What About Bob?

I have a secret twin brother.

Few that know me are aware of this fraternal fact. I have my reasons. The first is that not being identical, my brother and I are not biologically close at all. We do of course share a birthday, and growing up, we shared a lot of things like a bedroom, matching clothes, and even birthday presents. We were, ‘The Twins’ wherever we went. Mostly, the reason this unique characteristic of mine is not widely shared as an adult is that our dissimilarity, and own individual uniquenesses, moved us both to desire not a joint path as “The Twins’ but one where we could celebrate our own individualism. We both wanted to be seen as different, not just from each other, but even from the rest of the world.

The high school I attended, to my university major, were motivated by differentiation rather than similarity. This included not just from my sibling, but most people I knew. While I had a vision for my career, the path would intentionally zig when others zagged.

I was keen on a career in business ever since I joined The Junior Achievement Company Program at the age of 16. After 3 very involved years as a student in that after-school activity, many would have thought a business degree was in my sight-lines. I had other plans. I was far more interested in learning how to learn. I wanted to know how to think and see the world differently from various perspectives. I chose a degree in Philosophy, and when coupled with an embedded admiration and immersion in Junior Achievement’s experiential learning, I was well down the road (or shall I say racetrack)  to the day I would create a way of teaching high performing teams that would rival anything else on the market.

The Pit Crew Challenge was born after a decade of delivering keynotes, workshops, and facilitation. It all exploded in one experiential learning big bang of sorts. Things went viral in the days before Google and YouTube were household names. The metaphysical metaphor of a high performance race car and the practical experience of becoming a pit crew melded together from those unique perspectives in philosophy and experiential learning. The motivation to see  and do things the way others don’t always,  have made all the difference in my “road less traveled by”.

I invite you to subscribe and join others with me on this journey of being and seeing ‘different’.

Bob Parker, CSP