A hard-working farm kid from the Midwest who refused to let anything hold him back.
Jay Setchell grew up on a family farm in LaSalle County, Illinois, on land his ancestors settled in 1844. By five he was gathering eggs and feeding livestock. By seven, his father had co-signed a bank loan so Jay could learn accountability. The values planted in that soil never left him: responsibility, preparation, faith, and ten two-letter words he has carried ever since. If it is to be, it is up to me.
In 1968 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and made sergeant in seventeen months. A catastrophic accident at Camp Pendleton in 1969 stopped his heart for the first time. A head-on collision with a drunk driver stopped it again. A broken neck on Independence Day 1981 left him paralyzed from the shoulders down at 31, and stopped it a third time.
Jay chose differently. He went back to work on crutches and leg braces, founded multiple businesses, co-invented a product that earned U.S. Patent #10,646,932, raised children and grandchildren, and survived MRSA. At 76, he published his first book. It hit #1 on Amazon in two categories within three months.


