From Losing a Leg to Leadership in Life — A Lesson in Strength Through Adversity

An Interview with Derrick Aaron Summerill from the Utah Wheelin’ Jazz

Derrick Aaron Summerill, who goes by Aaron, was born in Houston, Texas, and now lives in Orem, Utah. He’s been through a lot in his life. He was adopted to a family of 10 which later became 13 children. His adoptive parents were divorced when he was two years old. His mother was married seven times in 12 years. He came from an abusive home and it got worse with every step dad. Eventually it led him to running away, as early as 12 years-old.

Aaron started stealing food and clothes to feed and dress himself. He was in and out of homes, facilities, and lockups from that time on. Somehow, he still managed to graduate high school at the age of 17 and do so with a 3.67 GPA. Aaron said, “I was a determined person from a young age and always knew I had the right mental makeup for the situation. I had to teach myself to be a better person. How to interact with people in social situations always came easy to me. I had a very tough time with Authority figures and thought they were all just power-seeking control freaks.”

After Aaron finished high school, he moved to Ogden, Utah. Immediately, he started getting in trouble again, and within a year he found myself incarcerated. After a brief incarceration, he started to get his life on the right track. He started working full-time and saving for school.

But at the young the age of 20 years-old, Aaron was involved in a motorcycle wreck that took his right leg. After rehab and physical therapy, Aaron was sent home on a Monday, and on that an acquaintance came over to his house and demanded pain pills. To make a long story short, he ended up on the wrong side of a 9mm handgun.

Aaron spent several months in the hospital and in a rest home, recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. As he healed up from being shot, things got really got rough.

As Aaron said, “As if it wasn’t tough enough for me yet I wanted to make the story of my life a little more dramatic. The loss of the leg is what started a very heavy dependency of opioids, mainly OxyContin. I was hooked immediately and my doctors had no interest in helping me get off them, only keeping me under its spell. When it got really bad and it was no longer enough I started down the road of illicit drugs, a battle that went on for several years until it all came to a crashing halt.”

While high on drugs, Aaron hit and killed a 79 year-old woman in an automobile-pedestrian accident. He had to forfeit 5 years of his life for the accident. However, that’s where the story and his life truly changed.

In Aaron’s own words, “I vividly remember those five years. Two of which to have God help me get out, and the other three for God to help me change who I am, fundamentally. I remember feeling what I felt, when for the first time I knew that God was on my side. I remember it because it’s still the feeling I have now, 12 plus years later. I have used my experiences in life to help me help others.”

Aaron told me, “I feel and know now there is no greater service than the service of your fellow man. Seeing those around us, that need some help. An encouraging word, some advice, someone to love them and believe in them. Someone they know has their back. Anyways I hope that gives you enough to go on Patrick.”

Aaron and I met a couple months ago when I had the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball with the Utah Wheelin’ Jazz. He’s an amazing dude, and here is our interview.

Patrick: This is Patrick Henry, the CEO of QuestFusion, with The Real Deal…What Matters. Today we’re going to start a new series. I haven’t done one of these in quite some time with everything going on with the COVID-19 crisis, the resulting economic impact and the stress that people are feeling. I wanted to do a short series to focus on leadership and dealing with adversity.

My inaugural guest for this series is my good friend Aaron Summerill. I met Aaron a few months ago in Utah playing wheelchair basketball. Fortunately for me, I was able to get up out of the chair afterwards. Aaron jumped up out of the chair. He has one leg.

He lost a leg during a motorcycle accident when he was 20 years old. He is quite an athletic young guy and very impressive. I really hit it off with him. We were taking a group photo during the event. Aaron jumped out of his chair and jumped up on top of a folding chair. I thought, “Wow, this guy is something else!”

We took the picture and then we played some basketball. He’s quite an incredible athlete, in the chair and out of the chair. Aaron was born in Houston, Texas and now lives in Orem, Utah. His first name is Derrick, but he goes by Aaron. He’s from a very large family. I’m sure he’ll tell us a little more about that.

As I mentioned, he lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident. He had a long recovery period, both emotionally as well as physically. He’s now mentoring kids with physical disabilities. He does play wheelchair basketball at the highest level playing for the Utah Wheelin’ Jazz. He also helps kids from a mentorship standpoint that come from rough backgrounds and rough homes. With that, I’ll open it up to Aaron. Tell us a little more about yourself. Then we’ll have a little chat.

Aaron: Thanks, Patrick. I appreciate you having me on. You gave a really good summary of my life. I was born in Houston, Texas. When I was very young, I was adopted to a family here in Utah. I was one of 10 children. I later became one of 13. I have three little sisters, two of which are mentally handicapped with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. It was very interesting growing up in such a diverse family. I feel very blessed to have grown up in such a diverse home.

As you explained, life went on. Eventually, when I was 20 years old, I lost my leg in a motorcycle wreck. It was really tough at first to overcome some of the mental, not so much the physical. After a few short years, 10 to be exact, I decided that was not the life I wanted. I didn’t want to be negative, bitter, angry, and frustrated at life itself or with others.

That was the turning point for me. I hit and killed a pedestrian, unfortunately, when I was 25 years old. That cost me a few years of my freedom. It was in that loss of freedom that I realized I wanted a different life. I wanted a better life. I wanted to own businesses, make an impact on my community and family, and give back to the community. Now, a lot of my time is dedicated to service and helping others through what I call “stinking thinking.”

Patrick: That’s incredible. You’ve dealt with a ton of adversity. The current thing we’re going through is adversity at the highest level for a lot of people. It’s very unique. You’ve been through a lot. You’ve dealt with a lot and come out on the other side. Tell us about what was going on with you emotionally after the accident, while you were in prison, and some of the things that you’ve done to turn your life around. How are you applying that in the current crisis that’s going on?

Aaron: I’ll start with the loss of the leg and bring you up to date, which is about 16 years’ worth of life. At 20, on May 1st of 2004, I was involved in a motorcycle wreck. I was doing about 125 miles an hour and the back tire blew out. I hit some trees on the side of the road. I had a compound fracture in my left leg at the shin and a complete break where it took a four-inch piece of femur, turned it sideways, and sent it through my artery.

That was the biggest contributing factor to the loss of the leg. It was also completely shattered from the knee down to the big toe. I didn’t know that was the case when I first woke up. I remember very vividly looking at the end of my bed. My dad and my brother were there. I remember that my dad was crying. I thought, “It’s dad. He does that.” Then looking at my brother and seeing him crying as well through me off. I slowly panned up and realized, “Oh my gosh, I’m missing a leg.” It was a really unique wake-up call.

From that point, I went into a depression and frustration. My most frequent thought was, “God, why me?” I believe strongly in my higher power and Jesus Christ. For the life of me, I couldn’t wrap my head around why me. I was stuck in the “why me” mindset for quite a while.

When I got out of the hospital finally after about three months, I came home on a Monday afternoon. On a Friday morning, I was headed back to the ER and the ICU for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. After that, I thought, “You can’t die. You’ve tried twice now to go early and it’s just not working.” At that point, I thought, “I have to figure something else out. I have to do something different.”

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t ready at that time. I spiraled out of control with drug abuse from pills that the doctors were prescribing. Once that was no longer enough, I started to go down a dark and dangerous road with other drugs, eventually getting me sent to the penitentiary for a negligent homicide, which was hitting and killing a pedestrian.

About three-and-a-half years into it, I started going to different church services. I figured there was no religion for me, but I was definitely down with spirituality. I remember laying in my bunk saying, “Okay, God. I get it. I’m going to get out of the driver’s seat, slide to the passenger seat, and let you drive this thing.”

In life, my agreement with God is that I’m going to pray. If I get those good feelings that let me know innately that this is a good choice, I’m going to do it to the fullest. If I feel, “You probably shouldn’t be doing this or be here,” I’m going to take that as advice from the Lord and go the other way. Two of the things that have really been huge for me are service to others and improving my own life.

Patrick: That’s amazing. You were in jail for three years and then got out?

Aaron: Just over five.

Patrick: How long has it been since you were released?

Aaron: Just over six years.

Patrick: How did you get into wheelchair basketball? When you got out, was there a goal-setting process? You turned your life over to the Lord. You’re very ambitious. You’re driven. How does that work in terms of setting goals? Do you pray and look for inspiration? How do you deal with those things from an achievement standpoint?

Aaron: It’s a combination of the two. You’re right. Setting goals is a huge part of the process, whether that’s in your mind and knowing what you’re constantly shooting for or writing it down on paper. I would recommend both. I thought, “What is your number one goal, Aaron?” My number one goal was, never give up my freedom ever again. I started to make a plan around that.

What are the things that will make it so that I never give up my freedom again? One of those things is that I have to follow the law. That means to the “T.” I have to do the best I can every day. At the time, being a parolee, I knew that I had to live a perfect standard of life, higher than any other type of citizen because I’m under scrutiny. I’m under the microscope.

Putting that all together, I knew I had to pay attention to the laws around me, even my surroundings. Who am I hanging out with? Why am I hanging out with them? Is this a good person for me to hang out with? Are they helping me get to my goal of never losing my freedom again or are they going to help me get my freedom taken? The most important thing is accountability.

You can say, “I hung out with this person and I shouldn’t have been.” At the end of the day, that’s right. You hung out with that person. It doesn’t come down to anybody else except for my own choices. That was another thing that I realized. It’s all choice. I have the choice not to give up my freedom again. I can do that an accomplish it every single day by making the right choices. I’m praying to God on top of it and saying, “What is it that you’ll have me do? Should I volunteer? Should I talk to these kids?”

It’s scary telling your story. A lot of times, people will use that against you or try to hurt you with it. It’s really unfortunate because there are a lot of amazing stories out there, a lot of which we’ll never get to hear because they’re afraid of the scrutiny and the things that people may say to them because of what they’ve been through. In my opinion, that makes them even stronger and someone I do want to listen to because they’ve been there and done that.

Patrick: There’s definitely a healing process around sharing things, even if it’s just one other individual that you share it with. They say that if you stay in your own head, you’re in a bad neighborhood. It’s good to get that stuff out. Did you have a goal to start participating in athletics again? How did you get into wheelchair basketball?

Aaron: When I got out, my dad was remarried to a woman that he had dated for years. She said, “What are you going to do as far as recreation activities?” I said, “I’m going to get a gym membership. I’m going to go to the gym.”

She said, “I know that you’ve said in the past you didn’t want to, but if you ever consider it, my cousin is a guy by the name of Mike Schlappi. He happens to be a three or four-time Paralympic gold medalist. He’s been playing wheelchair ball.” He happens to be the coach of my current team. I said, “Okay. We’ll see.”

It didn’t really progress anywhere. My dad had a friend named Vern Burgess who coaches another team in the Ogden, Utah area. He said, “Aaron, I’ve bugged you for years. One time. That’s all I’m asking you. Come and check it out. If you like it, then you stay and play. If you don’t, I’ll never bother you again.” I said, “Okay.” I went and played. By the time it was done, I thought, “Why is this stopping? When is the next practice? When are we going again?”

A couple of weeks later, I ended up getting in touch with Mike Schlappi. I went to a practice with the Utah Wheelin’ Jazz and did something that I’ve been told never happens. I stole the ball from Mike Schlappi twice in the same practice. After that, Jeff, Mike, and Rod said, “You’ve got to play with us. What does it take? We’d love to have you.” It ended up being the perfect choice to play with them because the area of Utah that I moved to was closer to them anyway. That’s how it started.

Patrick: A big part of what you’re talking about is devoting your life to a life of service. It’s that service mentality. How important has that been to your physical, mental, and emotional health? What do you think about those things?

Aaron: When you’re volunteering, giving of yourself, and seeing someone start to achieve things where, before, they didn’t even know there was such a thing as wheelchair basketball, helping them and laying down the path for them to follow when they finally start to give in to that, there comes such a self-pride that builds up inside you. It starts with pride.

As you continue to help them build and you see the troubles that they go through and the obstacles that they have to get over, it continues to build. You say, “I’m not going to tell you how to do it. I’m going to tell you what my experience has been. You can go from there. Take it for what it’s worth. If it’s something that applies, apply it. If it doesn’t, then let it go. We’ll worry about it another way.”

As far as physical health, playing basketball and pushing a wheelchair helps take care of the physical side. With the emotional side, to be honest, it has literally saved my life in many different ways. I grew up an athlete. I grew up playing all sorts of sports. If it involved competition, I probably played it when I was growing up. I have four older brothers. A sport was always something that was played. It was mostly wrestling, or butt-kicking as they called it. That’s what they did to me a lot. Not anymore. Now I’m one of the biggest, so they can’t do that to me anymore.

Emotionally, that helps a lot. It was the place that I wanted to be in my life. If I couldn’t play sports, what else was there? Mentally, I would say the same thing. It saved me from myself. It got me out of my own head. Like you said, it’s a lonely neighborhood. You don’t want to be stuck in your own head, thinking of those things.

It also takes that focus off by volunteering, serving, and giving back. You are no longer focused on “me, me, me.” You’re focused on others. Therefore, it lets you get out and heal, and use your experiences to propel others forward. I think that’s very important. There are times when people make it in life. After they make it, they forget the most important part of making it. The part where you reach back and help somebody else become successful.

It’s like sitting on a beach in Australia. You look to your left. You look to your right. There’s nobody there. Why would you want to do that? It’s pointless to me. If I can’t have my family and friends around me, I don’t see the point. Success is something where, because I found a little of it, it’s my obligation to show others and help others get to where I am.

The last one was spiritually. Spiritually, I feel that is what we’re supposed to be doing as human beings. We’re supposed to give back and follow Jesus’ example. I feel very strongly about my convictions in Christ and God. I do whatever I can to follow their example. I’m not perfect. There are days when I get mad and frustrated or I say something that I probably shouldn’t. That’s another opportunity to grow for me. If you get knocked off the horse, don’t sit and complain about how badly it hurts. Get back on and start riding again. That’s the only thing you can do. Either quit or keep going. I’m not a quitter.

Patrick: You started your own business. Talk about your strategy with your business and your strategy with life. What’s your bigger vision? Where do you see yourself five to ten years from now in terms of career and personally?

Aaron: As far as the business side, I’ve always wanted to be a business owner. I did start a drop shipping business. There were some things that would come to the house and I’d have to deliver them. It was kind of a nightmare, but it taught me a lot about running a business. I still technically run it and plan to keep on going with it.

I’ve since switched and have a few different business ideas. I’d like to take a couple of different ventures in pest control, owning convenience stores or gas stations, and lawncare and snow removal. Any place that has four seasons will allow that type of business. With pest control, I can live anywhere as well. There will always be a need. I want to find the needs.

Two or three of those are labeled as essential right now as we’re going through this Coronavirus situation. I think it’s a smart choice to find those things that are recession proof or crisis proof. Everyone will always need gas. They will always want the bugs and pests gone. They will always want their yard to look nice. That’s strategically where I see myself going.

I also hope, in the next four or five years, to learn as much as I can from you, Patrick. You know the most about starting a small business of anyone that I know. That’s saying a lot, because I know quite a few businesspeople. They’ve started their own business. They’re successful in their business. My goal is to learn as much as I can from you, not only to apply it to myself and the businesses that I want to run, but also to use it to help others that I hope to mentor to become great business owners.

I think everyone in the world should own their own business. It’s just a better way to do things. You control your own time. Yes, it’s a lot of hard work, but there’s so much that you get from it.

I want to employ other people, about 10 to 20 other people, maybe more. I think that’s one of the greatest gifts of capitalism. It’s the ability to help others support their family. When you can do that, you start to have communities that are stronger. The problem that we have with absent fathers is that they don’t feel a sense of pride being able to support their families. The truth is, it’s hard being a dad, so they leave. When you give that ability back to people, to be able to support their family, man or woman, it brings a lot of great things to the community. I’d love to be able to employ several people.

In the next two years, I recently accepted a scholarship to go back to school. I’ll also get to play a little wheelchair basketball for the school. It’s the University of Texas, Arlington. Shout out to them and Doug Garner for extending that offer. I can’t wait to get down there. I’ll miss my family like crazy. I remind myself daily that this is where you grow.

One of my pet peeves in life is when people say, “Change is scary.” Yes, because you always tell yourself that. Why don’t you say that change is a chance for opportunity? Change is a way to fix what’s been broken. Change is a lot of things, but scary? In my opinion, it shouldn’t be one of them. Usually, the word that’s mentioned after change is “scary.” Change is beautiful.

Patrick: That’s amazing. I think that’s such a positive and incredible attitude. You’re embracing change and going for it. You’re really putting yourself out there. You’re willing to accept the risks and challenges. Sometimes, things happen when you go through a significant event. You and I have both grown up in challenging environments.

What I’ve always told myself and others is that I think I have a higher threshold in my ability to deal with stress than most people, because of the way that I grew up. From a business standpoint, there are a lot of stressful times. Right now is a stressful time. Forty to fifty percent of the gross national product of the United States is small to mid-sized businesses, and we’re one of them.

These are the businesses that are most vulnerable in a situation like this, even with the government’s support that’s been offered that isn’t fully implemented yet, there are challenges. Like you said, when you employ other people, which we do in our company, it’s like your extended family. You have a responsibility towards those people. You don’t want to have massive layoffs. You want to keep people employed, not only for the health of the business, but for them and their families. There’s a responsibility and obligation that I carry with me. It’s a very challenging time.

Aaron: I can control what I can control. The things that I can control are the movements of myself and my family, and also how I conduct myself. I can choose to look at it like, “This sucks. This is the worst thing ever. I’m not going to do this. They can’t make me.” There are a lot of people with that attitude. Then there are those who say, “Let’s just do it. Let’s get through this and be done.” I tend to stick with the latter.

The best thing that you can do right now is to figure out ways to improve yourself. Figure out ways that are going to help you get ahead when you come out of this. There shouldn’t be too many people panicking. I understand that people are losing their jobs. However, that help is on the way. It hasn’t been implemented yet. It’s not a ton of help, but I think it’s enough to help people keep going.

If for some reason, you’re in a bind and you don’t have money, reach out to your friends. Reach out to me. Reach out to someone. I promise there are plenty of people out there, myself included, that will find a way to help you. You may have to do some things that you normally wouldn’t, like swallow your pride. Just because you were a CEO at one point doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get a job for a couple of months at Wal-Mart because they’re open. It’s by any means necessary.

What are the necessary things that I need to do to put food on the table for our family and a roof over their head? It comes down to those essentials. The biggest thing that we can do is be calm. So many people out there are saying, “You idiot. What do you mean stay calm? I don’t have a job.” I get that, but you still have to use rationale in everything that you do. If you go crazy with it, you’re going to be a panicked, stressed mess.

Unless you were raised like you and I, where we have a higher tolerance for stressful situations, I’m also a Leo. Those times of chaotic is when I shine. It’s after it’s calm and everything goes back to normal, that’s where I lose my value. Find your strengths. Work on them. Practice them.

Since the Coronavirus, I’ve taught myself to shoot left-handed. I’m a right hander. I’ve posted some videos on Tik Tok and other social media platforms of challenges of standing up with just one leg, doing handstands on crutches, being silly, having fun with it, and doing the things that make me happy. If it makes me smile, I’m going to put it on video and hopefully help someone else smile.

Keeping a positive attitude is the absolute number one thing. Every single day, let God, your creator or higher power know that you’re thankful for the things that you do have. You’re thankful for that roof. You’re thankful for your job, food, money in the bank, and friends who are willing to help. Thank goodness the president is trying to lend some kind of financial assistance.

It may not be a ton, but it’s not designed to make you a millionaire. It’s designed to help you put food on the table and a roof over your head. Hopefully, it can do that for people. I have such a belief in America. When it comes to these times and really hard situations, for some reason, we ban together really well.

The only thing I don’t like about that is that I wish it would be that way all the time, not just in a crisis. Keep your positive attitude. Thank God for what you do have. Be grateful that you have a life and that you’re here in the USA. Right now, with this going on, I don’t think there are better places that you could be.

Patrick: A positive mental attitude, an attitude of gratitude, appreciation for your creator, and remaining optimistic.

Aaron: And spend time with those you love.

Patrick: The freedoms that we have available to us in this country are pretty amazing. I’ve traveled all over the world. We have some limitations on those freedoms right now, hopefully for a good reason. Like you said, I’m going with the flow. I’m not forming rallies to try and disrupt or overthrow the government. It’s a transient thing. We’ll get through it. It’s sad and unfortunate that some people are losing their lives. People lose their lives over hunger. There are more people that die from hunger than almost anything else in the world.

Aaron: Bad water still kills more people in the world than anything else.

Patrick: People need fresh water and enough food. Those are our big crisis issues. In this country, we don’t see it that much. Worldwide, those are the big issues.

Aaron: Our infrastructure is still in place. Grocery stores are still open. Water, power, and sewage are still up and running, and will continue to be. We’re definitely not in DEFCON 3 like some other countries. That is unfortunate. I pray that they get the help that they need. It is very sad.

Patrick: This has been terrific. I appreciate your time, Aaron. This has been helpful. It’s nice to be around positive, enthusiastic people. We all have handicaps. We all have our issues. Yours is more visible, but you would never know. Your attitude is such that you don’t really see it as a limitation. You’ve leveraged it. I think that’s an incredible thing and it’s one of the reasons why I have so much respect and admiration for you. I think it’s incredible.

Aaron: Thank you very much. I have the same admiration for you as well. Reaching out to a guy you didn’t know for no other reason than just being a friend is very rare. I wish there was more of that in the world. I agree, everyone does have their own handicap or disability. It’s funny because, people who don’t know me and haven’t met me in real life… I did a Tik Tok video where I had my prosthetic on. I jumped up. When I came down, it was only one leg. They said, “Wait, how did he do that?”

Patrick: That’s amazing. How can people get a hold of you? What are your social media handles? How can people reach out to you if they want to connect with you or have you speak? I know that motivational speaking is something that you aspire to do more of.

Aaron: On social media, I am Derrick Aaron Summerill. It’s the same for Instagram. They can also reach me by cell phone at 385–626–3311. Reach out to Patrick. Message me on Facebook or Instagram. I respond to it all.

Patrick: Thank you, Aaron. I appreciate it. We’ll catch up again soon.

Aaron: Thank you, Patrick.

This article originally appeared on Medium.