The book, Goals, Guts and Greatness by Mark O. Haroldsen, goes on to tell the story of Bunker Bean…

The author writes: Most people live and die with too small an estimate of their own abilities. As a result they spend their strength on small tasks and never put their real powers to the test.

So it was with Bunker Bean, at least in the beginning. When Bunker was very young, both his parents died, leaving him alone and friendless in a cold world. As he roamed through his years in rags, living timidly through their terrors, he began to develop fears of all kinds. He began to feel inferior because he couldn’t do anything right. His acquaintances made fun of him.

Bunker Bean’s life was one of misery. He was afraid of almost everything – policemen, elevators, streets, social and business situations. He was afraid to make decisions. He was afraid of the future. He was even afraid of himself.

Bunker’s Reincarnation.

Eventually Bunker moved into a cheap, rundown boardinghouse on the unhappy side of town. There he met a man who claimed to be a spiritualist. This new friend told Bunker Bean that just as we cast off our old shoes and clothes, so we cast off our old bodies when we die; in fact, we are reincarnated as new persons. Each of us lived as different people in prior lives, the spiritualist told him.

Bunker Bean wasn’t very well educated, and he had never before heard of reincarnation. But, the idea intrigued him. And he was so unhappy that it was nice to think that he may have been someone different in an earlier life, someone who was more comfortable with himself.

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