From Humble, but Hopeful, Beginnings

“In dreams begins responsibility.”

-- William Butler Yeats

Responsibilities

epigraph (from an old play)

To put you in the right frame of mind to live large and free through low-cost billionaire benefits, let me tell you a little about my story. Although your path through life has been different from mine, I think you will see that parallel opportunities abound in your life among areas you may not have considered.

My Dad and Mom did not finish high school. They both dropped out during the Depression to work in order to help support their families. We had a small and decent home that I loved, but my Dad always had to work two or three jobs to pay for it and the rest of our expenses. But we were rich in love, and I thought that was the greatest richness of all. I craved having more time with my Dad so I often joined him to work in his gardening business so I could see more of him.

When I was young, my Mother read to me constantly in the evenings and filled my mind with the idea that I could accomplish anything, as long as I was determined and worked hard. I accepted that view even though our family experienced few worldly signs of living with large accomplishments. But my Dad certainly had the hard work part down pat. Little did I know at the time that it’s much easier than what she described to live my dreams. But I’ll get to that later.

I studied hard, worked long hours every week in my Dad’s gardening business and tried to learn as much as possible about everything that interested me. My curiosity allowed me to learn lessons I hadn’t expected. I had my first big surprise when I was in 5^th grade, and the students in our class pursued a project to find out about other states. While my classmates wrote away for information from just one state, I wrote to all of them. You wouldn’t believe all of the beautiful brochures and guides that I received in return . . . and each set of materials came for just the cost of a postage stamp, envelope and a piece of writing paper. Many other times since then I have been overwhelmed by extreme generosity in response to my simple curiosity. I began to see the world as a potentially open door to wonderful adventures if you just knocked politely on it.

While in high school, I realized that I would have to earn scholarships to afford any school other than the junior college in our town. Having adopted my Mom’s beliefs, I decided to be optimistic. So I only applied to top schools and filled out the paper work to apply for every scholarship I could find. These decisions paid off well for me when I earned two scholarships for college. All of my room, board and tuition were covered. My family and I only had to pay for books, transportation to and from school, clothes and spending money. I took a job at school and worked during the summers to help offset those costs.

Through that doorway of opportunity, I began to perceive the opportunities live large and free around me. The much larger of my two scholarships was solely based on merit, and I would have received a portion of that money even if my father had been John D. Rockefeller. That really got me thinking. If you could receive enough money to pay for your room at a wonderful school for free even when you didn’t need the money, what else might be available?

Donald Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell