The Setup in the Setback

We were all tired from several long days of meetings at the Microsoft DTA event in Las Vegas.

We powered thru a few hours of content with no breaks.

The last session was next.

All the schedule said was “Jake Olson - Motivational Speaker”

I didn’t know what to expect. I was considering leaving before this last segment started.

Then the video filled the screen.

After watching this video there were tears being wiped away and lumps in throats across all the people in the room.

I’m so glad I didn’t leave.

In walks Jake Olson

As Jake entered the room …

Everyone was on their feet. Everyone was clapping.

Everyone stayed on their feet as Jake took the stage.

Inspiring isn’t a strong enough word to describe the feeling Jake imparts.

Watch the video … then come back.

Wow! Just Wow!!

**blinking back tears as I type this**

That’s how impactful this video was and is on me.

Jake entered the room with a hand draped over the shoulder of the person guiding him onto the stage.
As you figured out from the video …

Yes. Jake is blind.

But, there is so much more to him that what we can see (pun intended).

Jake had several great self-deprecating one-liners about his lack of vision (pun also intended).

And, during his motivational speech (which it was) he dropped a few comic gems.

**Note to event planners: Hire Jake! You will not be sorry.**

Jake’s Journey

He talked about his love for the USC Trojans and how Pete Carroll (Coach of USC at the time) and the team embraced him and helped Jake get to do something that most people never get a chance to do. First it was to meet the team and join them on the field as a kid. Eventually, it was to join the football team and play in a college football game.

Later, it was to take those experiences and put them to use in a way that helps others. Which he is carrying on today … on the stage at this event and through other efforts where he has committed his time.

Jake shared how hard it can be not to let the setbacks destroy you. He shared personal stories about losing his vision and his passion for football. He emphasized a key point about what we see and how we see it impacts the way we perceive, approach, and evaluate challenging situations. He said …

Change the way you see things 

and the things you see will change

Impressively he did all of this from memory. He didn’t have slides or notes. I know this may be fairly obvious given his blindness, but being in the tech industry for going on 30 years I know how much I use PPT and notes as a crutch. Jake doesn’t have that luxury … and it’s impressive.

As the title alludes to … Jake spoke about setbacks. He spoke about every setback having some sort of setup within it. He said that setup isn’t always obvious. But, he said with perseverance and often times talking with mentors that the setup would be identified and that setup would help overcome the setback.

A Great End to a Long Snap (er, week)
Thank you to Katy Brown, Regional VP of Sales for the Microsoft West Region and to the MSFT US West team. This was a well organized session and will help partners connect with you and execute well on the vision for FY20.

I for one really appreciated the lead in from Kate Johnson’s keynote on day 1 talking about empathy and that the closing session from Jake Olson pulled it all together.

The reality is … we have a lot of work to do in FY20.

There will be setbacks in our journey thru FY20.

As we learned from Jake … this is where the opportunity resides.

Because … when we are paying attention we realize that to achieve success we need to be paying attention to:

The Setup in the Setback.

If you were at the US West session please feel free to add a comment here or on the social channels.
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Jeff is business advisor, mentor and community engagement expert. He brings over 20 years of Channel Sales, Partner Marketing and Alliance expertise to audiences around the world in speaking engagements and via his writing. He has worked for Microsoft, Kodak, and K2. He is currently the Technical Alliances Manager at Zerto where he focuses on the Microsoft engagement efforts.

Connect with me on Twitter @jshuey

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He is a contributing author to Entrepreneur, Elite Daily, Yahoo, US News and to
the Personal Branding Blog with over 250 articles published.