Starting a New Chapter

Some people don’t find their true direction in life until they are halfway through it

From Car Doc to People Doc

By Andy Simmons

CARL ALLAMBY HAD A PROBLEM. It was his auto-repair business. He’d started it at the tender age of 19, working alone out of a rented bay in a friend’s garage. Over the years it had grown into two shops with 11 employees, but Allam by had become antsy, yearning for something more. At first, he thought it must have to do with growing his business even further. So at the age of 34, the Beachwood, Ohio, resident decided to go for his bachelor’s degree in business management.

There was a wrinkle, however: After taking classes part-time over the next five years, Allamby was told he had to take biology to get his degree. The last biology class he had taken was in ninth grade. What do I need to take biology for, thought Allamby.

Turns out, it was the best thing to have happened. Biology class rekindled a childhood dream that he had tucked away somewhere deep within himself. “After the first day, I remembered this feeling of wanting to be a doctor back when I was younger,” Allamby says. “I kind of lost that dream somewhere through high school and through life. When you’re young, you feel you can be anything, and then the world teaches you much differently.”

Born in East Cleveland, Ohio, Allam by and his five siblings were raised by their stay-at-home mother and a father who sold home goods door-to-door. “As you can imagine, that didn’t pay so well,” Allamby says.