My name is Andrew Bellah. I work at Auto Mart right here in Douglas. My boss, Robbie Guthrie, thought it would be a good investment to send his son and I to the Dale Carnegie class offered at the Chamber of Commerce earlier this year.
I did some research on the class after I found out that we would be attending, but nothing really could prepare me for it. The class really began to teach me how to have a positive attitude on managing stress, handling people and their different personalities, and much more.
During the class, I was dealing with a struggle with my father and his alcohol abuse. He and my mother had gotten divorced the year before, and he continued to drink uncontrollably.
Entering into the class, I was battling a lot of stress and bitterness towards a situation that I could not control. One of the training tips taught by our instructors was to manage stress. When I began to realize how much anxiety I was giving this situation with my father, it helped me to step back and evaluate how I was handling this situation.
Well, just like most of us, I was handling it all wrong. I was criticizing, condemning, and complaining when I was on the phone with him. We argued all the time and our relationship was almost severed completely.
When I began to use these tools, our relationship began to heal. On May 18, 2015, I received a phone call from my sister to inform me that my dad was in the hospital and that it didn’t look too promising. My wife, my daughter and myself made a long trip to Plano, TX to see dad, but when we got there he was already in a coma.
On May 22, 2015, my dad passed away at 49 years old and the following Monday (which would be Memorial Day), I preached his funeral. As nervous and emotional as you could imagine, I took a deep breath in front of a large crowd, thought of all my Dale Carnegie training and prayers, and gave the best speech I have ever given.
After the funeral, everyone came to me and said they could not believe that I was able to speak so clearly and so easily in such a large crowd and at your own father’s funeral.
I want to thank John and Larry Heron for training me and teaching me the tricks of the trade and I hope this testimony will help influence someone to take this course.
– Andrew T. Bellah
A Dale Carnegie Course will be offered again at the Atrium Event Center in Douglas beginning Monday, Sept. 14. The class meets each Monday for eight weeks. Contact Andrea Taylor at the Chamber of Commerce at (912) 384-1873.