Living the Significant Life (13 page)

6.

Kathy Nelson listened with slight amusement as her husband talked. She loved the animation in his voice and the broad hand gestures he made when he was excited about something. His restless dissatisfaction after the trip to Haiti now had been transformed into boundless energy once he’d discovered his purpose and decided to step out of his comfort zone and take his career in a more satisfying direction.

Tonight he was telling her about a company that manufactured some kind of surgical supplies. Kathy wasn’t entirely clear about what the devices were used for, but she listened as Brad described the business and its owner, with whom he’d had lunch earlier that day. The owner wanted to expand the business and was looking for a partner to buy into the company.

“So that’s about it,” Brad said. “I have a good feeling about this guy, and it sounds like the business has a lot of potential. I need to look into it a little more, but I think we should consider it. What do you think?”

“I guess it sounds fine,” Kathy replied. “Obviously I don’t know much about surgical supplies, but if the company seems solid, and the price is within the range the bank said we could borrow, I guess we should consider it. But what about that other business you were talking about a couple of days ago? The start-up idea you and Phil had. Something about bar coding.”

“Oh, I’m still thinking about that, too. It’s just that this one kind of fell into my lap. I don’t know. There are just so many possibilities.”

Kathy looked at him for a moment, then spoke carefully. “Brad, I love seeing how fired up you are about going out on your own. I think it’s great, and I hope you know that I’ll support you 100 percent, whatever you end up deciding. I’m just a little concerned about . . .”

“About what?” Brad asked.

“You’re all over the place,” Kathy continued. “In the past three months, you’ve had, what, five or six different ideas about businesses you could start and businesses you could buy? You get really enthusiastic about one thing, then something else pops up that sounds good, and you change direction again. I definitely don’t think you should grab the first thing that comes along, but I’m not sure this scattershot approach is working. It’s been months since we started talking about this, and it just doesn’t seem like we’ve made any progress. I’m worried that you’re going to run out of steam and stay stuck in your old job, and I don’t want to see that happen.”

“I see what you’re saying. There are just so many possibilities, and I keep getting distracted and chasing after the next idea. It’s kind of exhausting, to tell you the truth,” Brad said with a smile.

“Hey, do you remember two summers ago when we took the kids to Disneyland?” Kathy asked.

“Sure. That was a great trip. A long drive, but fun.”

“This reminds me of that trip a little bit.”

“Okay, I’m not getting the connection.”

“Remember how we spent one day in the park, then visited your brother in San Diego for a few days, and went back for another day at the park before we came home? I’m thinking about how different that second day was because we figured out how to focus.”

Brad smiled. He did remember.

• • •

They’d arrived at the gates early in the morning on the first day, and the kids were on fire with excitement. They eagerly looked at the map of the park, and Jackie shouted, “I want to go on the Matterhorn!” at the same moment that Hunter yelled, “Splash Mountain!”

“Don’t worry,” Brad said. “We’ll get to all of it. First the Matterhorn, then Splash Mountain.”

Although the Matterhorn attraction was in the back of the park, they were full of energy, and no one minded the long walk. By the time they got there, the line was long, but it was worth the wait. An hour later, the family left that area and crossed the park to ride Splash Mountain. After that, they headed for Star Tours near the park entrance, then back to the other side for the Haunted Mansion.

By late afternoon, they were exhausted. Brad had lost track of how many times they’d crisscrossed the large park only to find seemingly endless lines at every attraction. The day was almost over, and they’d been on only a handful of rides. They’d even had to stand in line for half an hour when they stopped at noon for lunch. Everyone was tired and cranky, and the pool at their hotel sounded far more inviting than walking to the back of the park again for It’s a Small World. They had planned to return to the park for a final day before driving home, but no one seemed very enthusiastic about it at that point.

Over dinner at his brother’s house the next night, Brad recounted how their much-anticipated day at Disneyland had turned into a frustrating disappointment. As he described the experience, his sister-in-law, Becky, laughed and said, “That happened to us when we first moved here. We figured out pretty quickly that planning is the key. You’d be amazed at what a difference it makes if you focus your energy on one thing at a time.”

The next day, as the two families sat together on the beach, Becky reached into her bag and brought out a well-worn Disneyland guidebook, a notepad, and a pen. She handed them to Kathy and said, “Come on, I’ll give you the tricks of the trade.”

Becky proved to be an expert. She explained that most visitors enter the park and automatically go to the right, so early in the day the lines tend to be shorter for the attractions on the left. She knew where the crowds headed immediately after the afternoon parade and how to find the shortest lines at that time of day. She even knew the best times to eat lunch. Within an hour, she’d helped Kathy devise a plan that would enable the family to make the most of its final day in the park. The day turned out to be one of the most fun and memorable times they’d ever had together.

• • •

“Okay, I see what you mean,” Brad said. “I’ve been doing the equivalent of crisscrossing Disneyland without focusing on what I really want to do and coming up with a cohesive plan for making it happen.”

“I think so,” Kathy replied. “Finding our focus worked for us on that trip. Maybe that’s what you need to do now. By the way, don’t forget that you need to take Jackie to the soup kitchen tomorrow. It’s her Girl Scout troop’s day to work there.”

The next day, Brad was sitting in a corner of the city’s largest homeless shelter, engrossed in a book as he waited for his daughter to finish her two-hour shift, when a man approached him.

“I’m Father Bell, director of the shelter. May I help you with something, sir?”

“Oh no, thanks, I’m fine. Just waiting for my daughter. She’s with the Girl Scout troop that’s helping serve lunch today.”

“Okay, then,” Father Bell said. “We really appreciate those girls, by the way. We need all the hands we can get, and they’re really hard workers.”

“Well, not so much when it’s time to do dishes at home.” Brad was distracted by the sound of coughing. He turned to see a girl about Jackie’s age. “That doesn’t sound good,” he said.

“That’s Maya,” Father Bell replied. “She came in a few days ago with her parents. She’s getting over a pretty bad case of pneumonia.”

“Do you have a doctor on staff for things like that?”

“No, we have a nurse who comes in a couple of days a week, but that’s it. She’s the one who suggested that we take Maya to the emergency room. The poor kid had to sit there for nearly four hours before anyone could see her, but once she got on antibiotics she improved pretty quickly. In a way, it was lucky that she got sick because it turned out that she was behind on her immunizations, so we were able to get that done at the hospital.”

At home later that night, Kathy noticed that Brad seemed preoccupied. “Is something on your mind?” she asked.

“Yeah, I was thinking about being at the shelter with Jackie today. That place is doing fabulous work, but they have so many needs. It reminded me of those people back in Haiti. It was their needs that got me started on this journey to find a way to make a difference. I feel like I’ve gotten away from that initial goal a little bit.”

“I guess you’re right,” Kathy said thoughtfully. “You started out wanting to build clinics and now you’re talking about selling surgical supplies.”

“Exactly,” Brad said.

Late the next Monday afternoon, Brad tapped on the doorway of the head of Middle West’s legal department. “Kurt, do you have a second?” he asked.

“Sure, Brad, what can I do for you?”

“I was wondering how hard it is to set up a nonprofit corporation.”

“Do you want the long answer or the short one?”

Brad laughed. “The right one, please.”

“Are you finished for the day? Let’s go have a beer, and you can tell me what you’ve got in mind.”

Over their drinks, Brad briefly described his Haiti trip and subsequent quest to find a way to make a difference in people’s lives, ending with his brief discussion with Father Bell the previous Saturday.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I think there’s a need to take health care directly to the homeless. God knows they’re struggling to get it anywhere else.”

Kurt listened with interest as Brad outlined an ambitious plan. He envisioned a mobile clinic—a large vehicle stocked with diagnostic equipment, a laboratory, everything needed to bring basic medical services to those who could not or would not seek care through traditional venues. The clinic would travel to shelters, soup kitchens, and parts of the city where homeless people were known to gather. He’d staff it with doctors and nurses—volunteers, at first, until he could afford to hire a staff. Eventually the clinic would begin serving other people who lacked medical services—the city’s poorest neighborhoods, public housing complexes—but first he’d focus on the homeless. There would be opportunities to expand later, after he’d gotten things off the ground.

“Other communities are doing this, so I don’t see why we can’t do it here,” Brad said. “I’ve got a lot of ideas for getting funding, and I’m sure we can get the hospitals to donate some supplies. You and I both know how much stuff they waste every day.”

“How long have you been thinking about this?” Kurt asked.

“Honestly? Just since Saturday. My thoughts had been so scattered for the past few months, but all of a sudden it all came into focus and I knew what I wanted. I spent all day yesterday making notes.”

“Well, I really like it,” Kurt said. “To be honest with you, I wouldn’t mind getting involved in something like that myself. I’ll be happy to take care of the legal work and anything else I can do to help. Want another beer?”

“Thanks, but I think I’d better get home. I need to tell my wife that I’ve finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up.”