Bounce Forward: How to Transform Crisis into Success

AFTERWORD

THE BOUNCE MOVEMENT

I still remember the moment that, for me, bounce began to shift from being a road map out of crisis to becoming a permanent mindset and pathway into the future.

I was sitting in a cafe in Launceston, Tasmania. It was about eight months after my accident so I was still pretty banged up. I noticed a man sitting across the cafe from me and he caught my eye a few times. Eventually he came over and sat down and we started chatting. His name was Tim O’Neil. It was Tim who introduced me to the Clifton StrengthsFinder. He also told me about a man called Jossy Chacko who started a movement in India called Empart. Empart is a large philanthropic movement in northern India that rehabilitates people with disabilities, helps to get poor people off the streets and empowers women in communities. Tim told me about a book that Chacko had written called Madness.

Because my mother is Indian, India always held huge fascination for me. Every two years my mum would return to India and each visit she would take one of the children with her. For reasons none of us really remember, I never went, yet every one of my siblings made it to India, and I always felt I’d missed out as a result. After reading Madness I knew it was somewhere I needed to go, and within six months of my café meeting with Tim I was in India for the very first time.

That experience changed my life still further.

Ever since my accident I had felt as though I kept getting drawn back to those three questions ...