Although Jerry was clever and business minded, as a young boy, he was often held back from his potential because he suffered from severe asthma and allergies. So severe, in fact, that he recalls lying in the bed of his family’s farm home, hearing a somber voice through the thin paper walls of his room shared with brothers. It was the voice of his mother telling the family Pastor “I’m sorry to call you over here so late, I just don’t think he is going to make it through the night.”
There’s nothing like a little good motivation... this got Jerry fired up to fight for his life and he spent the night gasping for breath after breath harder than ever before.
Jerry’s mother then embarked on a search, determined to find relief for her sick son. After realising that at that time there was no modern medicine that could help Jerry, she began to give him something which at that time did not garner much main stream acceptance. She added quality nutritional products to his daily diet.
Supplements in the 1940’s were not as palatable as they are today, so Jerry was forced to take giant, heaping tablespoons of foul tasting nutrition like cod liver oil. It was then that he discovered the profound impact that quality supplements could play in helping restore good health. Through giving his body the nutrition it needed, allergies and asthma became more of an occasional nuisance triggered by farm animals rather than a constant battle for life.
This life changing, probably even life saving experience gave Jerry an unwavering belief in the power of nutritional supplementation. Because of his passion for helping others, Jerry began sharing his powerful testimony with those around him and realised that most people needed a solution to the problems created by nutritional deficiencies.
In his teens, Jerry had a few unsatisfying jobs like selling furniture and tyres, yet the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ in which he was raised to believe, where more hard work equals more profit, was nonexistent in any job he could find.
But at the age of 19, Jerry discovered Direct Sales through a company selling supplements perfectly aligning with his two passions: business & health. He finally found a business where hard work means more income and in just four years he was worth $5 million (significantly more in today’s terms).