This is the story of an ordinary guy who dreamed big enough to accomplish the extraordinary...
Jerry was born on April 9, 1940 in Porterville, California. His parents were the typical hard-working farmers found in California’s food-growing communities. They were a lower-middle class family, and no stranger to financial hardships. Jerry recalls repairing his jeans by hand with patches, not able to afford a new pair, and thinking to himself that he was not going to accept a future of poverty...
When he would walk around nearby neighborhoods, he used to see people living in beautiful houses, driving nice cars, wearing nice clothes with no holes, and he decided that all this would be possible in his future.
He was born with a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, and at the age of 10 embarked on his first business venture selling watermelons door to door. That was his first taste of the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’: Hard work = profit.
At the age of 13 years he set himself a bigger goal, when he saw an ad in a magazine about selling doorplates with family names, using solar power to glow in the dark. He would walk through the affluent neighborhoods, knocking on doors, saying “I’m saving up for College!”
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 realizing 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 realized that most people needed a solution to the problems created by nurtitional deficiencies.
In his teens, Jerry had a few unsatisfying jobs like selling furniture and tires, 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).
Then he became heart broken when the company failed due to mismanagement. This happened to him time and time again, the hardest part being the negative affect on the relationships he built with his Distributor team... his Distributor Family.
Taking matters into his own hands, Jerry started his own Direct Selling company founded on values which ensure product quality, unlimited income potential, and long-term stability for Distributors and future generations.
Along the way he acquired the NeoLife brand and merged it with his other companies, creating an international industry-leading gem. The NeoLife name has become the company name because its roots mean ‘new life’, something available to anyone desiring to join the NeoLife family.
Jerry had the courage to dream big because he knows that God has a unique & extraordinary plan for each and every one of us.
Jerry’s dream is now to see people around the world, people like you, reach your dreams and believe that if he could have success as a farm boy with no advanced degrees or fancy upbringing, then so can you!