Listen Fast! Randy Wells Is Back on the Block
You know when Randy Wells learned what stress was all about? When his doctors told him to reduce his workload to reduce stress.
“I’ll tell you what. Sitting around, that caused me to learn what stress was. That really didn’t work very good for me,” the Idaho-based auctioneer said.
En route to being diagnosed with MS, when fatigue caused him to sleep as many as 19 hours a day, the doctors asked Wells if he didn’t feel like going to work.
“I said, ‘I was raised on a ranch. Calling in sick wasn’t an option.’ It just got to where I couldn’t go.”
Wells went on Copaxone®, and went back to work — 60-70 hours a week. His first business, Realty Auction Services, sells real estate at auction, from farms to disused college campuses. His second business, MR Auction, does personal property and benefit auctions. His Benefit Auction Team also does benefit auctions, including a now-annual event for the clinic at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, Wash., where he receives his MS care. And in 2008 he became president of the National Auctioneers Association.
That’s four jobs, for anyone keeping score at home.
Wells converses in a disarming, laconic Western style. Wind him up at an auction, though, and the man’s a verbal tornado. He once tried writing down his “chant” — the patter that’s unique to each auctioneer — and found it couldn’t be done. He does use the word “hit” frequently and also makes a sound that he describes as a rumble: “I honestly don’t know what that is. I’m not conscious of doing it while I’m doing it. There’s no spelling for it, it’s just something that fits my rhythm.”
An auctioneer can usually tell what part of the country another auctioneer is from by his or her chant, Wells said. He developed his by listening to tapes and other auctioneers rather than going to auction school, as most auctioneers do. He’s a state champion and his daughter Johnna is an international champion.
As a business owner, Wells can bring himself in and out of retirement at will. He said he recognizes it isn’t that easy for employees with MS, and he hopes companies nationwide make whatever accommodations they can.
He also thinks the excitement of his line of work acts as a self-medication: “I can feel so bad, feel run down, but swear to gosh, you give me that microphone and get me up on stage, it’s showtime. It’s an adrenaline push. I can understand how some people don’t get that in their job.”
Wells occasionally tells clients about his MS so they don’t think he’s been drinking on a day when his balance is off, but he hasn’t lost a penny of business because of it. Instead, people will talk to him about MS, or invite him over for barbecues because someone in their life has MS and they want to learn about living productively with the disease.
“It’s been amazing, the network I’ve gotten because of it. Everybody knows somebody that’s got MS,” he said.
—
Copaxone is a registered trademark of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.