This will be the final post in the “Canvas Story” series. If you missed some of the previous WorkPuzzles on this topic, catch up by viewing them online.

Dan Parks works for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Real Estate Professionals in Roseburg, Oregon.

I’ve saved his story for last not only because it is a great story, but also because I have a personal connection to the experiences of this individual. I’ve never met Dan personally, but I have spent time with his hiring manager, David Stribling.

When David first relayed some of Dan’s story, I was immediately intrigued. I think you will be too.

 A Hopeless Diagnosis

Sometimes life doesn’t go as expected. From a very young age, Dan loved working on a ranch and grew to become a very successful ranch manger. This all started to change after a meeting with his doctor.

I had to leave my previous career as a ranch manager due to a nasty back injury. My doctors told me I couldn’t do manual labor anymore.

Initially, I tried to ignore the diagnosis and continued to seek out work in the ranching profession. But, it’s a small community and the word of my disability got out. Employers started seeing me as a potential liability rather than an asset to their organizations.

My days of working on a ranch were over, and I was forced to figure out what to do next.

Health Problems and New Careers

My connection to Dan’s story comes from the work experiences of my father. He started his career after high school as a farmer in central Iowa. In his late 20s, he contracted rheumatoid arthritis that later progressed into chronic osteoarthritis. By age 30, one doctor commented his x-rays looked like someone over 90 years old!

His condition was worsened by working outside in cold weather. It became impossible for him to survive the cold Iowa winters and continue to do manual labor.

Like Dan, he had to give up what he knew, and step out into the unknown. For my dad, it meant pursuing an undergraduate degree and then a PhD in dairy nutrition. He went on to become a college professor and private-sector scientist who helped thousands of farmers be successful at the very things he could no longer do with his own hands.

The Rest of the Story

How many people face these types of problems in their careers? More than you might think.

It may not seem obvious at first, but every hiring manager has opportunities to be someone’s hope for the future. Here’s how it worked for Dan.

I went online, blindly searching for something else I could do. I was fearful that my family could not go too long without my employment. There were very few jobs that interested me, or that I was qualified for.

I came across this ad for real estate, and it really intrigued me, so I applied. I took the test to see if this would be a good fit. When I did, I was contacted right away. To me, that meant that this company was both responsive and that I was desirable – this gave me the confidence to interview.

I met with David and it could not have gone better. He listened and asked me more questions than I did him. He wanted to know me. Why now? He told me, in no uncertain terms, “you would be great at this – you need to get a license.”

I hadn’t had a lot of positivity in many months, and after meeting David, I was so excited. Despite my wife’s unspoken fear, I jumped right in.

Here I am, meeting new people, never bored, meeting goals. And I’m part of a new family.

Dan joined BHHS Real Estate Professionals in July of 2014, and during his first year closed 15 units. You can learn more about Dan by visiting his website.

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