The Life Chronicler
Project
My Story - Afterword
People. They are the collective secret to the unfolding of our lives. For me, chronologically:
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There is neither a provincial 1500m championship nor official recognition for achievement from Canada's Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, without Mr. Weatherby.
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My two confidence-building math discoveries made as a schoolboy in which I unknowingly duplicated published work of others, were not possible without Mr. Lacy.
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My life-altering entrepreneurial success as a university student never happens without Richard Hunt.
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I never start my career in investment banking if a University of Western Ontario classmate, David Lloyd, does not urge me to look into a field about which I knew virtually nothing.
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Self-doubt about certain abilities might never have been erased without explicit, evidence-based feedback from Arnold Shykofsky during my last year at UWO in 1980.\
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After my devastating financial loss, I do not take up software engineering and secure a comfortable financial life without my business partner, Mike Tamburo.
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I am not an adoptive father of my only child without R. J. Kruger.
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My daughter does not get to travel the world without Dave Loffredo.
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Finally, without Steve Edelmuth in Boston that day, I might not even be alive.
The Athletic Director at Acadia University, Gib Chapman, once wrote about me that I was “a young man in a hurry.” For years, I never saw it that way. Upon reflection, perhaps he
was right. Today I am no longer young and, perhaps paradoxically, with time running out, I am no longer in a hurry. I now understand that it is the journey and the people that count.
Ultimately, this is the greatest lesson that I have learned; lives impact lives.
And so, here I am, retired and pursuing a book dream. As noted on THE BOOKS page, my goal is to adhere to the interviewing/listening framework designed by Dr. Dan McAdams of Northwestern University. I would be remiss if I did not recognize his encouraging correspondence and additional material, he sent to me.
Is it a crazy idea to spend my retirement money traveling the continent to talk with perfect strangers and then seek to write a book about their lives? My friends, particularly some with whom I grew up or those who know me well, would probably say something like, “Not at all, that’s just something Gregory would attempt.”
Rumi (1207-1273): “Start a huge, foolish project, like Noah… it makes absolutely no difference what people think of you.”