Re: Shannon Gibson
Dear Friend, I would like to share with you a piece of my life my life and the vision I have, I expect you will find it encouraging and interesting.
A Word to Parents: Don't ever give up on your children, do not even consider it. What they're going through and putting you through is subject to change,
sometimes we must live by faith not by our understanding or reasoning: Faith and logic collide; they do not agree,
we must encourage our young people to set goals for themselves and teach them that their future is their choice; they have more control than we do over their own lives.
I was born in St. Louis Mo. I grew up for the most part in poverty, as much as our American people see of poverty... which by the way is not really poverty, we are for the most part well fed however some are unfortunate.
Bouncing around small towns of Illinois never taught to have goals or dreams of ever achieving any type of success in life.
While some measure success by wealth, I personally believe success is more a matter of the heart, A person who is a winner is not a person who never failed it is a person who never quits!
Thomas Edison failed over 10,000 times trying to make a light bulb, until he finally got it right.
Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer who never won a case, and also failed in many other ways running for different offices of government, just a couple examples of never giving up or being afraid of failure.
If at first you don't succeed...try, and keep on trying, make a decision on the inside of you to never surrender!
If you are afraid your going to fail at what ever you are trying to accomplish...look at it like this what if you do?? Big DEAL!!
Get BACK up dust yourself off and keep moving, you cannot change anything that's in the past!
But what if you don't try?? !!
Nothing in life is sure...even life itself...why not take a chance!
Your past will never predict the future unless you allow it!
I myself as a teenager, a runaway who never finished 8th grade and drug abuser / alcoholic in and out of jail,
from the time I was 13 till I was 23 I spent 6 of those ten years behind bars!
It was incredible to meet the talented / intelligent people who are behind bars, no actually it's sad.
Most are there because they simply made a wrong choice on the path of life...
took the wrong opportunity, for lack of a good opportunity, turned left when they should have turned right.
Many like myself repeatedly.
People are destroyed by lack of knowledge:
There's a man on the street his sign reads "I'll work for food" his wife hers reads:
" Our children are hungry too! "
You ask him if believes in fate he'll say "Do you think I would be here if I had any control over my life"???
There are many people who by reason of pride will not ask for or accept help...
I will tell you the truth you are where your at by you choose. Seventeen years ago I was there too!
Your Past will never predict the Future unless you allow it!
Who will give the homeless a job? He has no transportation, no phone, no clean clothes, no bus fare...what does he have to offer???
Like a baby they need to be weaned off of their way of life.
First things first...housing, clothing, steady meals, and an opportunity to make something out of their life...they need hope
(the word "hope" means a confident expectation of a coming good... it doesn't mean "aw it probably won't happen".)
Hope means: MARK IT DOWN BECAUSE IT WILL HAPPEN!
Hope is an attitude: Pete Rose at one time needed 39 hits to get the batting record, the reporter asked: "Pete how many times at bat will it take you to get 39 more hits"??
Pete replied: "39". The reporter: "What! you mean every time you go to bat you're going to get a hit"??
Pete: "Sir, when I go to bat... I don't just try to get a hit I expect to get a hit"!
Expectation, Confidence, Trust, Anticipation, Desire, Expectancy, Longing, Optimism, Prospect, Faith, Belief, Trust, Assurance, Reliance, Probability, Conviction, Boldness, Insurance, Warranty, Guarantee, Possibility, Likelihood, Dependence, Ensure, Surety, Security, Covenant, Word, Vow, Pledge, Foresight, Intuition, Premonition, Forethought, Outlook.
I remember only one occasion as a young person, I got encouragement from a counselor who told me: "One day you are going to be somebody!" that one person helped me to have hope, for that I am forever grateful.
Never tell a young person they will never amount to anything.
Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done.
God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.
At the age of 22 ended up living on a park bench at Lindell and Vandaventer in the City of St.Louis Mo.
It got cold so I asked for help from the Salvation Army, to my surprise I was given a job, a place to live and really nice clothing, for this I am thankful.
Soon I had money in my pocket and went out got drunk once again ended up getting in trouble with the police and in jail; once again I had made the wrong choice and messed up the provision I had for my life.
This time I was looking at 3 to life, one to 5, and 5 to fifteen years in prison.
I was Guilty.
What occurred in the following 60 days while in jail forever changed my life.
I looked back at the road I traveled, remembering how that I had been very gifted mechanically, I could work on and fix just about anything I put my hand to.
An incredible talented artist, musician,
I can draw a portrait of you even if you don't have any money you would find the money to buy it because it would be a photographic likeness;
many times I would be impressed with my own work;
a outgoing personality fearless to walk up to a perfect stranger and strike up a conversation; we would not be strangers for long.
I say this with humility, I realize that we don't have anything that was not given to us, weather by opportunity or otherwise...
just consider that for a minute.
With all this talent I saw very little opportunity to make anything of my life.
I didn't realize that I had any marketable ability, multitalented, multinterested but with no focus or direction,
how many are in the same position?
Seemed like a million thoughts of failure and depression bombarded the battlefield of my mind,
I realized that I had made a lot of wrong decisions that led me to where I ended up;
also, I saw my future if I continued on that road, lead to destruction,
I heard the words of my Father saying:
"A winner never quits and a quitter never wins!"
That is the only lesson that stands out that my Father ever taught me.
(He died 56 years of age never owned a house or to my knowledge a nice or new car this should not have been;
He too had many marketable talents and gifts, again people are destroyed by lack of knowledge.)
I realized how I'd been gifted and saw that I'd either lacked opportunity or didn't take advantage of opportunity along the path,
after nine months in jail an absolute miracle happened; I was found not guilty! Why was this a miracle?
I told the jury I was guilty!
And they still turned me loose!
(I did make a promise to God that if I ever got out of jail I would make a change and for once in my life I was serious.)
Miracles come...to them that believe.
Looking back now I don't regret the wrong choices I made because I learned valuable instructions, that a lot of people die never knowing :
Your destiny is chosen, You decide win or lose it's up to you.
Now I share with others at every chance, through my experience and they can have the opportunity to miss out on what I had to go through!
Some say: "Well, everything happens for a reason." They blame everything on God, good or bad, as though God plans and directs everything on this earth...BOLOGNA!
If that were the case, we would be a bunch of robots with no freedom of choice!
We choose what we do..where we live, eat, etc. Somtimes we make bad choices, and some bad choices can cost you your life!
God does not plan everything, He does however have the ability to turn a bad situation into something good.
After a few lousy jobs tried to start my own business in 1984 which failed, never did get anything stable mostly painting & roofing didn't really have any resources to do marketing didn't know enough about business, record keeping etc.
After dating for a year, Married an Awesome Woman I met in church,
she had a 6 year old Daughter an I am just crazy about the both of them!
After hit & miss working, took a job window cleaning, I hated it!
When I came to work, the owner told me that he only had a 3rd of a job for me and that I would have to make a place for myself.
After a year made manager, really because of my sales ability, I did all the marketing and really built that business, I would do anything to get new business, including cleaning the windows the first time for free...most the time I didn't even get paid for it! I was making 10% off every employee under my division, sometimes I would make $1000- $1400 a week and never even wash a window! After 8 years in professional window cleaning, averaged $35,000.00 a year, I wasn't making enough money, and had no health insurance. In 1993 The company, because of a $25,000 insurance rate increase had to cut my commission by $6000 per year, I didn't find out until 1995 two years later! So in my mind they got me for $12,000, they didn't see it that way. The following day I turned in my company truck and started my own business. It was 14 degrees in January 95' I own a 72' Chevy pickup borrowed ladders, no money, a back bone cemented in concrete, I shall never surrender attitude, three more kids, $40,000 in bills, My wife still wants to know when are we going to fix this house? I am starting a Window Cleaning Business! My Wife is Excited! We now have a multiple service business, 3 trucks fully equipped, 4 high pressure cleaning machines, one trailer mounted that heats the water to 230 degrees it will clean anything! office, beepers, 4 cell phones, 2 phones, 4 yellow page ads, major marketing resources, 3 computers (1 laptop), an organization, customers that owe $10,000, the company that I own owes me $30,000, came close to loosin it all twice, no operating capital, I've got a lot of things in place since I started, really stickin my neck out there, got it all on the line, bring it on!, Have made it this far, back bone cemented in concrete, I shall never surrender,don't worry make money, tomorrow will be dealt with tomorrow, Don't go by what it looks like you'll never make it, If you rely on your own strength YOU CAN'T DO IT!, sometimes you need a miracle... did you ever notice the only people who get a miracle are those who need one? If you faint in your day of adversity your strength is small, turn your brain off, faith on, It's my 4th year in business with 3 full-time employees one part time had $142,000 run through my hands in 1998, by the time I paid every body including myself the company made $96.00, we spent $142,000?? Don't forget the customers still owe! Keep pressin on! (THIS part WAS WRITTEN SEVERAL MONTHS AGO when I was really going through some more of my self-inflicted troubles. The dog returns to his vomit!) My wife is mad at me, won't talk to me, I have been challenged on every side, you can't beat a guy who won't quit, stayin in the office most the time, my wife won't let me in the house, I walk the floor, grit my teeth, flinch my fist, talk to myself: I know I can take this, I will make it! Somehow this is a contest and it's making me stronger, when I get through it, I will be better, and I will get through this! Almost to the end of my rope, cant go anywhere but up! Failing to plan is planning to fail, the definition of being crazy is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Something has got to change! (My wife and I are back together now... presssin on!) On the brighter side: If God is for me Who can be against me? My property value has tripled in seven years. My house is half paid down, we have $80,000 in equity. I have studied, learned computers inside and out for the last eight years, hardware and software. I have a professional music studio with digital audio 256 multi track recording capable, 12 professional synthesizers 5 guitars, a piano, a digital drum set (I built myself), 2 acoustic Drum Sets, a flute and a violin, took eight years to build all this up, Most of the money I found laying on the street. (I made building, selling and repairing computers, my side business) I would buy broken & repair it, or real bargain music equipment at pawn shops, I say this so you don't think I went crazy, I got my first synth from a manager of a music store that just upgraded his, I traded for a computer that cost me three hundred dollars to build, I later learned the synth was worth $3000, bought a $1400 drum machine for $140, another $1000 synth broken for $100, I found it simply had the wrong power cord! I bought only 1 new synth which cost $505, money I made in one day doing computers after work! People would give me their old computers a lot of times, (after I would build them a new one), I get paid plus sell the old one and just make a bundle! I bought 15 main circuit boards for computers one time as is for $20, an got everyone of them fixed and sold, I made another bundle. I've still got so many computers and parts at my house I can still sell, need to find the time to put em all together. Added Sept 2000: 1999 proved to be the worst year for the business: I continued the mistake of trying to finance the business with no operating capital, extending credit to both customers and one particular employee who took me for almost $10,000 adding to the equation that he stole equipment, collected on jobs that he didn't do,failed to show up & failed to pick up another employee several times, this cost the company gross revenues of at least $500 per day, I would have months where customers owe $15000 and I couldn't even pay my bills! Since then I have restructured to doing cash paying customers and have completely recovered from past mistakes at this time we are not interested in doing competitive bidding in terms of commercial accounts, we are relying on mostly residential work, we will do commercial but they pay upon completion not 30,60 ,90 days later! We have stable commercial accounts and residential that generate revenues of $150,000 - $200,000 per year the company has no debt. Don't say this to brag on my self, I realize all the help I have had along the way which I am forever grateful. How many are just like me? And that's what it takes to get someone from the park bench... a lot of help. The government is for welfare reform, so am I. Lets consider a homeless person... no clean clothes, no phone, probably uneducated, lacks good communication skills, is developed a habit of barely getting by, also people giving to his need this is a disadvantage ....when we give to someone somehow it is taken for granted... I am not sure how, but I realize that we do them a disservice by handing them money, this just keeps them trapped where they are because as long as people give to them they more they become dependent on that giving, that is exactly what welfare does. But how can I... not show compassion on these people, when I have been there myself?? Well I personally never begged, and am not down on anyone who ever has, I just never got that desperate...something would always come my way, an odd job here or there or would meet someone that would let me stay with them. Now we want to change the system. We need to have a better plan, you can't just kick these people off welfare and tell them to take a job! That would be like telling a bear raised in a zoo: "Well now its time you fend for yourself, now be a responsible bear and go get your food." He'll end up starving or eat people, he will not be able to function on his own. If we go with the governments' plan and one day turn these folks loose, I predict they will not be able to function...there will be more homeless beggars and more criminals and we will have to build more prisons so we're better off keeping the current system which probably is more cost effective. One way or another we are going to have to support them. We are all connected and you cannot do anything about that... yes you can! I know a man who has two sisters both were single parents...one stayed on welfare for fourteen years before she got off, the other was only on welfare for two years. The latter made a decision to get off and took a job, the other felt trapped and could not see another way, the difference is simply a decision to take the challenge and overcome the fear of failure. By the way both are married now the one who took the challenge is rich, nice house it's paid for, and no car payments they just keep stacking up the money. The other by the way is back on welfare has been for at least another five years, husband won't work...had a good job $60k plus, just up and quit because of inconvenience traveling all the time ...they're both afraid and feel trapped. For this man there is no excuse, sad but true the farm towns have no work. I like what the Bible says about a man who won't provide for his family...this man is worse than an infidel. Also it says a if you don't work neither should you eat! Drowsiness will clothe a man with rags! What we need to do though is create jobs for these people and give everyone an equal opportunity, start systems like the Salvation Army has: a business where the people who are living there are responsible to work the business side of things, and we need educate these folks to where eventually they will be able to function on their own, many will become business owners, and charitable citizens that will help us to create more like themselves. This is my vision: I have turned down more work ... there is a multitude of workers than can be trained, I already have more work and know-how that I can pass on than I'll ever be able to use. Long Range Public Relations Goals: Initiate the concept of homeless training centers which will trickle down to a better society, Submit this concept to Congress possibly mandate welfare recipients compliance. Draw Press Releases, and research additional resources which are already available in Real Estate for these efforts. This will get the attention of the News Media. If you would like to help out in any way with any ideas or if your aware of available resources call my office at 314-963-9354, as the proper structure needs to be in place so that we are totally above reproach, strictly for these efforts, so that everything is done with the utmost of integrity and also so that any contributions will be tax deductible contact the St. Louis Power House Church 436-3055 We will need a buildings suitable for housing. Also we will need partners that will duplicate our efforts. And a whole lot more! Will you accept the challenge? What have you got that wasn't given to you??? 2000 is proving to be an exciting and profitable year..... JOIN US! Email: [email protected]