Bill Porter was one of those people who came into the world to give everyone a great life lesson, was unlucky enough to be born with cerebral palsy, something that brought many difficulties in his life because it affected the movement of his arms and legs. in his case, it also affected his speech by preventing him from speaking normally. He was born in San Francisco, United States, but from a young age lived his life in Portland, Oregon, also in the United States, with his mother.
As a child he has had to endure constant harassment on the part of his peers, mainly because almost the entire right part of his body was very atrophy, with a poor nervous system. We are talking about the 1930s, a time when there was still a lot of prejudice against people who were in that kind of situation and it was not a matter of inclusion. Few people understood that the obvious limitation of certain activities did not limit them to the wide range of life choices.
- There was only one person who blindly trusted his potential: his mother.
- She knew that the child was fully conscious and had a great interest in learning and evolution.
- So from an early age his mother always encouraged him to move on.
“What can we measure our value is what we do with the opportunities we have?. – Vince Lombardi-
Bill Porter did not want to spend his life doomed to anything, his mind was restless and dreamed of being useful to the world, embarking on a path of evolution, even with his condition he loved the sales area, loved contact with others and saw this work as a great opportunity for evolution. Many people told him it would be impossible to be a salesman because of his physical limitations.
His mother never doubted him. She encouraged him to look for work as a salesman. Bill Porter listened with joy. Even with great fear, he went to Watkins Incorporated stores, which sold hygiene items, seeing his shortcomings the manager denied him any job, he did not believe that it was possible for a boy with all his limitations to sell anything. .
Bill Porter was extremely frustrated. Again, however, his mother encouraged him to keep looking, so he returned to the same company the next day and asked to speak to the manager, who asked the director to do a test. She asked him to tell him what was the worst way to sell the business, which no other salesman wanted to do.
The manager hesitated, but since the boy wasn’t going to give up, he gave him the worst way to sell, he assumed he’d soon give up, after a day or two, because he wasn’t going to put up with the pressure. That way, he’d get rid of it more easily.
The next day, Bill Porter was playing at the start of his new job, the manager had assigned him a route too far away, in a hard-to-reach place with virtually no prospects for sale, he had to cover a total of 16 km per day. . At the time sales went door-to-door, that didn’t intimidate Bill, who was willing to do his job with great enthusiasm, yet, unsurprisingly, no one wanted to buy anything.
It’s lunchtime and Bill Porter went to eat the lunch his mother had prepared for him in a park. It was a sandwich, but not a regular sandwich, it had a very special detail. Two words were written with ketchup on the sandwich: patience and perseverance. Seeing this message his mother had left him, Bill regained the hope he had lost in his morning behind closed doors and behind closed doors.
Gradually he began to meet the people on the sales route who had assigned him. He earned the sympathy of many of them for his simplicity, his charisma and his enthusiasm. He managed to make his first sale. Then there were many more!In the same place where all other sellers have depreciated, Bill Porter has charted a path of success, both financially and personally. Before long, he became the best seller in the business.
Bill worked for this company for 40 years. In the meantime, he has won awards, medals and admirers. In 1995, a local newspaper became interested in its history and wanted to publish it. That’s how people met this wonderful man when he was about to retire. Throughout the paper, Bill has received thousands of letters and calls from around the world and became a big celebrity. His story was even brought to the cinema in 2000 and he died at the age of 81, in 2013, as a fully realized man.