Steven Whitaker

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a curious observer of life, society, and human behavior—constantly contemplating our purpose and place in the universe for this little slice of time we’re all so lucky to get on this planet. Beginning in February 2022, I was both blessed and cursed with the opportunity to spend months in silence, deeply reflecting on my own life and these grander questions as I lay in a hospital bed, muted by a tracheostomy, during my near-death battle with COVID-19.

I gained so many profound takeaways from that experience, but one crushing truth I came to realize was that I’d spent my entire adult life setting goals, working hard, and pursuing society’s definition of success without ever realizing the underlying emotion I’d been chasing all along was simply happiness. I spent all those years chasing external achievements in search of an internal emotion, and it took me nearly dying to realize my mistake.

I am not the typical author of a book like this. Not by a long shot. I left college after two uninspired years to pursue a career at UPS, where I worked for 35 years— spending most of that time as a delivery driver in Oregon. My credentials are a lifetime of mistakes, triumphs, and deep self-reflection. I claim to be an expert on nothing, yet have gathered mountains of wisdom and a strong desire to help future generations create lives and a world they will be proud of.

I was fortunate enough to receive a life-saving double-lung transplant, a gift that came as the result of a heavy price paid by someone else. At the end of the movie Saving Private Ryan, Ryan’s life is spared at the expense of his fellow soldiers; and a dying Captain John Miller tells him to “earn it”—meaning to live a life worthy of the massive sacrifices made on his behalf. I have received a gift and a debt I can never truly repay, but this project is my best effort to give back to the world, to help the next generation, and to “earn it.”   

               —Steven Whitaker