Business Coach Blog

Chapter ONE of my Backflip Book… January 7, 2009

There I was, a forty-year-old father of four, slightly out of shape and not exactly a gymnast, attempting to master a standing back flip. Just exactly who did I think I was? OK, I do have a history of unconventional ideas – early 90s, start a company with one credit card and a Sears store charge card; 2001, I bet I could run a marathon; 2003, start up a second company, though now I had bank debt, a mortgage, and my 4^th child only 2 months old. Add in the triathalons, skiing off the snow cat in the backcountry of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, skydiving near the Gold Coast of Australia– let’s just say my family and friends have become accustomed to my rather ambitious nature.

Back to the backflip. I originally thought it would be a great opener for the workshops and presentations I do. A good example for my clients. But I had no idea of the breadth and depth of the lessons and learning process I would go through in my journey to master the move. My original premise was that most people, myself included, don’t attempt feats like backflips due to fear. It wasn’t the physical challenge that was most intimidating. You and I could train, learn the proper technique, practice, and eventually accomplish the task. What holds us back is the fear of falling, or breaking our neck, seriously injuring or even killing ourselves. In the case of a backflip, these are legitimate concerns.

I approached the challenge in a textbook manner. I went one of the two gymnastics academies in my hometown, incidentally, the only one that returned my call. Not surprisingly, I was four times older than the other students. I could just imagine the parents watching on the sidelines, who were more my age, thinking, “What’s the old fat guy doing? There’s only one trampoline. He’s going to break it! Or he’s going to get hurt. Hope they made him sign a liability waiver!”

So there I was, hanging out with the eight-to-ten year olds. They were as limber as can be, doing their super fast jump-flip-twist-double twist-upside-down-left-right combinations without breaking a sweat. I swallowed hard and found a trainer who agreed to teach me. The rest, as they say, is history. And I now refer to big, hairy, complicated, downright audacious goals as “backflip goals.”

As I said, I thought that overcoming my fear would be a good object lesson for clients who fear making change in their business, or who have fears about hiring or firing a team member. Those who have a fear of failure, or even a fear of success. And while it’s true that I learned how to overcome this specific fear myself, I also discovered 39 more lessons in the process.

About three months into my training, I had a BFO – Blinding Flash of the Obvious. I suddenly realized that one of the lessons my coach was trying to get through my thick head was similar to a situation I was working on with a client. I began to connect the dots and realized there were numerous connections between my backflip lessons and life lessons. As I began to write them down, more became obvious. I work with some Australians, and they use the term “swakload” to mean a bunch, a boatload, or a large quantity of something. As the lessons I learned went from 3 to 25 to 39, I collected my swakload of backflip lessons learned. And now I’d like to share them with you.

Think back to a time when you overcame the odds. Fought through the fear, the self-doubt, the setbacks, the opposition – remember the feelings of accomplishment, the joy of success, the strength you felt afterwards? How great would it be to feel that way again?

I wrote this book to share this swakload of lessons with you and help you to relate them to life applications, but also to inspire and encourage you to take action – find your backflip goal, create a plan to succeed, and jump high in an effort to accomplish it.

by Brian K. Dombach