If you are doing good work, good at what you do, and have something to offer that people truly require to thrive, then you need a mission to take over your region of the world. With a mission, you eventually connect to other mission-minded humans that also want to change the world. When you do, you co-mission.
To co-mission is to “trans-mission.” When you combine the impact of two people or organizations on mission together, you transcend what either of you could have ever done on your own.
What has amazed me in always doing my work as a mission to save the world are the kind of miraculous opportunities that have come my way that never would have occurred without a mission.
At 5 feet 6 inches tall, and being a 50 percent free-throw shooter on a good day, I didn’t have much of a chance at making it into the NBA as a player. But living in Orlando, I did want to get in with the city’s NBA team, the Magic. In the nineties, the only professional game in town was the Magic. With the duo of Shaq and Penny (Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway) taking the team to the NBA Championship, the Magic were hot. (This has not been true for a while, but stay with me)
Because of the Magic’s influence on the city, I wanted to work with the team. However, this appeared impossible. Professional sports teams require enormous investments by any outside business or vendor that wants to create a relationship with them or be even associated with their name. Orthopedic, Physical Therapy, Optometrists, etc. pay to be the “official team doctors.” On the other hand, I believed in the power of mission. In 2000, the Magic traded for a player who, at the time, was their equivalent and the potential heir apparent to Michael Jordan: Grant Hill. A member of the 1996 Olympic Team, Grant was famous for throwing a pass the length of the floor to Christian Laettner with 2.1 seconds left in the round of eight of the NCAA Tournament. Laettner made the basket, or what is now called “The Shot,” to allow Duke to beat Kentucky 103-102 and make it to the Final Four.
Grant’s coming to Orlando was big news. He was hopefully going to be our new Shaq (who by then had moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers). Sadly, upon being traded to the Magic, he got injured and could not play. With enough feelers out, I found a friend of a friend who knew Grant. I told her that I would agree to drive to Grant’s house to help him every week until we could put him back on the floor. Grant agreed, and I worked with him for a couple of years.
An enormous part of mission-based work is your constituents joining your mission. Once I was able to explain to Mr. Hill that once the community found out he was getting adjusted and if we got the rest of the team under care, we could help and save many lives by the work we were doing. He’s a wonderful, caring guy and even though he was getting millions for endorsements at the time, helped me to reach more people.
He also agreed to help me take care of the Orlando Magic. Soon, I was in a meeting with the coach at the time, Doc Rivers, and he agreed to make me a team doctor. Mission works!
