(UPDATE: Check out the Comments section. Adam Shepard, the author of Scratch Beginnings, makes an appearance)
If you had nothing, and I mean nothing, could you survive? And I am not talking about Neil Strauss’ survival. Could you make it on your own with no connections, no hook-up’s, and worst of all no support? I like to think I could, but I would never know unless I tried. Adam Shepard has and this is his book Scratch Beginnings he tells his extraordinary tale.
Adam, a recent college graduate in a tough job market, had read Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich while in school and thought up an experiment. What he wanted to do was to see if someone with nothing could achieve the American dream? What he does next is quite thrilling.
Shepard develops a plan to take just his sleeping bag, a backpack with very little essentials, only $25, and take a train ride to one of a handful of locations within . Once there, he will try to accomplish a small American Dream of having $2,500, a working automobile, and a furnished apartment within one year. Between his journey from the bottom up and his results, you may be as astonished as I was.
This book is for you because it shows that threw any circumstances, all of us can achieve great things if we put a full faith effort towards our goals. When life kicks us again and again, we tend to blame others and not ask ourselves what we could do to better our situation. Well, Scratch Beginnings will open your eyes to your life possibilities.
I have read it twice as well as a chapter here and there. Why? Because every time I feel like everything is against me and there is no way I will succeed, this book relights my passion.
I strongly suggest purchasing this book if you want to see how anyone can go from nothing to success in any circumstance.
You can purchase Scratch Beginnings by clicking here
Dave
LifeExcursion
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Dave,
Great book. I read this immediately when it was released and it proves, with proper mindset and motivation, you can work your way up from nothing. I would recommend it to anybody who is feeling down about their current circumstances, financial or otherwise.
Karol
.-= Karol Gajda´s last blog ..Get Fit In Just 1 Minute or “Am I Gonna Die From Heat Exhaustion?” =-.
I am glad you enjoyed it as well. It really opened my eyes to my own complaints in life and made me, well, stop complaining so much. Thanks for the comment Karol!
Dave
LifeExcursion
.-= Dave´s last blog ..Book Review: Scratch Beginnings – Me, $25 and The Search for the American Dream =-.
Dave,
I have read a few reviews on this book and keep meaning to make the time to read it! Glad to hear you enjoyed it, and its just confirmation that I really should pick it up!
Sean
Definitely. Great motivational read. Very entertaining too
Dave
LifeExcursion
This book sounds awesome! I read ‘Nickle and Dimed’ a few years back and loved it. I actually began to read this review, and thought of recommending it to you to read…. until you mentioned it. (It’s an incredible book, if you haven’t read it.)
Now, I need to go check this one out. I love true stories of people accomplishing what seems impossible!
Karen
.-= Karen´s last blog ..Too Many Thoughts, So Little Time =-.
This Adam Shepard seems to be a modern day Horatio Alger, and it is both inspiring and encouraging, that one can work their way up from nothing. However, I would like to point out a few factors that the report by John Stossel did not take into consideration. Adam is a very good attractive, handsome young man, and is the picture of health. He looks as though he could have been the quarterback of his high school football team, in fact, and maybe he was for all I know. What I would like to point out is, that would have been a huge advantage in his little experiment. Not only for the obvious reasons that being strong, energetic, and in perfect health would give you an advantage. But also, it plays a role in how others in the world view you. For example, I imagine when he walked into that moving company looking for a job, the supervisor reacted to him favorably. (I suppose Adam might explain this in the book, but I believe he said in the report for the sake of the experiment he kept his college education secret. Wouldn’t he need to reveal this on a job application?) Furthermore, Adam or John Stossel don’t take into account issues of self-esteem, self-confidence, and mental and emotional human development. We don’t know what kind of home Adam came from, but he seems well balanced, so let me take a wild leap and say he had at least a moderately happy childhood. His attractive appearance also would have aided him in making friends, and having a healthy social life which, along with a stable family life…these are all huge advantages now discussed in a report. So, I am just saying when we look at a successful person we are not always taking into account an entire lifetime of experiences, and human development, and support from friends and family that helped to shape and mold that person into who they would become.
Some other things in the report that I might argue with a little bit…the point that anyone can get a job at Walmart or a place like that and simply move up the ranks, by simply working hard. Most positions at Walmart are not managerial positions, so without looking at any actual data, let’s say that at least 95% of the positions there are not managerial positions. So simple mathematics will tell you that not everyone can possibly just move up and become a manager, or get a promotion to a really well paying position. The majority of people are always going to be on the lower end of the totem pole. Not everyone can be a chief, there have to be Indians as well. And there are many people that are not considered management material, not because they don’t work hard, but for other factors, such as their personality or even things far beyond their control, like their appearance. There are also other factrs in a person’s life that can keep them from excelling, like untreated depression, or other emotional and psychological issues (for example, they might have suffered great tragedies in their life or they may have been abused.)
Another thing I question in the report is some of the data is the assertion that middle class families are making 3 times as much in real dollars as they did in the 1950s. During the 1950s most of the world was still recovering from the devastation of World War 2, and it is viewed as an economic golden time for the USA, with most families being suppported by a male bread winner, who could usually support the family with one good job. Today to get by, in most families, the husband and wife both have to work, sometimes 2 jobs each. (Not to mention the many familes supported by a single parent trying to get by.) Also, the expert in the John Stossel report says “we have had recessions worse than this.” That depends on which economist you are talking to; he really doesn’t give any evidence to back up that claim.
One more thing that I would take a little bit of an issue with in the report, is they seem to make a big deal about the advantage of having a roommate vs. living alone. Living with a total stranger is not always the safest thing in today’s world. Beyond the issues of personal safety, there is worrying about things like will this person eat up all my food out of the refrigerator, or not come up with their fair share of the rent, or steal my belongings. It can end up costing you more money in the long run than you bargained for.
Anyway, sorry about all the naysaying, I just wanted to bring up those issues. There seems like there should be some great advice in Adam’s book about how to work your way up from nothing. We could all learn a great deal.
.-= Jimmy Fungus´s last blog ..RETRACTION: "I am NOT Dustin the Republican" and a Brief History of Conservatism (which I made up) =-.
Hey Jimmy—
Thanks for the great comment. I strongly suggest purchasing this book. Adam talks a great amount about his race, knowledge, and mental stability in comparison to those he worked with. For example, he didn’t have a felony which he says helped a lot. He did come up with a story about his past so that he wasn’t given any more benefits than most of those he worked with. For example, he didn’t mention he graduated from college and did claim he was from a broken home. Anyways, definitely pick up and enjoy.
Thanks again for the awesome comment!
Dave
LifeExcursion
Wooooow. Great conversation going on here.
Dave, thanks for taking the time to read, review, and post about my book. Very cool.
Karol, glad you enjoyed it.
Sean and Karen, go to Amazon right now!
Jimmy, you raise some (obviously) very valid points, and I think that’s the meat behind this concept, that there is no cookie cutter answer to any of this. There are plenty of Nickel and Dimed stories out there, just as there are plenty of (much more valid) Scratch Beginnings stories out there. And both sides, essentially, are right…and each individual person is left to make the choice on which route they will take. Did I have advantages and talents that I parlayed to my eventual success? Of course! But don’t we all have talents and advantages to exploit and adversity to overcome? Or not…
Cheers everybody!
Adam
.-= Adam Shepard´s last blog ..Hello world! =-.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting Adam!
It’s awesome when people of your accomplishments recognize our ‘little-man’s’ work.
Dave
LifeExcursion
Sounds like a book to me, I got to get this book!
.-= Ken Kurosawa´s last blog ..Nick Vujicic: An Inspiration to All =-.
Wow, I’ve never heard of this book until reading your blog post about it Dave. This sounds like something right up my alley as far as reading material goes. I will have to check it out.
Thanks,
Dayne
.-= Dayne | TheHappySelf.com´s last blog ..Happiness Challenge #1: 100 Breaths =-.
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