Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

If profits turned their backs on you lately … or if you simply need a breath of inspiration … do read J-Mac’s amazing story in … The Game of My Life.

He didn’t speak until 5 … he could not maintain eye contact … he sat alone in the corner of his special-needs classroom … and his body went rigid at the slightest touch. Then he took the courts for a Greece Athena Trojans basketball team win – the moment of a lifetime – because his brain connected to a dream he chased.

This remarkable tale of challenge, triumph and leadership – in the face of severe autism - can transform the toughest times into true wins. If a boy with severe autism can command his varsity basketball team … and if his brain can respond with a win that stopped Magic Johnson in his tracks … your business brain can do the same.

J-Mac’s story is one of overcoming … of courage … and of holding on to his dream ... past disappointments. It’s the  story most needed when business refuses to cooperate … or when the next good deal appears light years away from where you stand at any moment.

Organizations everywhere can hold onto new hope … through J-Mac’s beacon of light to each of us. How so?

In co-author Daniel Paisner’s words …

Few people expected he could make it to a top basketball position. And no one in that gymnasium … when it happened … could quite believe the way Jason kept draining three-pointer after three- pointer for his team.

In J-Mac’s straightforward comment …

I was as hot as a pistol

Whoever ... you listen to ... it was a win simply waiting for a winner like J-Mac to carry it home.

This autistic player – given the title and role of team manager – came into the game with just a few minutes left … and ended up scoring twenty dynamite triggered points. What did it take?  

J-Mac’s secret seems wrapped into one key ... focus ….

In fact … he admits… I don’t really pay attention to all that autism stuff, he says.

Are you focused on a target at the peaks … or do you stumble over barriers that tend to trip up your firm?

J-Mac’s sums his message up in a few words that could put the zip back in a faltering business vision …

Never give up, never give in. Be motivated in everything you do, if you want to catch a dream. The sky’s the limit. Give all that you can, if you want to catch a dream. We may be headed in different directions … but the journey if often remarkably similar.

Currently, Jason works at the bakery in Wegmans near his Greece home …  where he bakes bread three or four shifts a week. He enjoys the work because there’s a certain rhythm to it and Wegmans happens to value team players as much as J-Mac’s coach valued his tenacity that pulled people … purpose … and passion together.

While teachers in J-Mac’s GED program suggest his IQ may not be high enough to ever pass the proficiency test needed for graduation … it doesn’t stop this focused young leader to continue taking courses toward his dream to finish.

And people who drop by Wegmans to visit the well known winner … remind J-Mac how he hit his strides in the court. It’s as if they are telling him and us to go for gold again. With that in mind … I’m headed out to lead a conference on the brain this week. You?