Today’s episode dives deep into the extraordinary journey of Jay Setchel, a living testament to the power of resilience and a "never quit" attitude. Despite facing seven injuries and undergoing 73 surgeries, Jay has refused to be defined by his challenges. Instead, he embodies the belief that with the right mindset, anything is possible. His experiences, from serving as a U.S. Marine to overcoming immense physical hurdles, serve as a powerful reminder that our attitudes shape our realities. Join us as we explore Jay's inspiring story and discover how you can harness a similar spirit of determination in your own life. The discussion kicks off with the introduction of Jay Setchel, a remarkable figure whose life has been anything but ordinary. With a staggering seven injuries and 73 surgeries, Jay defies the odds, showcasing an indomitable spirit that inspires everyone he meets. His journey began on a farm in Illinois, where he learned the values of hard work and perseverance from an early age. Growing up, phrases like 'if there's a will, there's a way' filled his ears, instilling a mindset that would serve him well throughout his life. Despite facing significant physical challenges, including paralysis, Jay maintains a humorous outlook. He emphasizes that every setback is merely a setup for a comeback, a mantra that resonates throughout the episode. As Jay shares his experiences, he reinforces the idea that one's mindset can dictate success, urging listeners to cultivate a 'never quit' attitude. Whether it’s about overcoming physical limitations or navigating life's hurdles, Jay's story is a testament to resilience, inspiring us all to push through adversity with laughter and determination.

Takeaways:

1. The journey to success often begins with a strong mindset and a can-do attitude.
2. Jay Setchel's story reminds us that resilience can lead to unstoppable success, despite life's challenges.
3. Every day offers a new opportunity to pursue your goals with passion and determination.
4. Living life to the fullest means embracing every moment and never losing sight of your dreams.
5. Attitude plays a crucial role in overcoming obstacles and achieving personal success.
6. The power of visualization can be instrumental; envision your goals as if they've already been achieved.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. neverquitting.com
2. jayneverquitting.com
3. facebook.com/strengthwithinyou

Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success.

This is the podcast where we hear from incredible leaders, people, professionals who have had amazing success, who have great insights, tips, and things that you can take away to put into your life so that you can have unstoppable success. And today I, I'm so excited to welcome on this show Jay Setchel.

Let me just tell you a little bit about Jay, because you're going to probably like, if you're listening to this, your mouth is probably going to be open. And if you're driving, please do me a favor and don't crash. But Jay, okay.

Seven injuries, 73 surgeries have left him almost paralyzed, but he has never seen stopped. He has a can do attitude. He is, you know, and I should say thank you for your service. He served as a U.S. marine during Vietnam.

So again, thank you for that service. And, you know, along with being in there in the service, he was with gte. He retired, but not never done working, always moving.

And he is all about never quit quitting. So let's bring him on so you can hear all about how he's. His never quit attitude has helped him do so many great things and have unstoppable success.

So welcome, Jay.

Hey, thank you very much, Jacqueline. Good to be here.

Yeah.

So, okay, so we were talking before we hit record, and I'm, I'm truly amazed by, I mean, obviously what you have been through, and so many people don't have that get up and go. So I'm curious, before you tell us a little bit about your story, where do you think the get up and go came from?

Because you had to have the get up and go before surgery won.

Sure. From my youth, from being raised on the farm and from stepping on nails and having nails go through your feet or doing this and doing that.

And just, you know, I was very, very fortunate, Jacqueline, to be raised by some very good parents. I had great grandparents. My dad's parents lived across the pasture from us. I was born and raised on a big working farm up in north central Illinois.

But it was. You always heard words like if there's a will, there's a way. You can do anything you want. You just have to put your mind to it.

You can, you can become anything you want. You just have to put your mind to it. You know, that was inch by inch. It's a cinch, you know, small steps.

You know, the journey of a thousand miles starts out with one, one step. I, I can't do that anymore. I have to use my power wheelchair now, but hope the battery doesn't die.

But, you know, and, and you got to look at it with a little humor.

But I've just, I, I think being raised on the farm and understanding that you've got winter, which is a dead time, but that's when you repair stuff or work on stuff or there's other things to do with springtime. You have to plant. There's a cycle of life.

And you see success in the cycle of life in planting of the crops, growing of the cattle you've, you're feeding out. And I, I, I, I just, I've just never, I've never underst. I, I don't understand quitting. I, I mean, I don't, I can't spell the word. I can't.

Right.

I, I, I don't. Right.

Well. And you know, it's in.

And I think something that is really important and I think, and I want to make sure that the listeners understand this, you know, growing up and having. Right. Say, you know, and you know, it, you can do anything you want, you know, put your mind to it. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Journey. Right. All of those, whatever name you're saying. But, but your experience on the farm was living. So, you know, like those, living those kind of.

Because you could be, you could be in a, in a, you like I can, I can remember numerous times where my, where those, some of those things were said to me. Sure.

But it wasn't, but I didn't see it happening because it wasn't, it wasn't something visible in, in my experience, it was like it was word salads. Right. Right. So very different is, you know, if you say it, believe it, do it. Right.

Well, exactly. Because I know some people that have heard those words and they've gone the opposite way. They just don't open their ears. They don't, they don't try.

But I wasn't, I guess in a way I wasn't, I recognized the fact that we had a lot of chickens and we had to pick up the eggs and we had a lot of cattle. And if you don't, if you don't get up before dark to be out to feed the cattle, you know, they don't gain weight.

They don't, they'll die if you don't feed them, you know, know if you don't get the crops and if you don't get the crops out. So there was always a reinforcing factor in that. So like you just said, you know, you can hear the words, but unless you put it in action.

And I started, you know, it's like feeding calves when I was 5 years old with a nipple bucket and mixing the own. Your, Your powdered milk with the warm water and dragging it through the snow or dragging it through the grass in the summertime. You had to do it.

That was up to you. It's your responsibility. So if you learn the responsibility and the results of those actions, that's the big thing. It's just, you know, everything.

It's discipline and it's consistency.

Yeah.

It's just constantly, constantly driving it. So. Yeah.

So like. So now take us to, you know, you, you're in the Marine Corps. You end up having surgeries.

Not all from that, but you have this, you know, hearing you speak. I mean, you just, you really have this never quit attitude. And that starts with your mindset.

Yes, 100%.

So talk about, you know, what it has been like to, you know, to, you know, defy what people thought would have happened to you.

I, I think some of it's what you want to have happen to yourself. Don't worry about what somebody else wants. I mean, when I broke my neck, they told me I'd never move again.

They told me I'd never move my shoulders down. And my goal was to walk. And they said, you'll never walk. I mean, I, it. I can. I've got proof. I've got written proof, documents that they had, like a.

What they call a table, you know, five months into rehab or six months into rehab. And they said, you know, one.

One of the three things that comes to my mind is they said that we're concerned about what Mr. Satchel is going to think of or how he's going to react, how his mental state is going to be when he really realizes he is never going to walk. Well, that was at five or six months. I, I hadn't gotten that far, but I was certainly on that, on that mission. I mean, the prayer was there.

My belief was there, was there. I could see it, and I wasn't going to quit. But they don't understand what, what other people are capable of because they're not that person. Right.

You know, I've. You, You. You're living proof, obviously, of mind over matter. Right. So bless you.

You know, which is so many times people say you, you know, the power of our mind and what the mind can do is. Is just unbelievable. And you. And mindset is everything.

And, and if you believe it and you, you know, if you, if there you know, if there's a will, there's a way. But if there's a will and you have that will, you can do it.

And I've, I've seen it with other people too, who have either been injured or some, you know, something has happened, and they, they will it to happen because their belief is so strong.

Yes, yes, 100%. I, I, I, I guess let me back up a little bit here. Number one, in, in, I like, I've got a Marine Corps sweatshirt that I, it says the truth.

I mean, I've had it for, I don't know, a long time. It's pretty well worn out, but it says attitude is everything. United States Marine Corps. Okay, well, attitude really is.

And, and you know, the old, the old word or the new word is mindset. I mean, mindset kind of came out like maybe 20 years ago. And it's, it's, to me, it's really attitude.

But I, I got a great example that if I, if I, if you don't mind my sharing it, go ahead. And where it comes from is the mindset. And I had first heard this, the first time I heard it was probably 40 years ago.

And I was on the east coast of the United States. I was in Georgia and near Sea Island, Georgia, in that area. And there's, the beaches are miles long, and they're beautiful.

And they had these little sail carts that you sailed up and down the beaches with the sail up in the air and like bicycle tires, you know, and, and it was, it was like, look like, hey, this can be cool, you know, and they had one for two people. And I was, had enough paralysis. They helped me in one, and, and we took off and we hit guys, sets the sail and we go down the beach.

Well, we're cruising down the beach probably, I don't know, 50 miles an hour. And it's like, this is. Wow, it's beautiful. As the wind's blowing off the Atlantic, It's a beautiful day.

And in the, in the distance is a little spot, and the spots getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Well, it's another sail cart going northbound while we're going southbound.

And so we pass each other about 50, 60ft apart, but they're doing 50 miles an hour as well, give or take. So we pass each other to 100 miles an hour combined speed. And it's like, I'm glad we didn't hit, you know, I mean, that had been my luck, right?

You know, I'm serious.

And so anyhow, but I started thinking how in the heck are we going southbound with a wind that's blowing west in the same kind of vehicle, little sail, cart of another one going northbound. It just didn't make any sense. And I'm not a sailor. I don't.

You know, I don't put this two and two together, and we get down to the end, we're kind of turning around, and he finagles the sail a little bit, and now we're going northbound just like the guy did before. Well, duh. All of a sudden, I realized it's not the wind, it's not the cart, it's not the sand. It's the set of the sail. It's the set of your sail.

So if you set your sail correctly, you'll go in the direction you want henceforth. The word mindset. So I see that back before it became a word to me, it was attitude, but it was a set of your mind. Where do you want to go?

If you really believe it, you truly have the faith that you can do it, you just got to do it.

I like to think we have a new word. I think it's going to be called mindude.

Is what?

Mindude. Like attitude. Mindude. Right.

Mind to. Don't start something I don't. I don't have. I don't want to go get a new sweatshirt. You know, it's like.

But you might.

You might be on to something, though. You never know. I mean. Or. Attitude set. Right.

Well, you know, it's because everybody talks. It is. Everybody talks about mindset, but really, mindset's attitude. It's like, what is your attitude? Where. Where is it?

And I actually, I always like the word attitude almost like a little bit more, because attitude to me encompasses your full body versus mindset is just here. Your attitude is what you embody within your. Your head, your heart, and your. And your soul.

Right, sure.

You know how you want to be. So, you know, I love that. Now your. You know, as we were talking before, all of your surgeries have not necessarily been because of just one accident.

It's been because of other things.

Multiple accidents. Multiple. Yes, ma'. Am.

And you. You know, again, and. And it comes down to your attitude. I mean, some people would be like, oh, my God, like, woe is me. But in some ways, you. You.

Not that you make a joke out of it, but you find the humor in it.

Well, I. I'll share this because it kind of. Kind of brings it into focus because my broken neck was the.

Really, the hardest one to get over because though I spent a year in the naval hospital from the Marine Corps and, and when I, in that time I died and they got me back, I, you know, there's an old saying that kind of goes with that and that is sweat dries blood clots and broken bones heal, Suck it up.

So even though I was in a coma, even though they put me back in a coma, I had 32 facial fractures, I had my head caved in, you know, my left foot turned backwards, you know, femurs broken, you know, all this, the third degree burns. The thing is, they will heal. Time will heal those wounds. They may not be perfect and you may have scars.

And I, I posted something that scars are my metals, whether they're some are inside and some are outside, but I wear them with pride. You know, do not underestimate me because I've overcome things that you can't possibly imagine. And that's true.

So I, I, I, I, I look at that from, I don't know, I lost the question now. I was sitting, going, kind of pumped on something.

No, but it, but you're, you're never, you've never let an accident or something derail your, your passion for life?

No, and, and to use this.

And you're right on the spot, you're spot on because it's like when, when the, when I got hit by the drunk and the drunk got thrown out of his pickup truck, didn't have a seat belt on, got run over by his own truck and killed. And I rolled several times down the ditch. A car saw it. That was quite a ways away.

We're out in the middle of the corn fields in the middle of nowhere, and they realized I was still in the car, so they went to get help in the little town, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I, you know, I remember the noise to this day, it was terrible.

And the rolling and the stopping and the glass of my mouth and, and finally leaving my body because of, because of. I bled out. But it was like, holy crap, you know, I got it. What am I going to do? How can I get out of this?

Well, I, I, you know, you fight it, you know, it's not, I'm not going to let it go. And you use the word woe is me before.

And then I, my, my parents came and visited me after I was about three, three and a half months in, in rehab for my broken neck. And I didn't break my neck till I was 31 and a half. So I died at 19, at 23 and then 31 and a half. And, and my mom.

I wasn't having a good day, or I wasn't having the best day or something, or I had a bad attitude, you know. And my mom said something about, you know, everything okay. And I, and I. And I kind of like, why me? And it wasn't why me because I broke my neck.

I didn't mean that at all. It was, why me?

It's like this first time, I mean, when I was five days, five, six days after I turned 17, I was on a feeding auger coming down a silo, and my grandfather kicked the feeding auger on and then off. And I was getting ready to jump off of the feeding auger, but what happened was my foot slipped when an auger turned.

I broke my right ankle, cut my boot open, cut my leg open. But if he hadn't turned it off, I'd have been ground up like sausage. I'd have just been hamburger at 17.

So I was lucky then, you know, so it's just like, oh, my gosh, here we go again. But I told my mom, I said, I mean it, like, you know, when's this going to quit? When's this going to quit?

This is getting old, you know, I mean, 19 for a year, 20, 73 for months, 81. I break, you know, it's like I got 50, 60, 70 years I want to live. Yet I'm. How many more times do I have to go through this? You know?

And she said, jay, you know, the thing is that you did it, and it was hard truth. But she said, you're the one that jumped in the pool. Yes. Somebody was going to throw you in.

And I should have let them throw me in, but instead I jumped in the pool, landed on my feet, had a compression fracture, broke my neck in four places, and I drowned. So she said, you jumped in the pool. It was God that helped pull you out.

It was God that spoke to that young lady that finally jumped in when you were turning colors after you had drowned. It was God that spoke to that young man that jumped in to help that young lady. And that kind of gave me a different perspective.

And I, I, I, I, I just. I, I do. I have a passion for life. I'm going to live. I am going to live till God takes me permanently. And, and when he does, that's his time.

And one thing that people don't realize, the most precious commodity or asset that we all have is time. And people don't understand the balance of time. They can check their balance of their checking account.

Get out, go Online, go and do it on my cell phone. But when you were conceived, God gave you 6,432 days, 22 hours, 18 minutes and 7 seconds. And he's going to take you. But we don't know how.

We can't check that balance. So live every day like it's your last. Live every day with passion. Live every day with. I can accomplish it. I'm going to do that. I can do that.

I know I can do. I have the faith. I can do it. So it's, it's, it's in my head. I can't get it out.

I'm serious when I say I don't know how to spell the word quit or stop or don't. And it gets me in trouble sometimes. Ask my wife, you know, quit arguing. I can't do it. I can't stop, you know?

You know, I mean, but I got to look at some things with humor, right? Because if you don't look at things with humor, I don't look, I don't think I'm disabled. I really don't. I'm differently abled, but I've got a mind.

It's like people say, why don't you take notes? Well, you know, I'm going to presume you're old enough to remember that half your mind used to be taken up by phone numbers and people's names.

What happened, what happened to that part of your mind? Well, my mind is stuffed full of conversations, of numbers, of, of data.

And, you know, because they say what, we only use like a small percentage of our brain, right? And so instead of me trying to scribble notes that I can't read later and I can't type for anything, I. I remember stuff. I just.

And my memory is like, clear and it goes way back, and now I don't recall some things like hitting the, hitting the semi when, when they, when he pulled out in front of us and all that, I, that I don't remember. Some things God just takes out of our head so we don't relive it, I guess. But. But I just have a passion to.

You know, I thank God for every day, every day. And I trust him that he's going to give me a good day tomorrow.

And the first day I wake up that I'm not in pain, I'm not hurting, and I don't have to pull my legs out of bed with hands or my arm or something, I'll probably know I'm dead, you know? You know, and I'm not. And I'm saying it with.

As a joke, but it's true, you know, so I really get passionate about the fact that live your life for, for someone else. I, I've always believed the more people you help, the better person you become.

I think that that's a, It's a neat thing in you, you know, and the little term you. If it is to be. It is up to me, you know, you have to do it. I can't do your job. You're not going to do my job.

You know, and like you said before, some people, maybe they don't. They just like they will themselves to better. And that is very true. The strength you have in your mind.

In my, in my mind anyhow, or that I think my thought pattern is that you can do that. You truly can. Because why is it that some people equally talented, equally this, equally that equally that are apparently appear equal. Right?

One person can't do it at all. None. And the other one excels at it. Same training, same person, same parents, same words, same everything. Why? I. I don't have an answer, so go ahead.

It's.

I truly believe it ends up being as you. As. What we were talking about is. It's all in your attitude and how you feel about things. Do you.

Do you look at things as being done unto you or being and done for you, or you're just going to do it for yourself, right? And there's, and there's a very different, you know, we. You can take the victim mode like, oh, I can't get it done.

Like it's oh, you know, or you can take and say, you know what? I'm going to help people along the way and I'm going to go after and I'm going to go and get it.

And this is what I'm going to do waking up every day and this is. I'm going. And I'm getting shit done and I'm going to be unstoppable. I mean, and that's what you have. I mean you are, you have that go attitude.

And I think that's, you know, listeners, I think this is the biggest thing. If you could, you know, besides the fact that Jay has a great book like, you know, never quitting. Right?

Like really, really, really think to yourself, like, what do, what can you do every day to move yourself and be inspired by yourself so that you can actually be unstoppable and never quit it. It's, it's, it's. It starts in our heart.

I, I would say that I've said It. A million times between your heart and your brain. I kind of went backwards here. Between your heart and your brain. Yeah.

You know, that's where it's at. I mean, how much heart do you have? You hear that?

You know, and it's like, I, I can't, I, I don't feel bad for people that can't do it, and that may be wrong to say, but it's, it's. If you do, you're going to feel bad for a lot of people, and that's not going to help your mental attitude, because some people just aren't.

It doesn't matter what. It's just like employment. There's a. There, whether there's jobs to fill or jobs not to fill or whatever. Some people aren't going to work.

Even when we, if everybody can have a job, everybody. Some people are going to elect not to work, so they're going to elect not to perform. They're not going to succeed.

They're not going to push forward, you know, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just, it's a heart for passion, and I genuinely mean that. I, I, I love sharing. I love helping. I love, I love it, and I have a passion for doing it.

That's just, it's a. I guess because I've overcome so much and I've been through so much, you know, and, or whether I've been starting businesses or help corporate solving, problem solving or do. It's, it's kind of like a. I also say it's in my book. I put. It's not always don't ask why ask why not?

You know, it's like when somebody tells you, oh, Jacqueline, you can't do that. You know, this is going to happen. Why not? Who are you telling? You're telling me. You're telling me. No, no, no, no, no, you got it wrong.

And, and I think that what you just asked a second ago about how do you do that every day, or you. In passing, you were saying that it's when it becomes part of you. Just like your skin. You can't take your skin off every day.

When you wake up, it's got the skin still on you. Now, that doesn't mean. Because I think throughout our life, our skin changes two times over or something.

They say, you know, you completely lose all the cells in your, whatever they call your skin. I forgot the medical name. And. But you change a little bit, but you don't change enough. And you can.

It just gets back to the Attitude and, and attitude and heart. Attitude and heart. If you've got it, you can power through things that nobody. There's nothing out there and, And God's with you. I truly believe that.

You have to have the faith. And, you know, it's like some people say, I hope I can do this. No, there's a difference between hope and faith.

You know, I hope that chair can hold me. I hope I can sit in that chair. I hope that chair is comfortable or whatever. I'm just using a chair, and I don't have a chair sitting there.

But, you know, but, but, you know, if you have the faith that you can do it, or getting back to being a marine or being in the military, I hope I can hit that target. Or being a hunter, I hope I can hear that, hit that deer, you know, if you're hunting or whatever, you know, or I know I can.

And that sets your ability to do

it, you know, listeners, to have that unstoppable success. I want you to know that, like, that is something that is so incredibly important. Just say you are going to be able to do it.

If you're aiming for a target, I'm going to hit it. If you are going for the hole in one at the golf course, I'm gonna get the hole in one. If you're going down a mogul field, right.

Skiing, I'm gonna hit all the moguls, and I'm not gonna fall. I'm not falling on my dish. Right. Just tell yourself that. And, and you. It. It sets a tone and it lets your brain know. Or, or also let your.

Like, if you are, you know, for you, it's, you know, it could be, instead of saying, I'm going to be walking, you tell yourself, I'm walking. You know, it's right. Like you put yourself in there in the present tense.

You envision it.

Yeah, right.

First time an American woman ever hit a 10 in gymnastic doing what she was in her vault or whatever it was she did. Okay. And I was with a gentleman that was a. A national speaker and since passed away several years ago. And we were.

We'd been having a conversation and Mary Lou Retton and I met, Larry, Mary Lou Retton at our church. Oh, about 20 years ago, too, later. And. But when I met Mary Lou Retton the first time, and Lewis asked her, he said, when.

What were you thinking before you did the vault that you scored the tenant. What were you thinking? And her answer was something I had been doing for years, but I'm older than she is, and so it doesn't. But it's.

She said, I closed my eyes and I thought and I saw in exactly every step, every breath, every vault, every time I touch something, I saw it in my mind. When I open my eyes, I did it. And I think, that's it. Envision it. Have that vision.

You know, you, you talk about people that have a vision or they're visionary. Visionary means you're thinking about it, but vision is the true depth of it.

And I, I envisioned if to use the word again myself, walking way before I ever did it. I knew I was going to do it. And that's what I have another little story I can tell, but it's, It's. It's kind of funny, but it's kind of, It's, It's.

It's up to you.

Go share it, please.

Okay. All right. When I was Sister, Kennedy Institute in Minneapolis is where I went through rehab, which is like Craig at Denver.

So if any of your listeners, they're familiar, they may be familiar with it. It's a very, very big and very prestigious place. I mean, as far as accomplishments. And I was in a room with three people. Well, there was three of us.

And there was a gentleman that was a rock climber, and he had fallen down rocks. He was brain damaged, real bad. Broken neck real bad. He was. And he could grunt and grow. And there was another gentleman to my left named Bruce.

Bruce was. I was 31 and a half. 31. He was probably about 19, 20, in a bale of hay, had fallen out of a barn and hit him in the head, broke his neck.

But when I got there, he'd already been in there in the hospital or at the rehab center, and he was able to move his legs a little bit and move his feet a little bit, and it could even wiggle a toe. And I, you know, I mean, within a month, I'm telling, dude, you're going to walk out of here. You're out of here, man.

You know, and they had a certain kind of tractor, and I gave him a hard time about. I just, I razzed him.

I really, I harassed him, you know, but we had a good time, you know, I was like, you know, and then Jeff, the guy across that had the brain injury, all he could do was kind of grunt and groan and stuff, and, and he would laugh at us, you know, and, and, yeah, but anyhow, so One day, this is like three months later. And I know Bruce is walking. I mean, I'm so convinced. Anyhow, a guy comes walking into the room, and he's got a white coat on.

And, you know, I guess he's a doctor. I don't, I've never seen the dude before. And he comes walking in and he's looking at Bruce's chart.

Back when they had paper charts at the end of the bed, you know, and, and I said, hey, doc, I said, you know, Bruce is going to be getting out of here. Probably maybe a month, six weeks at the most, he's going to be out of here.

He's going to walk out, and a guy looks at it and all this and that, and, you know, and, and he said, oh, no. He says, I, I just looked at his chart. He's not going to walk. I said, pardon me. You, who are you to say he's not? Well, I'm looking at.

I know the evidence. I mean, I'm looking at. So make a long story short, I, I, it, it pissed me off. I mean, I was just like, oh, my God.

And my left arm was working pretty good, so I reached down, I took the tube out of my urinal, took my half full, and I just chunked it at him. I threw it across. I threw it across the room.

It bounced off the end of the bed, Got urine all over this guy and, you know, and, and on the wall, I, you know, it was, well, half a year. And so the guy left, of course, all in a huff. And about two hours later, there's a. Two doctor. There's two people come in.

Dr. John Bauer was my doctor, and another gentleman named Robert A. McDonald. Robert A. McDonald was the director and CEO of Sister Kenny Institute. He was the director. He was the man. And you never saw him, but he was the guy.

And he proceeded to tell me that I was going to have to leave Sister Kenny Institute and find another place because of the actions and what I had done and said. And I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, I'm an old jarhead. I didn't tell him that, you know, I mean, I'm an old marine.

I'm not taking this crap, not even from him. That's. And so I told him, I said, wait a minute, you don't know the whole story. So I reiterated what happened, and Bruce 100% concurred.

He had no problem, you know, talking or anything. And here's Jeff across the room. Jeff was a brilliant guy, brilliant young man, and he's, you Know, he's grunting his approval of what I'm saying.

So two days later, I hear from my charge nurse, Dorothy, bright lady, you know, in charge of the nursing. I said, whatever happened with anything? I mean, I haven't heard any more about getting out here. She said, they let the guy go.

He was an intern, and he had no responsibility telling anybody they can't walk. You know, you were right. You were exactly right. Well, kind of is an ironic twist to all of this. I was the first. I finally get out of the hospital.

It's the next spring. And the next spring, I get a couple of phone calls. One, it's late in the afternoon from Sister Kenny Institute about this award.

And I'm going like, you know, I think it's guys from GTE playing with me, right? So I hang up the telephone, and my wife takes the next call, and she says, jay, they want you to. They've elected you as patient of the year.

And they had never had an 86 years. They never had a patient of the year. And 44 years since I broke my neck, 44 years last. Last July 4th, they've never had another one, okay?

They've had people for, like, hands or arms or legs or, you know, little pieces, but they had nobody else. They had one person. It was me, and they had me back up. And my.

My plaque sitting over here, and it says, for exceptional rehabilitational achievement and attitude on the plaque, and at the bottom, it's signed by the man that presented it to me. You know what his name was? Robert A. McDonald. The same guy that was going to throw me out.

He's got to throw you out.

And when he presented it to me, I told him up front, in front of everybody, There was probably 3, 400 people out there. I said, can you say karma, sir? Because you were going to throw me out for something that you didn't, you know?

And we had a little talk off microphone, and. And he said, I can't. But when I was there, Jacqueline, one thing that I did a lot of. I. I went.

When I went to pt, when they pushed me to PT or OT and. Or I. Eventually I got to where I could kind of push myself. It took me a long time to get there, but I would stop in rooms there was.

There weren't a lot of people, about 60 people, and I would stop. And I visited these two young guys, for example, excuse me. And they had broken backs from. They were drunk drivers. They were in an accident.

They broke their back. And all they could, no matter what you talk to him was talk about getting out of the hospital, getting home, and getting drunk again.

Well, I'm not going to spend my time. I'm not going to waste my time with people thinking like this. So I. The next room down. Oh, there's a young lady in there named Jacqueline.

Okay, well, Jacqueline was skiing, and she broke her neck on the 4th of July. Oh, well, what. What a coincidence. I broke my neck on the 4th of July jumping in pool. So I talked to Jacqueline.

Hey, how you look like you're doing pretty good. You got a pretty smile. You know, let's, let's. What. What are you. What are your goals? You know, and I would ask them outright, and then they.

Most people didn't have goals. They couldn't envision it. And I would tell people, you know, hey, let's set a couple of goals. You know, I saw you in PT before.

I've seen you over there. And I'm going to come over, I'm going to have Bill push me over, and we're going to.

We're going to see if we can't get you up on the parallel bars and see if you can walk or whatever, you know, a million different things. And, and, and I did that for months.

I would stop and see people, and people moved on, and people progressed, and people did things they never thought they could do. And I think that's why it says exceptional rehabilitation achievement. That's on my part. But attitude. And the attitude is always help other people.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, I wonder what happened to some of those people, how they lived their life. I mean, they never expected me to live, much less walk.

And now I have an opportunity to go up and speak to them next year on my 45th anniversary of breaking my neck.

You know, I, I love these. And, and I could. Jay, I could talk to you for hours about this, but here's the thing. So your book is the Strength within you.

It's always too soon to quit, right?

Yes, ma'. Am.

And I would totally, 100% agree with you on the. That you need to have that stream within you, and usually it is too soon to quit. Most people quit right about the point. Like. Right.

Like just shy of when they're gonna.

Yep.

Right.

100. 100% of the time.

Right. So, listeners, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to, number one, set the goal that you have.

You, you all, you'll always hear me talk about the goals. Envision the goal. Envision where you see yourself. Envision if you're, if your Goal is to, let's just say have $100,000 in the bank account.

Envision the hundred thousand dollars sitting in the bank account that it's already there. Envision it. Envision what it is and go after it. Don't stop. Don't quit.

It might be that you set the goal to hit it, you know, December 31st, but if you don't get it on December 31st, don't stop. Just move the date right.

Oh absolutely.

Don't stop. So don't quit. Don't be. Don't quit. And I want you to do me a favor listeners. I want you.

And I'm going to put the link to the book in the show notes but I want you to go out and get the book. The strength within you. It's always too soon to quit. Connect with Jay because if, if anybody is could have quit, it could have been you.

Many, many times.

Many, many times. And you never did. So don't quit. Be like Jay and don't quit. So Jay, how can they find you?

I've got a website too. It's called the. Get this Never quit trying. How about that? Never quit trying dot com. Yeah and it my first name, jayneverquitting dot com.

I'm on Facebook now. I've got a new site called the Strength within you on Facebook and let me see what else. Well, of course I'm on LinkedIn but, but that's it.

You know, I mean I would kind of like to, I would like to talk to more people. I would like to, I would just like to go out and even speak to people and I don't do it.

I mean I kind of in a 400 pound wheel power wheelchair and a lot of back pa it kind of re. You know, in inhibits my ability to move around some. But, but I, I would like to do it. Even. Somebody's even mentioned zoom. Zoom. What do you call it?

Virtual.

Yeah, you know, virtual meetings and, and yeah, talk, make connections.

But I, I don't feel that I have the, the, the needed to do that.

But at the same time I don't know that I need the organization because it's the damn passion of telling people wait a minute, do it, do it now, do it completely and follow through. Yeah, it's, it's just being honest with people and telling them directly you can do it. You just believe in yourself. You've got to do it.

What can we do or where do you need to go and, and reach out to people? That that's all I think.

Yeah, that is it's accent. It's actually really true. So do me a favor listeners, I want you to reach out to Jay and get on a zoom with him so he can talk to you. It's easy.

It's easy. So listeners, do me a favor. Besides I said connect with Jay and then do me the other favor.

Make sure you hit subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. And please do me a favor, share this episode with your friends and colleagues because it is really important.

We want to make sure that everybody has an unstoppable success and never quits. I'm Jacqueline Strominger. Thank you for being a great listener. And also, please do me a favor.

You can also go to school Skool and find us on our we have a brand new just a few members right now, but jump into this jump in unstoppable success platform. We're going to be offering courses and working zoom meetings and a whole bunch of great things happening over at school.

So please make sure you you share and you join us over in school. I'll put that in the show notes. And Jay, thank you for being an amazing guest.

Well, thank you for being an amazing host. Thanks very much.

Thank you. And thank you listeners for jumping in and listening to this.