Troy Schaffer would try and convince you his story is lackluster, if you could even convince him to tell you it. Just a kid from a no-name town in flyover Kansas doing what he is supposed to.
But not everybody is able to work their way out of their small town. Not everyone works every second they have to secure their future. Not everyone is able to get tougher when the going gets tough.
Troy got tougher.
I learned from everybody. There's no one I can't learn from. ... I was always the type of person who, 'I'm gonna learn from every single person I can.' If somebody tells me to try something, I'm going to do it, and I'm gonna do it with the intention that it's going to work.
Troy's humility drove his success. Every learning opportunity, piece of advice and helping hand offered, he took with grace and openness.
Troy didn't grow up wealthy, and while he had many father figures, his dad was absent for a lot of his childhood. He had every excuse in the book to do nothing. But he had other plans.
Troy was a working man. He worked his tail off during the summer to enjoy the school year, both in high school and college.
During his high school years, Troy's work schedule started in the early morning at the pool, doing maintenance for the day and life guarding. He'd get a few hours for break before going to Topeka to work at the Burger King where he worked till close. Working till close meant getting off as late as 2 in the morning, and then waking up at 6 the next day to take care of the pool.
Between his strong work ethic and openness to those around him, Troy made it to Kansas State. But there was one more prominent place that helped get him to where he wanted to be.
Growing up, Troy frequently went to his grandpa Emery's farm to work, but his grandpa was more than that to him.
My grandpa was ... like a best friend. We played games constantly. We watched soap operas together. We did irrigation together. We listened to baseball games together. We had lunch together. We ate ice cream together. ... He was my buddy.
Troy didn't elaborate much on his grandpa, not citing any wisdom he gave him, but he said his grandpa was always good to him.
Although his grandpa had a passion for tinkering, Troy said he went into engineering for his own reasons: interest in the field, proficiency in math, science and chemistry, and the aptitude and intelligence for it. He thought his grandpa should have been an engineer, but Emery wasn't able to afford it.
Troy's uncle John had ties to K-State. John worked at the KSU library for over 30 years.
Troy points to a familiar part of the ground for him.
The outhouse used to sit right here. So there is some very, very fertile soil right here. The reason I know that is ... I had to dig a hole for the new one. So we dug the hole for the new one and you fill in the old one and then you move the outhouse and you just keep going.
Troy also talked about the time he painted a barrel (similar to the one on the right) with black tar instead of paint.
Well, when I went to look, I got the thing ... but it turned out it was like black tar. There was another can that was silver paint that I was supposed to use, but I was a stupid kid and didn't.
Troy fulfilled his promise to himself — thanks to money he saved and some help from his mother, he got to Kansas State. Although his passion lied in engineering, he switched to accounting shortly after, where most his classes took place in Calvin Hall.
Government accounting ... man I hated that class. ... Government accounting is so screwed up.
Although his college career didn't start great, citing "having a lot of fun," he made up for it in the summer. He retook a math class over the summer while juggling two jobs — ShowBiz Pizza Place and Waste Management.
Troy didn't talk a whole lot about his college days, saying there's things he's not proud of, but there are two notable events he did speak of. The first being his help in the creation of the first K-State fact book.
Institutional research ... I put together, like, the first K-State fact book. I still have it at home, they sent me a copy of it.
He also talked about the classroom he was in when a potential shooting attempt took place — in Kedzie 106.
After a lengthy career at Koch Industries (mostly) in Wichita, Troy retired for a few years before working for his brother-in-law at Solea Energy. He now trades energy stocks every morning, going back to his early morning roots.