For the last three years I have financed my university life working a part time job as a rehab carer for Nick Chisholm. In 2000 Nick had a stroke on the rugby field and was rushed to hospital. Whilst in the hospital Nick had more severe strokes which sent him into a coma. One major stroke damaged Nick’s brain stem which left him with a condition known as ‘locked in syndrome.’ This left Nick in a locked body state in which he couldn’t move or talk, but his mind still worked fine. After many years of rehab Nick has made significant recovery and now has more control over his muscles allowing him to type emails using a joystick, use a TV remote and sketch basic images.

I met Nick in 2008 during my first year at Otago University. As a self supported student with no student allowance I was quickly running out of money. I saw an advert on the student job search website advertising a position for a sleepover staff for a young disabled man. I was immediately attracted to the job due to the suitable hours and significant pay. After one interview with the nursing agency I was asked to go to Nick’s house to meet him and see if I could use the board to communicate with Nick. I must have done something right because I was given the job working sleepover shifts twice a week.

Working with Nick for 3 years enabled me to save money which I put towards creating Room4Rent. However along the way I also learnt many life skills:

1: Persistence. I always try and paint a pretty picture when talking about my work with Nick. The truth is most of the time it was an amazing job but when things went wrong they could really really go wrong. Occasionally the stars would align and Nick would be understaffed, sick and tired. When I was working during these occasions I wouldn’t sleep at all during the night. Even worse was having 6 shifts in a row, 3 of them sleepover. I didn’t sleep for 3 nights. It was pretty hard at the time because I was falling asleep in lectures during the day to catch up on sleep. However I knew it would only be temporary so I put my head down and worked through it. (I knew if it was hard for me it would be 10 times worse for Nick)

2: Patience. Working with Nick also helped me become a more patient person. Can you imagine communicating with someone using a board with the alphabet on it, spelling out each word letter by letter? Now imagine doing this when they are extremely frustrated or in huge amounts of pain. It is frustrating. Both parties have to be patient otherwise communication breaks down very quickly.

3: Calmness under pressure. On the bad nights I would lay in bed listening to Nick in extreme pain. If he rang the bell I would enter his room and try and find out what the problem was using the alphabet board. This is not easy at 3am, and it is even harder when Nick is in pain. Sometimes Nick would be in so much pain he would be screaming. It was my job to work through the problem with Nick and try and fix whatever was causing him pain. Sometimes neither of us would know. From these experiences I learnt quickly how to stay calm under pressure and try and solve a problem. I think I did a pretty good job, but it might be better to ask Nick.

Nick is one of the most inspirational people in my life. Every day he faces monumental challenges. Nothing is easy. What is even more amazing is Nick’s dedication to his favourite rehab activity: going to the gym. Nearly every day Nick spends 2 hours in the gym doing weights. It is hard to understand how Nick can manage to do weights but normally cannot move his body. Without being too scientific, it is because the weights offer resistance to his muscles which allows him to push against them. Today I was lucky enough to join Nick in the gym for the first time. It was an amazing experience watching him in action on the bench press. After doing 500 reps at different weights Nick decided to increase the weights all the way up to 96kgs. This is an incredible feat; the most I have ever done on the bench press is 65kgs!

If you are going to Uni and want to start a business a great way to finance the initial stages is by working a part time job. When choosing your job think about what life skills you can gain from it that might help you in business.

One thing I am interested in trying my hand at is selling. A job at Michael Hill Jeweller maybe? Apparently if you can sell diamonds you can sell anything!

An inspirational video of Nick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tG4BCAT9iA

Sam