KNOCK: a memoir by Erik Orton

Act I

Chapter 1 - No One Likes to Be Embarrassed

[No pictures]

Chapter 2 - We Could Really Use Someone Like You

"In my head I made a graph like this:"

Chapter 3 - My Conundrum

"Both jobs wanted someone who could commit full-time."

Chapter 4 - Orbit 2020

"Half a year later I would be sitting at people’s kitchen table and see one of those cards on the shelf over their sink."

^{Walking to my area as a family.}

^{Lily following protocol:  tape the card to the glass.}

Chapter 5 - Week One

"I wanted to open the door, but as cold as it was inside my van, I knew it was colder outside."

"Nobody wants to buy from someone who is desperate.  I didn’t want to be that salesman." 

"I stepped out into the night."

Yvonne (right) and her partner, Francine (center) 

Chapter 6 - Week Two

"I didn’t want to lose any toes to frostbite so we took the van to the shop."

Chapter 7 - Week 4 Knocking

I’d broken down behind a Lowe’s. I came to think of this as the Lowe Point in my career. 

Chapter 8 - Gala #1

The banquet was fun, but I needed to earn money.

Everyday my fear was there waiting for me.  I couldn’t shake it.  The best I could do was keep it at bay. 

I arrived at the end of my second month as a door-to-door salesman with no installs.

Chapter 9 - Day Light = Savings

First install

Act II

Chapter 10 - Permission to Turn On

[No pictures]

Chapter 11 - Eckhart-freaking-Tolle

He trusted his assumptions: people would like him and he would like them.  And Apartheid ended.

I didn’t want them pushing me.  I wanted to push myself.

“All good stuff comes from leaping.  From doing things that might not work,” she said.

Chapter 12 - $8K/Week

Everyone wants to feel like they belong, like they’re part of something good and bigger than themselves.

My weekly paycheck for August 15, 2015 was $14,533.20.

Chapter 13 – Homeless 

Yes, I was making amazing money.  But the most satisfying parts were the relationships, the helping, the lifting and encouraging, the learning and teaching.

Chapter 14 – I Don’t Think You’re Having a Heart Attack

This moment, or experience, whatever you want to call it, was a mysterious call to courage, an invitation to take a journey, a summoning to a quest or adventure.  And it was time to pick up the pace. 

Chapter 15 - No One Likes to Be Embarrassed

[No pictures]

Chapter 16 – Quite the Local Celebrity

A rising tide lifts all ships. The good ship Rockland had launched.

I believed in love but missed the money.

Chapter 17 - The 100th Season

[No pictures]

Chapter 18 - An Accordion for Christmas

Monday, I woke up at 6am.  My chest felt tight.

Chapter 19 - Better Than Nothing

[No pictures]

Chapter 20 - “You’re Not Crazy”

I started reading Greg McKeown’s bestselling book, Essentialism. This got me:

Chapter 21 - The Simplicity of Fewer Thoughts

"I don’t think my highest contribution is in sales, even as a leader or teacher.”  I was getting to the bottom of things.

Chapter 22 - This is Not a Takeover

“You’ve come a long way,” she said. 

I’d leveled up.

"...What we do, we do to ourselves—100% of the time."

Or in other words:

Chapter 23 - The Scandal

[No pictures]

Chapter 24 - Gala #2

It felt momentous.  We took a picture so we could remember it. 

It feels good to be a beginner again.  I’m scared, but I’m ready.

THE END