Three dollars of gas and how it changed both of our days.

This past Wednesday I was at getting gas when I noticed a very young girl not much older than my daughter and she was perplexed. I saw her put 2 may 3 dollars in her gas tank. I final spoke to her and asked does 3 dollars get you where you need to go. She replied, " I have lost a twenty dollar bill while walking into the Quick Trip. Someone must have picked it up." She had lost the rest of her money in the parking lot and when she asked the clerk they said no one had turned in the money.  Now I could stop right there and ask the question, why didn't the person finding the twenty dollars turn it in.   

However, I feel there is a bigger story to share.  I had not finished filling up my own vehicle so I decided to walk the pump line over to her car and put in about fifteen dollars.   

Now I am not telling you this to get a pat on the back but how something as small as fifteen dollars of gas can change a persons day.  Surprisingly, it changed both of our days.  I left feeling like I had once again paid it forward.  I know she left feeling relieved and wondering why a stranger help her.  

Our parting words were exchanging names,  ironically her name was Amber the same as one of my dearest nieces.  She thanked me and said she would make sure to pay it forward herself. 

That is the real story here. 

It's not Mastercard but it is priceless to me...

Everyone should have their bucket list but just important should be their list that identifies who they are. 

1. The silver bracelet I wear on my wrist.  Bought it in Colorado after finishing my Lyme Treatment and Perry(Atronic) Firing me.  But it does not remind me of that pain and hurt but that it was actually the beginning of a new beginning.   I thought I was happy working 100 hours and making good money.  I never paid attention to what it was doing to me and more importantly to my family.  The Lyme/migraines has forced me to slow down.  Now I feel I am now my old self and can be a father, husband, friend and neighbor.   Sure, I hate not having my health but I think I have done more good in the past few years then I did in the past 20.  So, that is what the bracelet means to me.  The two golden rules.  The man with the golden makes the rules- that are the one I lived by when I was killing myself for no reason at Atronic and thought I was "family."   AND the really golden rule.  Do on to others as you would have them do onto you.

2. The cross I where around my neck.  It reminds me that I am a man of faith and not religion.  That God hears Amen where ever I am.

3. My pictures, they document all that matters to me, my life, my children, my family and our adventures.

4. There is a black marble in my desk. It was given to me by Albert when I started my college career in the Alpha Delta house. Those were some of the best times of my life that made me grow up the most.

5. The silver Kennedy half dollars- my only grandpa, Grandpa Dale would bring them to me as a child in his front shirt pocket.  I still can smell the princess Albert pipe smoke and old spice cologne.   We only had 8 years together but he taught me a lifetime of how to be a man. 

6. My black baseball glove.   I have had it throughout my son's early years of baseball and played catch with him during his young baseball career.  It was bought for me by my father and I never owned a good baseball glove tell this one.   Coaching my son and the other boys was one of my highlights as a dad.

7. My daughter's presents- for the most part they are in the bottom of my night stand.  Most she made, all are priceless, and none are forgotten. 

8. My dog's, I was blessed to have Sadie, She was there when I came home, sat with me during the pain of headaches, never argued with me, never asked for nothing.   I miss you so much.   Now there is Jill, She is with me constantly, follows me like a shadow, and talks to me in the middle of the night when we listen to the kids sleep.  Gives great advice and never wants the remote.

9. My Bible, my Grandma Carriager gave it to me when I was confirmed.   She always said two things to me when she was alive.  "It was a great life if you don't weaken."   And  the always famous  "God, will not close a door, without opening a window."

10. My fishing rods, I was truly blessed to have a Great Aunt Dorothy,  She was a mix between Kathrin Hepburn and John Wayne with a "shit fire save matches", Kansas home grown, in the dirt, philosophy.    Her advices were simply but sound, "You ain't hurt there is no bone."  "Stop doing that  you're going to get a scab."    "Shut your mouth unless you walked in his shoes."   I spent many a late night just sitting in the summer air at Bull Shoals listening to stories catching catfish tell 3 a.m. with her.   What I would not do to my kids know her.

11. Janelle's Scent- when she wakes up in the morning and takes a shower before me and leaves the bedroom/bathroom.  I often like to just stop and close my eyes and take in the scent of Janelle.   I am not sure what it is but it is unique as I am sure it is with every women.  The right mix of perfume, body lotion, even hair products.   But it drives me crazy.   She can be gone for hours and I still could track her like a blood hound looking for dinner.

12. My pocket knives- I have one from my Grandpa Dale, one from HR when he got married, a couple of dozen that I have carried for weeks, to months, to years.   It was just something I picked up from my Grandfather and my Uncle Adam and have never been without.  In fact, I carry a pocket knife with me everywhere.  Except to the shower.

13.  My Hallmark Pens- I have the pen I was given in 1980 when I graduated from High School.  I used it at Atronic and wrote 98 percent of all my sales contracts with it. Which means I made a crap load of money for Perry and us with it?  I have the pen that Grandpa Walt used while he worked at Hallmark tell he retired.  I have the 25 year pen that they gave all employees including me since I worked there then.   I owe Hallmark a lot.  They gave me a job during my high school years and college.  They took care of my dad when he was sick and he stayed with them for 40 plus years.  When companies did the right thing and employees knew they would be cared for...regardless.   They help teach me quality, loyalty and hard work.  I can only give them 10% of the credit though because the 0ther 90% goes to my parents.   

14. My pocket watch- New Years Eve Janelle gave it to me and I would not trade it for all the tea in China.   It was truly a gift of love.

15.My Wedding Ring- the best for last, it signifies all the best, my vows I made to Janelle, to God, for better or worse, sickness and heath, tell death do us part.  It is a symbol of my hopelessly, passionate love for Janelle.  It is the very foundation of my core beliefs- love, honor, and friendship, keeping your word, trust, and passion.  

Shirts for Haiti kids

I am the part-time retail manager at 3 & 2 Youth Baseball in Johnson County Kansas a non-profit little league organization.  My wife and I help sell the tournament t-shirts at each event during the summer to help support the organization.   At the end of each tournament there are often a number of t-shirts left shirts, as many as 75 to 100.  Frequently they are sold the following weeks for a discount.  However, my son came up with this idea of paying it forward rather than selling the shirts at or below cost.  He said, “why not give them to someone that could really benefit and appreciate a new t-shirt.  Why not give them to the kids in Haiti.”    So here is his idea.  We put up a donation jar asking people for a donation.  They put money in the jar and for every shirt they covered our cost we mailed the shirt to Haiti.  However, if we could find a local charity to give the shirts we could save the postage and give even more shirts.   Can you help? Contact me. 

alarmguy@jericksonconsulting.com 

I was wrong for 25 years I am not John the Alarm Guy!

Oh Fudge Fritters! It is terribly difficult for a guy like me to admit that I have been wrong for more than twenty five years. Since everyone has always called me John the alarm guy I just figured that I was John the alarm guy selling and designing security and home automation systems. Why not? I have a vast knowledge of technology and security and I lived and breathed it day and night. What else would they call me? But something wasn’t right.


Immediately after of college I began my security career you might have called “green” but full of endless enthusiasm. My professors would state it was my educations that accounted for my soon to be success. Others would tell you it was my gift to gab and that I was a born salesman. My father would still to this day tell you, “That boy knows how to work harder than most.” I’d like to think it was a little of all of them put together.

When I walked into that 500 square foot, one man office, with an IBM type writer, sitting on a metal desk and a radio shack phone with some of the buttons missing on it; I did not see a beat up office. I saw potential. I did not see that he had one employee; he and only clients were his friends and family. I saw that there were file cabinets to be filled with new customers. I saw opportunity. So loving a challenge and not ever considering failure I took on what some saw as impossible.

I hit a lot ton of singles, led the league in doubles, and frequent home runs; sure I struck out quite a few times too. I did not mind striking out because I knew that I had to strike out so many times before I hit my double or home run. After twenty five years I was given an opportunity to look back and we had taken a 5, ooo dollar initial investment and built into a 3.5 million dollar company with forty-five employees. The company was known and respected in the industry and community as a leader in the security industry.

Now suddenly I figured it out I not only John the Alarm Guy because it does not matter that it was security systems. You see, it would not matter if it was sprockets or security. In reality, I create opportunity and make business grow. So do you call me a business maker, business creator, or maybe more conventional title would be business developer. Either way my gift is that I can take a little and make it into a lot. I am not a magician but simply a guy that believes in hard work and creativity. Some might call that the American Dream.

You have achieved sucess if you have lived well

I have been searched for a reason that I cannot work the long hard hours that I so loved to work. Yes, call me crazy but I so loved to work. Engaging people, solving problems, being creative, and even those tasks that everyone avoids I so miss. At the end of each year I sit down and review my written goals from that year. One of the goals is and has always been to do two good things each day for someone. When I was writing my goals for 2010 I decided to make a new goal and make it one of my top five. The goal was simple I thought. I was going to do, two good things for two people I cared about and two good things for strangers daily. I am sharing this with you not to brag but to tell you how hard and how easy this was over the past week. I also want my kids to know. You see I think I might have made a mistake as a father. When I was working 80, 90, 100 hours a week and even when I was going to the kids activities such as baseball and dance. I always had my blackberry in hand typing away or my Bluetooth headset in my ear talking to a client. Success was making money and the more you made the more successful you were! I think I may have taught my kids that this is the only success there is.


"You have achieved success if you have lived well, laughed often and loved much." Unknown.

Now I share with you the good things I did this week only in hopes it will inspire.

Pumped gas for elderly lady when it was very cold

Helped a mother with a baby put her groceries in the car

Scrapped the ice off a car for lady in a business suit

Cleaned 16 drive ways over a week’s time including 8 on Christmas

Disconnected a neighbors smoke detectors that were going off

Paid for a guys coke at the quick trip

Took cookies to my parents

Bought a gift for my son-

Bought a gift for my wife

Bought a gift for my daughter

Helped a friend with his business

Helped get a car out of a snow drift

Cleaned of my cousins car

Called a old friend

Mailed a letter to relative that cannot get out

Sent a couple of old pictures to friend by email

Stopped a stranger in the gym and said something nice to them

Gave 10 Free pizza to a medical office

Tipped a waitress 30% and then went and found her manager and told him how much I enjoyed her exceptional service. Which I did!

Washed a ladies car for her at the car wash and had her get back in her car.

Each time I bought a coke at Mc Donald’s threw my change in the change for Mc Donald House.

Next week it is going to get harder and I bet I have to do some of the same things. But my goal is to do two good things for people I care about and two good things for strangers each day. My long term goal is that I don’t only want to be remembering as a successful salesman & business man. I want to be remembered as being a good father, husband, and friend.

If I died today how would they remember me?

This is a story about an eight year old boy. He was an ordinary boy that spent every moment playing outdoors his skin was very brown and his hair was almost white from the sun. He lived in a typical neighborhood in a middle class suburb. There were a lot of kids in his neighborhood many of them were older than him but he had several good friends. Many of the older boys bullied him and his friends. His sister was five years older than him and was very smart. His parents lost their first son as an infant which made his mother very protective of both children. The first sign of any illness the boy was off to see the doctor.


When he was eight his father became very ill. After many surgeries and treatments the doctors in Kansas City could do no more. When all hope seemed lost a doctor presented a long shot that the Mayo Clinic had only tried six times before. After being given three options; do nothing, go to Mayo’s and either come home paralyzed, dead, or maybe with some variation of the two. My father and mother chose to take a chance and have the surgery. After church and Sunday dinner while the boy’s mother cleared the table the boy’s father sat down with a yellow office tablet and told the boy and his sister all three options and the plan to go and even who would be his pale bears at his funeral and what suit in his closet he would wear. He explained to his children how they would have to take care of each other and that the boy had to be the man of the house. Shortly after that dinner they left for Mayo Clinic and weeks, months passed and the children’s mother stayed by the children’s fathers’ side the entire time. The children had their grandparents to take care of them. Later that summer they got good news the surgeries had been successful and they would be home. The father worked for JC Hall at Hallmark Cards, Mr. Hall picked up all the bills including the mother’s hotel bill that insurance did not pay. The father worked for Hallmark for nearly 42 years before retiring. Shortly after returning to home the boy’s grandfather suddenly died of a heart attack which was devastating to the entire family but also had a huge impact on both the boy and sister since he had such a huge role in raising both of them.

During the next half a dozen years or so the boy struggled at school and just everyday life more than most kids and since he was smaller in size than most the neighborhood bullies took advantage of him and picked on him more. He was very fearful of everything.

Many years pasted. In his mid-teens he discovered he was a very good at worker and found out that he was good at selling stuff door-to-door. Every job he had he seemed to excel and often was praised for doing the work faster and with high standards. He found that he retreated to working since he felt safe there.

Then in his late teens and early twenties something snapped inside of him not only did he become physically larger and in good shape but he became fearless, confident, those who knew him then might even say over confident. He believed he could and would do anything he wanted too. Often he did. He was very goal reinvented and reached almost every goal he had set for himself. Repeatedly, he pushed himself to the edge and then some more. He loved it! Hungered for it!



Once out of college he continued with that hunger going a thousand miles an hour was not good enough he had to be on fire while going 1000 miles an hour with hand grenades in both hands with the pins pulled. He fed on conflict and rejection as a salesperson turning it into production and profit.

A warrior, pit bull, a salesman were the names that people might have used to describe him as well as a professional, many of his fellow professionals would tell potential clients that it is not “if” you buy from him but it is “how much” you buy from him. He was not pushy, He was confidence, He was informative, He educated, He helped and most of all he cared and listened. His clients loved him and they responded by not only buying from him but also becoming friends with him.

Suddenly one day he had this intense headache. It lasted three days. After the headaches started he was able to power through them. He was taught that you worked! You did not lie down or you would die. That was his mantra. So, he did not lie down. Years pasted, the headaches continued to come more frequency and intensity. He continued to work but also searched for answers seeking out doctor, clinics, chiropractors, and more.

His worst nightmare was returning from his childhood to haunt him. A family with a sick father but now he was the sick father. He recalls the fear he had as a child nearly afraid of everything. Now he was fearful not of the pain but what it would do to his children and his wife. Years past while he continues to work with the headaches trying every possible solution he was even diagnosis with chronic Lyme disease. This required extensive treatments for six months that forced him to stop working. He sold his ownership to offset expenses and accepted a handshake from his partner that he would have a job when he finished treatment. After treatment he wanted to return to work but was fired instead.

Between the shock of being fired, the treatment, and still having daily chronic pain and headaches he reluctantly accepted that he should apply for disability which was a very hard for him to consider. However, it was best for his family.

Now it has been over twelve years. When you speak with him he has no fear of pain although he still lives with it daily. He actually will tell you he has no fear of anything. He uses to be afraid of flying and is not anymore. He does not fear anyone or anything including those bullies. In some ways he says he actually looks for ways to face his fears. When asked why? He comments, “Because it cannot hurt me anymore than I hurt now.” He continues by saying, “I don’t cry for myself but only for those who love me.”

Today he spends his days trying working on improving his health and taking care of those that he loves. Each day he makes an effort to do at least two acts of kindness for someone he knows and two acts of kindness for someone that he does not know. It would be easier for him to be bitter and mad about his health and the way his partner treated him. Instead he has chosen to believe that Karma will take care of the past. Although his health does not allow him to go a thousand miles as a salesperson and a successful business man it is his belief that there is a blessing in what has happen to him. Many have heard the old saying that God does not close a door without opening a window. In many ways this is exactly what has happen.

This story is for my kids with the sole purpose of trying to explain the past, present and future with the hope it will help them find the path to their own happiness as they become adults. I have always loved to work and found it to be one of my passions. Being a hard worker has always given me great confidence. However, for whatever reason my headaches are currently not going to permit me from continuing down that path. Being one of two children that grew up with a father fighting an illness deep down I guess I hoped that my kids would never know that fear and pain. I also did not know it but in some ironic subconscious way I prepared myself in the event I to become ill.

After much reflection though I know now that I was consumed with work and loved being successful and in a twisted way I had my priorities twisted incorrectly. I thought I was being a good father since I was being a good “provider.”

Kids that is why I challenge you now, tomorrow, and into the future to find a job that gives you happiness and allows you to make others happy. Ask yourself if I die tomorrow how will they remember me? Remember to be kind to both those you love and to those stranger the more you give better you will feel. It is also true good things happen to good people. Be truthful, strong, and polite. Be strong, fearless, and when required forceful. Always love, listen and find happiness.

If I had died while I was working I would have been remembered as a hard working, persistent, successful salesperson. Today, if I died I hope that I would be remembered for being a good friend, father, husband and a good man.



John Dale

2009