A Broken Serpentine Belt
Early this morning, Ed sent a text letting us know he might not make it into the shop right away.
His serpentine belt had broken the day before. Since the auto parts stores were closed for the holiday, he planned to stop at AutoZone first thing in the morning, pick up a new belt, install it himself in his backyard, and then head into Zummo if time allowed.
To most people, that’s just a car repair.
To us, it’s something much bigger.
When Ed first walked into Zummo as a tenth grader, he didn’t know much about mechanics beyond how to ride a bike and fix a flat tire. Over the years he learned to diagnose problems, use tools, ask questions, make mistakes, and trust himself to figure things out.
Eventually, he bought a rough 2008 BMW that many people would have walked away from. Instead of seeing an old car with problems, Ed saw an opportunity to learn.
One repair led to another. He read manuals, watched videos, asked for advice when he needed it, and then rolled up his sleeves and got to work in his back yard! Today he knows that BMW inside and out—not because someone taught him every repair, but because he was willing to keep learning.
That broken serpentine belt wasn’t a crisis.
It was simply the next lesson.
We hope the younger people in the shop notice stories like this.
Maybe the lesson isn’t to buy an old BMW.
The lesson is to find something that stretches your abilities—a bicycle, a lawn mower, an engine, a computer, or whatever sparks your curiosity—and start learning. Real confidence doesn’t come from reading about mechanics. It comes from solving real problems with your own hands.
That’s one of the greatest gifts Zummo can offer.
Not just mechanical skills.
The confidence to look at a broken machine and think,
“I can probably figure this out.”
