How Autism has touched my life..my story..and a program to be proud of..

Hello All,

Although I don't have Autism, nor do I have any family members with Autism, in fact I don't even have any children. This is my story of how Autism has touched my life. Please feel free to read on and then share your story.

At a business networking breakfast almost a year ago my business partner Jeff met Karen Simmons, the founder and CEO of Autism Today, the world's largest autism resource website. They only had a few moments to connect briefly, but had such a great conversation that they agreed to meet at a later date for coffee to get to know each other better.

They spoke about many different things that morning. She's an amazing women if you've ever had an opportunity to get to know her. And since that first meeting, I have also had the privilege of meeting and getting to know this wonderful woman.

She's a mother of six children, one of which was diagnosed with autism and another diagnosed with Cerebral Palsey. She's also an active autism advocate, businesswoman, author, and international speaker.

She shared with Jeff the heart-felt story of what life was like after she found out her son had autism. It's a true testament of what a loving parent will do for their child.

When he asked her what her purpose was, she said, "I've devoted my life to helping everyone whose lives are touched by autism find the latest and greatest information as easily and effortlessly as possible."

He then asked her "Karen, how can my company contribute to your life and business?"

She smiled and said, "I have many challenges. I'd like to find a way to get the most up-to-date information into the rapidly growing autism community. I need to find more funding so I can produce more autism conferences, more often, and bring in more world-class autism experts to speak to the people in the autism community at a price that is affordable. I'd like to find a way to "bridge the gap" between my conferences and help people to stay motivated and inspired. I'd like to find a way to use my foundation to help people pay for autism treatments, and to donate money to research. Do you have a magic wand?"

With that she laughed. The waitress came by and topped up their coffee again, one of many over the next few hours.

They started to throw ideas back and forth. Jeff would make a suggestion, and she'd give him her first thought about it. Some of his suggestions she had already thought of, some she hadn't. They were really struggling to come up with a good, solid idea that she could implement right away.

And then, as if almost out of nowhere, they came across a really simple idea, that knocked each and every one of her challenges out of the park.

Jeff came back to the office more fired up then I had ever seem him after a routine coffee meeting. After briefing me on the details of the meeting we began brain storming this simple idea and after a long night and lots more coffee it began to take form.

At that time our company had agreed to take on this project on the side because we knew that working on this would be very fulfilling and exciting for us to be a part of. Here we are now over a year later and our hard work has finally turned into a tangible program filled with information that people in the autism community desperately need.

Over the course of the year we built many systems, did tons of research, held multiple focus groups, and MOST IMPORTANTLY learned SOOOO much about the challenges that people in the community face.

I'm proud to say that we have now put this program at the top of our priority list because we believe that it can help thousands of people. It's amazing how working with someone to help them out can completely change ones life focus. Although I never could have imagined spending my time visiting Autism events and chatting with amazing people in or around the spectrum I couldn't be happier doing this. I hear so many stories from people how this program has helped them and I can proudly say that by way of fate I got to help develop it.

So if your still reading my story then I would encourage you to visit http://www.autismatho... and see for yourself the program that I can proudly say, I believe will help unite the Autism community and change lives.

I wish you all the best in your journey as you "Go Forward with Autism" and hope that one day I can meet you and hear your amazing story of how this program has changed your life or the life of your child.


Cheers,

Greg