Welcome to a Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman, and today our guest is Kenneth Reid. I would like to call him Ken Reid and I’m hoping that’s okay. Ken, thank you so much for joining us today.
A: Thank you.
Q: Now, you have a new book that is coming out that a lot of people are going to be inspired to read. And when you think about books, when you think about stories, a lot of people say, “Well, we all have stories in our own lives.” But yours is especially powerful. If you will just for a moment take us back in time to that car crash that changed the direction of your life. Tell us what happened.
A: Well, me and a buddy, we were on a professional bowler’s tour and we were going to bowl in some games down in North Carolina. We lived in Virginia Beach and we had gone down there and where we were supposed to bowl in the games, it was like a desert out there. Nobody was there. So we ended up staying in a bar and drinking the rest of the night and then we decided we were going to drive home and that was a very bad decision because it was one that changed both of our lives.
Q: When you say, “A very bad decision that changed your lives,” that is because you were thrown over 150 feet into the air when the car lost control?
A: Yes. My buddy took a 1987 Corvette up to 100 miles an hour and we hit a ditch and flipped end over end about four or five times, and I flew out of the car and landed in a ditch probably about 150 feet from the car.
Q: And then do you remember what happened in those moments or was your next memory at the hospital?
A: My next memory was at the hospital. It was probably a good three to four weeks after the accident. I was on morphine and pretty drugged up and they didn’t think I would live. They kept coming in and telling my mom I was going to pass away that night.
Q: And then what happened? How long were you in the hospital for, Ken?
A: I was in the hospital basically for around about six to eight weeks and then they transferred me to a rehabilitation center.
Q: And when you say rehabilitation center, you were recovering? You were now showing signs that you were not only going to survive but be able to have a healthy life? But there was a critical difference. You were a professional bowler. You were someone who was very physically active, and then the doctors informed you that you had lost the use of your legs. Is that right? Are you paralyzed from the waist down or…
A: Yes, I’m basically paralyzed from the T4, T5 area. That’s basically the mid-chest area down. So I don’t have any use of my legs at all.
Q: So when that happened, when you learned that information about yourself, how did that change your perspective of, “My goodness, I’m a professional bowler. I am an active business owner. Now, where do I go?” What happened in that process?
A: Well I mean, my whole life had just changed and I had lost everything, but I knew that I had lived. For some reason I was sent back to this earth and I knew that I had a reason to go on, so I just had to find out what that was and look for it.
Q: When you say, “What that was and look for it,” I guess in your story in your book, Choose A Lane, you identify that you found that purpose and I think part of that from what I understand, is the different perspective you gained. So tell me a little bit about that.
A: In the book, I explain how it’s actually going to help someone to get from where I was and to make it out of there. Basically when I say, “Make it out of there,” I had actually lost everything and this is going to give you the tools and resources to help you regain your life back.
Q: So no matter what someone’s situation is, whether in yours where you had to redefine yourself after an accident, redefine how you’re going to live your life after the accident; or in other people’s lives, other people’s journeys, we’re all going to have different impasses or obstacles that we move through. So your book is called Choose A Lane. What is the lesson in that, the wording: “Choose a Lane”?
A: It is that you can choose your lane; you can choose the path that you want to go on. You can make that change. I live by the four C’s. That’s choice, change, chance and challenge. You make a choice to make the change that you want to make in your life. You take a chance and try to do something that you have never done before and you challenge yourself to do all those things.
Q: And so those are the steps or I’ll say, just like the goggles that you’re looking through, “Okay, everything I have in front of me. I have those seeds and I just have to look at it more critically so that I can move through that.” Your role or your work now is in assisted technologies for disabled workers. And I say now, but you have been doing that for a number of years now. And part of that role—someone said you’re like the MacGyver for the Disabilities Act in that you see an obstacle or you see a challenge and you get in there. You might redesign a workspace, or you might create a new car seat for someone who has conjoined twins. When someone has a disability you find a way to make them as productive and as interactive as anyone who may not have that same disability. And that’s your day-to-day job. Did that play a role in you developing this philosophy of: you know what? We’re all adaptable. We just have to see it differently.
A: Yes, definitely. That job is the most rewarding job that there ever could be. I actually go out and work with people and they are down in the dumps or they’ve actually lost a lot: they can’t go back to work and I actually find a way for them to return to work, whether it be modifying their vehicles so they can be able to get in and get out to work, or modifying their homes so they can be able to enter and leave the house on their own. A lot of times, it’s more of just helping a person become more independent, whether it be with just having a simple Oreo dispenser that will actually help them eat an Oreo cookie from their bed.
Q: Which sounds simple but for someone who has suddenly lost that ability to do it, it’s huge. It’s monumental for them.
A: Yes. It makes a big difference in their lives.
Q: Well, I’m imagining, since you are driving and you’re working: you are a consultant and you are an author, that when you arrive and someone says, “I can’t do that.” That just the symbol of who you are is, ‘Yes, you can.’ You provide that just by your mere presence. You provide that motivation for someone to start seeing that there is hope and success ahead of them. I’m wondering since you do a lot of your work with the ADA or those who are dealing with disabilities, do you find yourself giving a lot of motivational insight as well? Like the type of insight given in your book?
A: Definitely, definitely I do, because when I go to someone’s house, they see me roll up in a wheelchair and then all of a sudden their eyes light up because they realize that, “Hey, he’s going to understand what I’m trying to tell him. He’s going to understand that I can’t get in and out of my house. And he’s going to understand how to actually make it work for me.”
Q: So there is credibility in what they’re saying and what they’re doing. Going back to some of the lessons, the Cs, that you write about in your new book Choose A Lane, if you were to say to yourself, “Okay, Ken Reid believes this now,” and you didn’t know that about yourself before the accident, before your rehabilitation and before you redefined your life, how would you describe yourself that way, Ken? Would you say this experience over the last number of years has made me, Ken Reid, think this about life? What would that ‘this’ be?
A: That ‘this’ would be that anything is possible, that you can make anything out of your life but you just have to have the right tools and resources to do it. In my book, it’s going to explain how you can actually turn that around.
Q: How you can turn that around. How you can find the tools that you need to change that perspective. Ken Reid, the new author of Choose A Lane, a new book that is out, joining us on a Personal Touch. And, Ken, I just have to tell you having met you in person a number of times, you are a role model and mentor to not only those who are disabled in finding new freedom because of your work and day-to-day on the job but you’re a fantastic example of how any of us can push through our obstacles. So thank you so much for joining us today.
A: Well, thank you.
Q: And be sure to check your email next week to find out who else is making a difference in our world like Ken Reid with a Personal Touch. End of interview.
