I grew up very poor, so I know what it means to value hard work. Therefore, I worked nearly to death to pull myself out of those poverty driven trenches. I started off just fixing bikes for my friends in the neighborhood, then I moved on to cars. Today, I run a company that repairs the big guns, like tractors, transporter trucks, and trains/buses. Some of the well-known companies use my services to repair their machines, and I love what I do. I work tirelessly to provide for my family and even though I'm the top dog of my company, I still get my hands dirty. I've remained humble because I could never forget when I was the little guy doing all the grunt work for my lazy bosses. My son is 21 years old and has been working with me since he was 14. He has been bred in the company's firmware and hopefully he'll take over for me when I retire. My wife does the books because she has all the beautiful degrees in that math stuff, while my daughter does our advertising through her marketing firm. My son and I like to tinker with old car parts and see if we could make the next best invention. We had dozens of prototypes, but all have failed in the eyes of the big money. They called them "death traps" because they are binders that attach to hinges so they keep the car air tight. I've heard them be called that so much, the name stuck and we all began calling them, "deathtraps" too. As a result of all the bad reviews, we spend our free time installing them in our cars just to feel like we didn't completely waste our time and resources. Since we are all involved somehow, I'd like to call it a family business, which makes the job worth the blood, sweat, and tears.

I am a family man and they are my main focus. I mentioned the older kids, but I also have a daughter that is 6 years old. She is obsessed with music and dance and one night she begged me to take off work for her recital. I honestly wouldn't miss my little princess' show for the world, so I closed the shop for the day; that way, the entire family could show their support. The morning of her show, my wife and eldest daughter made her a "special" breakfast, took her to school in her favorite "good luck" tutu, and picked her up later that day to doll her up. We all arrived an hour before the show started to get the best seats and set our flowers aside for after she blessed the stage with her talent.

Throughout the entire performance, she was amazing! She didn't miss a step and even surprised us with some new, yet challenging flips and spins. We were astonished to see how much she's gotten better in her first year of dance and grew teary at the sight of her potential. There was so much passion in her eyes that we just knew she was going places with her dancing. After the other dancers and audience cleared out, we met her backstage to give her the flowers and our praises. She was so confident that we couldn't even tell she was nervous on the set until we saw her shaking like a leaf in the back. After the meet and greet with little miss superstar, we decided on a place for dinner. We arrived, got seated, ate, laughed, and had a great time. On the drive home, everyone was asleep and I myself was drained by this astonishing day. Everything that happened was worthy of admiration until I feel asleep at the wheel and drove into a wooded area where I only came to a stop after hitting a tree. It all happened so quickly: one minute I was smiling at the sight of my beautiful family, the next I was upside down, pinned under tons of metal.

For what seemed like forever, we were all trapped and I could smell the gas from the car leaking. It was agonizingly slow, like sand through an hourglass, with the not-so-soothing sounds of water dripping from a pipe. The drips seemed to drag on as my heart raced at the thought that the next drop would cause the car to go up in flames. Every element of doom flashed in my mind as I tried to see if anyone was conscious. I heard sounds coming from the backseat and it was my baby girl crying out for her mommy. As a man, much less a father, this is the most worthless you could feel, knowing that you can't help your child when they're in need. I cried as I self-loathed and that's when everything went blank.

My wife walked away from the accident with some cracked ribs and a broken arm. My eldest kids spent a few week in the hospital for multiple broken bones as a result of not wearing a seatbelt in the back. Baby girl must have been guarded by angels in her car seat because all she got from the accident was a minor scar and a concussion. I, on the other hand, got burned when the car blew up but I didn't die either. Turns out, when I worked on my car a few weeks before, I installed an interior "deathtrap" that saved all of our lives. It was a piece of crap to every investor I pitched to because it would fall apart with heat. That was a flaw that I couldn't seem to perfect, so I missed out on putting it on the market. I missed out on so much money because I believed in these inventions that were honestly useless. However, the ineffective piece of junk self-destructed at the right moment of the explosion and that was what gave rescuers the opportunity to pull us all out and spare our lives. The doctors said that if we had stayed in the car a moment longer, we would have all died from the fumes or burned to death. I'm still unsure if it was irony or me just being too stubborn to believe that anything I made would be trivial. Thankfully, I didn't listen to those who told me I couldn't sell the "deathtrap". Now I am making millions off a device that everyone expected to kill me instead.