Steve DiFranco is a guy I met because my boss didn't have enough time to meet with him. He's in sales, so I always look at those initial meetings and conversations with a grain of salt, because I knew he wanted something from me. But he was so genuine and his attitude was so appealing, from that point forward his call is one of the few sales calls that I would take every time.
I got to have lunch Steve last week. And in that hour, I found that the positive, genuine attitude was born out of a terrible, terrible childhood. I'm not sure he would want me to share all the details here, but suffice it to say that he grew up in a place where fear and terror were never far from his mind. He grew up in a place where people lied to him because they could. He grew up believing that he wasn't allowed to go to college because he grew up in the wrong neighborhood. Not just it would be hard. He truly thought he wasn't allowed. And his memories of it all seem strikingly clear.
The amazing thing is that as he spoke, I could tell that the spark of the spirit of joy, love and wonder at life that I know as Steve seems to have been there through his whole life. He speaks of those times with no bitterness. He seems to genuinely understand that the blessings he has in his life right now, who he is right now, are due at least in some part to being molded by the fires that he came through in his early years. If only I had that strength of character.
Steve told me that people have told him that there is a book in his life story. I hope that should he ever be ready to write it, that he would allow me the honor of putting his story in words.
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