A Self-Employed Man

By Judy Porter
Job Coach, Achievements, Inc.
A Montana Career Design Initiative Demonstration Site

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF NO ONE LISTENED to your ideas? What if you never had a chance to earn a living doing something you enjoyed? How would you feel if others made your decisions for you?

These are some of the questions Jeff might have pondered last year—but not this year. This year Jeff is a self-employed man, making plans to expand his business, and making decisions on what products to offer his customers.

The big change in Jeff’s life started in August of 1997. I was attending a training session in Utah; while visiting with other people attending the session who were using supported employment as a tool to help people disabilities achieve their employment goals, one person mentioned that Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) had purchased a Coke machine for one of the people with whom she worked. Click! The light came on. One of my favorite people, Jeff, had told me he wanted to be a “Coke man.” When he told me this, I must have been listening with only a small part of my brain, because I couldn’t figure out how a person with limited vocabulary, no drivers license, a short attention span, and no counting or reading skills could be a Coke delivery man. A COKE MACHINE! Yes, that could be the answer for Jeff.

Back home, the cold gray light of reality dawned. A Coke machine costs money, no matter how wonderful a person you are or how much you deserve to have your life’s dream come true. I checked with a few people, but to no avail. Jeff didn’t qualify for a PASS (Plan for Achieving Self Support—a Social Security Work Incentive). The VR office in our area was hiring new staff and wasn’t able to help. Jeff’s parents could not afford to underwrite the purchase of a machine. However, Achievements does have an ace in the hole. Our board of directors is a caring and nurturing group of people. I drew up a proposal for them and they agreed to finance Jeff’s purchase of a used machine to be installed at our agency. Jeff was going to get his Coke machine!

As the big day approached, Jeff’s excitement grew. A thousand dollars is a lot of money for a small non-profit organization to risk, and a lot of money for Jeff to pay back. What if Jeff decided that he didn’t want anyone buying from HIS machine? What if he really didn’t want to work after all? What if I had to take care of that darn machine for the rest of my life? What if, what if—STOP! What if no one ever gave Jeff a chance? Now that is a really disturbing thought.

The Coke machine arrived. Jeff had tears in his eyes as he realized that his dream of being a Coke man was really happening.

That was in November of 1997. Jeff has no problem staying on task when he’s working on his business. He does a market survey about once a week—he asks his customers at Achievements if there is any other kind of soda they would like him to stock. He does inventory control, letting me know when stock is getting short. Counting money is one of his favorite activities (He has a sheet with four circles on it. By placing a quarter on each circle, he is able to make one dollar stacks). He happily makes the payments on his Coke machine to our business manager.

Jeff is now a contributing business owner in the Libby community. Jeff knows this, and that’s the difference in his life.