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Oh, yeah, the eighteen-and-half hour move. That was just crazy, an incredible experience – to start at nine in the morning and finish, literally, in the middle of the night. The great thing about that move, and I won’t get into detail about it now, was that every move after that was a piece of cake! Once you’ve done a move like that, you’re ready for anything. It was tough; it was a challenge for sure, but it prepared me for the next steps.

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Here’s something that intrigued me, Adam. You got a good job but you didn’t move out of the shelter right away. Man, I think I would have booked it. Why did you stay?

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There are two reasons I stayed at the shelter. First of all, I was able to save money and then when I first moved out, I was able to buy a truck and I could move up from there. But also, I was meeting guys who were so much more fascinating than me. I wanted to be able to tell their story and to really talk to them and see where they come from. That’s what this was all about for me. It wasn’t just to dip into a homeless shelter for a week or two. I really wanted to stay there for a little while. But you’re right – the moving company was a great job to have – because I was able to go out, work hard, make $9 an hour and get a tip now and then. I was able to save a lot of money for sure.

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We don’t want to tell anyone the ending, so we’ll stop here with the progression of the story. For anyone who has to go to a homeless shelter or wants to live vicariously through you, what are some tips for living in a homeless shelter?

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Oh my gosh, so many tips. Bring your own soap. Bring your own toiletries and towel. When you go into a shelter, you have to keep to yourself. I didn’t go in and act like I was above the shelter. I went in, hung out, and sat in a corner. Eventually, I was able to work my way in to be part of the group. I think that’s what’s so important – I had to humble myself. And the way I was able to connect with these guys was what was so great. Stereotypes are being shattered while some are being proven true. The bottom line … the whole way through here … is that you can’t take anything for granted. It doesn’t matter where you live – in a homeless shelter or on the Upper East Side – you can’t take anything for granted. That’s what this whole story is all about.

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That is awesome. What I learned from this, Adam, is that it pays to spend money on conditioner but not lunch because you ate Vienna sausages on crackers for lunch. So we learned a lot about you just in those choices!

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Even if you’re poor, you can be vain!

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We thank Adam so much for sharing his story with us. We highly recommend that you read his great book, Scratch Beginnings.

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
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Related posts

Starting from Scratch – Part 1

Finding Your Passion One Week at a Time

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I loved your book, Adam. There were times when I couldn’t put it down because I was worried about you! I can’t imagine what your mom and your dad must have felt.

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They definitely did not sleep much on that first night … that’s for sure.

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I can imagine, because your first night was quite traumatic.

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I was in Charleston, South Carolina. There’s the Rhett Butler “Gone with the Wind” side of town, but then there’s also the other side of town. I arrived in a pretty shady part of town, so I think my parents were right to be a little bit nervous.

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The “Scratch Beginning”

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Let’s go back to the “scratch beginning” because you didn’t have to be homeless. You had just graduated from college.

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Yeah, I graduated from college and told my mom and dad I was going to be homeless for a year. The project was for me to start with $25 and the clothes on my back, in a city randomly chosen out of a hat, to see if in one year I could have $2,500, a car, and a furnished apartment. For me, that was the idea of the American Dream.

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You had some rules. You weren’t able to use your old contacts, your credit, or anything.

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Right – and no college education. The whole idea is that I was starting from scratch. I had to take blue-collar work. I couldn’t just go out and get a job as an accountant. I tried to level the playing field as much as possible.

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And why? Why did you want to do that?

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I wanted to represent a story that many people can resonate with. I didn’t want to use any special skills or talents. I’m just a regular guy and that’s what this story is all about – regular guys that I met along the way that are making things happen. There’s no trick here that I’m using.

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So now going back to that first night, you really got lucky twice.

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And not getting lucky the way you want to get lucky in college either!

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That’s how I could have spent my $25! There was a lady who told me where I needed to go; she could see that I was a stranger to town. So she told me to go to the homeless shelter. As I was waiting at the bus stop, I had a confrontation … well, a near confrontation. I thought he wanted money, but he didn’t. There was just this miscommunication. I narrowly defeated the book being just twelve pages long by getting on the bus and heading down to the shelter!

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Moving Out

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So tell us, how did you start working your way out of the shelter?

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The shelter was great because I had a place to sleep and hard boiled eggs in the morning. So I was able to save my money instead of having these expenses. So that was the whole idea – to put money away – as opposed to spending it on other things like beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. I wanted to save my money. For the first two weeks, I did little day labor jobs – anything I could get my hands on to get money today for things I needed right away – pants, shirts, shampoo, and I’m a total pretty boy so I needed conditioner. But then the idea was for me to get a permanent job where I had money coming in and I could control the money going out.

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You say that the shelter was great. I know from reading your book that there were some things that weren’t so great. You make it sound really easy – you were living for free, you could go and get a job – but some people don’t leave the homeless shelter. What do you think is the reason for that?

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I know that when I do interviews it sounds like this was just a walk in the park. When you read the book, you see that it was much more challenging than that. I think the difference between one guy, who’s able to make it out, and another guy is so complex. There are all kinds of dynamics – mental illness, addictions – that plays into this. But if you put a healthy guy next to another healthy guy, the one who has the better attitude, that strong work ethic, and who wants to get out, he can get out. I think that’s what is so great about my experience in the shelter. I made it out; I did it. But there were guys right along side me that had these plans – to get out of there in 30, 60, or 90 days. They had that attitude and focus to get out.

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I know your major wasn’t sociology but this was an amazing sociological experiment. You did this from “scratch beginnings” as you say. To me, your story illustrates so well how any of us can get to that next level in life. It’s the same thing. One person will make it; another person won’t. It comes down to attitude, focus, setting realistic goals and a number of complex things as you said.

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Absolutely. I think that’s why I’m so passionate about this story now. Whether I’m speaking to a college, a corporation, or a homeless shelter, it’s the same! It doesn’t matter if you have $25 or $25,000. It doesn’t matter what kind of educational background you have. There’s somebody out there just like you that’s fighting and clawing for the top. That’s why it’s always a hustle. The American Dream and the American spirit exist at every socio-economic level. That’s where I think the value in Scratch Beginnings is. You can read it and it relates to your life no matter where you are. It’s always a hustle!

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Learn more about Adam and purchase his book at scratchbeginnings.com. Next time, we’ll continue talking with Adam and find out how one shelter resident helped him turn things around. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00278-120308.mp3

Related posts

Starting from Scratch – Part 2

Finding Your Passion One Week at a Time