SDSI ---THE DREAM CONTINUES ---May 18, 2017, RIDE YOUR BIKE TO WORK DAY,

I used to play basketball…It was a long time ago…Some of the endlessly pleasurable elements of the game that I loved so much are self-expression, passion, commitment, sacrifice, discipline, teamwork, purpose, mission and goals…

The entire time-period of my life that I was able to play, I was fully convinced that this most perfect of games was the essence of life itself… And that if I was somehow unable to play, that my very reason for existence would disappear…

With the way things have played out in the real world---I couldn’t have been more wrong…

I grew up in a non-business environment…My dad was a social worker, adult educator and music teacher; my mom--- our town’s librarian…

The other guiding lights in my glorious childhood---they beamed for life, not silver…

As my physical capabilities have changed over the last 64 years, so have I…

Today, my life is all business, and it is remarkable how little has changed, other than I don’t end up in the hospital nearly as often…

I had no choice in this transition…My body stopped cashing the checks that my mind so freely wrote…

Fortunately, but inexplicably, I have found the same satisfaction and joy in the business of life as I had in the sport of my dreams---the dreams that became my religion…

A bit more than seven years ago, just as I was beginning the latest, hardest and most serious of the long hard climbs back up from yet another physical and emotional bottom (this time my spine failure and collapse) I knew I had to change my approach…

What I had been doing was clearly not working, or sustainable…

I sought a fresh start in the innovation economy that defines my perfectly wonderful hometown, San Diego…

That quickly led to Duane and Ted Roth, Connect, and to what has now become SD Sport Innovators---a non-profit business-accelerating organization whose purpose and mission is to bolster the sports and active lifestyle industry that we proudly claim as our own in San Diego…A lifestyle that many of us simply took for granted…It is who were are…    

I am the volunteer executive chairman of this group of business-veteran serial entrepreneurs whose lives have evolved to where their greatest joys and rewards now come from the successes of others…

Started before I arrived by Marco Thompson, nurtured by the now-passed Duane Roth, and sustained today by it’s members and like-minded philanthropic supporters, SDSI has come a long way---mimicking the game-plan forward towards a better tomorrow well established by our San Diego sister organizations: Connect, Bio-Com, Clean Tech San Diego, and Evo-Nexus…

And while those other economic clusters are doing great work in the life sciences, biotech, sustainability and technology sectors---we are the world of sports, health, lifestyle, consumer products, and cool…We are right where we want to be…

San Diego is the sports participation capital of the universe…Everybody who can live here does…And the rest of the world is constantly trying to get here…People come here to chase their dreams…Dreams of playing---outdoors, everyday, forever…

Shortly after getting to the paradise that is San Diego, they realize that they better get a job, so that they can stay---forever…

Athletes and entertainers are the ultimate entrepreneurs---they start from, and with nothing, except a dream, every day…

The freedom and independence that is such an allure to a competitor in full flight, quickly translates to the business world…

And all of these champions of the human spirit and physical achievement, eventually become the champions of tomorrows economy…

Today, San Diego boasts of more than 1200 sports-related businesses, generating a positive economic impact of $2.2 Billion annually throughout our region…

More than 32,000 local people work in our companies…

SDSI represents them all…Whether it is surfing, skating, golfing, cycling, sailing, tennis, running, rolling, swimming, stand-up-paddle-boarding, water-biking, wake-boarding, team sports or individual endeavors, equipment, products, gear, apparel, technology plays, business support, or whatever, including things that we don’t even know about---YET--this is our space… This is who we are, and like any true team, we are all in this together...

Sports, business and San Diego are all synonymous with the spirit of collaboration that always permeates success…

SDSI is led daily, like the rising sun, by the guiding radiance of our Executive Director Bob Rief, his staff of Renne Catalano Gussman and Nick Roth, Industry Chair John Sarkisian, and the network of roughly 100 member companies and 40 volunteer mentors who selflessly donate their time, talent and treasure to ensure that our San Diego remains the best of the best—well beyond the narrow confines of our own individual lives…  

Our job at SDSI, and far past the horizon, is to help---and do whatever it takes to solve the problems, find the money, overcome the obstacles and adversity, provide the much needed leadership and mentoring, and to be there to illuminate the path forward to those who are trying to get to where we’ve already been…

One of our SDSI signature programs is Springboard—the vehicle we use to catapult our rising stars on their own great leap forward…It is our heart and soul…

SDSI Springboard is a 20-week business accelerating training and mentoring program that helps creates sustainable and scalable businesses…It is based on a demanding but proven curriculum and professional guidance from people who have been there and done that…

We are most proud of our successes…Over the years, 87% of our Springboard companies are still in business…We have helped to start and build more than 70 different companies…We have helped those companies raise more than $50 Million in business-building capital…And we have helped create hundreds upon hundreds of real jobs…Jobs that are the bedrock foundation of our community…     

In another one of my lifetimes---as a basketball player—I was fortunate to be on some of the greatest teams is sports history…Teams whose legacies survive today, 50 years after I started on the grand stages of this planet…

The nicest thing that anyone ever said about what I did in that world, was that I helped my teammates play better ball…

I’m proud, honored, privileged, and humbled to be on my next great team and stage…

I’m the luckiest guy on earth…I get to volunteer for SDSI…