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Transforming tragedy into a bigger future: a personal story from Strategic Coach® client Mike Bischof.
Entrepreneurial results in a bureaucratic system.
“The biggest struggle in working with legislators,” Mike says, “was that they thought this was some pie–in–the–sky, futuristic technology that would take millions of dollars in research and development. But no, it’s already there: This GPS technology exists in 41 states. It’s currently being used with violent criminals and sexual offenders, but with domestic violence, it can be even more effective because the target is already known.”
Within 30 days, the foundation managed to get the bill introduced. Within 60 days, the bill had passed in the House of Representatives. By 90 days, the senate. It was given to the governor, and by Day 150, the bill was signed into law. Mike had achieved the impossible: “Someone who’s politically connected told me this could be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, bills ever passed into law.”
Since then, this new law has reached what Mike feels is a tipping point across the country: “We’re proposing this legislation, and many states are taking it on in a proactive manner before a similar unfortunate incident happens in their state.”
A reluctant entry to a bigger future.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever really taken on passionately besides my mortgage business,” Mike says. “To take something in which you have very few opponents or detractors—it’s been kind of easy. I’m used to something much more difficult.” But he had no idea beforehand if it would work. “I’ve only been good at one thing for the last 17 years. How could I know I might be good at something else? So it’s been good for everybody—for Cindy’s lasting impact and legacy and for victims. But this has also done a lot for me.”
Though he’s wrestled with feelings of guilt about benefiting in any way from the drive to act that resulted from his family’s loss, the fact that Mike has grown from this experience is undeniable. “The confidence I’ve gained and the things I’ve learned—in terms of people, relationships, media, public speaking—are only going to help me in future endeavors. Venture out of your comfort zone, try something, be successful at it, and you will gain things you can bring back into your life that will make you even more successful.”
Having this secondary cause has helped him stay focused despite the current conditions in his industry. He calmly acknowledges that there are challenges in the mortgage business, but the success of the foundation keeps him upbeat: “You have to keep reminding yourself that sometimes the market can have something to do with it. In the past, I always felt like I could control that, but for things to be so slow right now, yet for our foundation to be going so well, there’s a sense of—geez, are these the signs that there’s a bigger future in that for me? Was I blessed with being successful and being rewarded financially over the years, and is now the time where I should be making this not about me anymore but about something bigger than me?”
Passion and results open new doors.
That bigger future includes the possibility of going beyond just introducing this legislation across the country. His dream is to create a mandatory “Life Matters” class at the junior high and high school levels, preparing young people for the realities that lie ahead and to prevent the conditions and attitudes that can lead to domestic violence from taking hold. “We want to get sociologists, psychologists, and counselors together and say, ‘What are the things we all wish we’d learned in school?’” This class would tackle subjects like maintaining a healthy sense of self–sufficiency while dating, managing finances and debt, and dealing with mental health issues like depression and suicidal feelings.
The opportunities are endless, Mike feels, to “get great minds together, knowing what they know, draw on their skill sets from what they’ve been successful at in the private sector, and get them to help with social issues.” His hope is that this can happen without those people having to experience the kind of jolt he did.
“I challenge other Strategic Coach participants to look at the success they’ve had in their lives and perhaps utilize their gifts to help create change in society. In reality, many of the entrepreneurial disciplines that we have learned would go a long way to effect change in our world.”
On Cindy’s last day, she wrote Mike three emails asking what she should buy Mike’s son for his birthday. Five hours later, she was no longer alive. “That puts things in perspective,” says Mike. “The issues that I have are not issues.”
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