Until recently, a man living in suburban Phoenix’s days consisted of selling brooms and mops as a street vendor in Mesa to support his wife and three children.
Now, thanks for a video from a stranger’s Instagram account that went viral recently, those days are over for Sebastian Ibanez.
Phoenix ‘s KNXV-TV/ABC15 reported that “[t]riple-digit heat, freezing weather, and high winds did not stop Ibanez from putting in hours on street corners, selling his products to residents” for most of the past 10 years. Oh, and by the way, he’s blind.
In an interview with the station, Ibanez explained that life has been tough in other ways. His “mom’s been burned, he was hit by a car and his wife has cancer.”
But he never let that stop him from looking towards better days. His dream job? Selling cars at a dealership. As Ibanez joked to KNXV-TV, “People are always going to need cars. That and tamales.”
There’s much more to the story–for example, over 24 hours, people on social media saw and shared that video post, helping raise a remarkable $100,000 for Ibanez and his family when it went viral. But words can’t really do justice to the level of joy and gratitude Ibanez expressed when he learned, just another day later, that Tim Brown, the owner of a local car dealership, wanted to hire him.
Watch his reaction below, via Jimmy Darts’ Instagram post:
KNXV-TV spoke with Ibanez’ new boss:
“Why wouldn’t I hire him? No question,” said Brown after being shown the video by a friend.
Brown is a fourth-generation owner of Brown Brother’s Automotive in Mesa.
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ABC15 was at the dealership lot when Sebastian got out of the car to give his wife a kiss and start his new career.
Brown said Ibanez has the best trait a salesman can have: just being a good person with the right attitude.
Proving the old adage is true: Good things happen to good people. God bless him and everyone who made his dream job a reality.