I wanted to make my family proud and I
don't understand why I'm different from
all the other kids a lot of people don't
know that I had a brain injury when I
was a child one day at school and
somebody says hey look at all the fire
engines outside and most of the kids in
the class never saw a fire engine and
firefighters are like my heroes I want
to see it I take my chair and I carry it
so the windows - I put it down here and
I climb on it and I can just kind of see
the outline of it I see the firefighters
and I'm like bliss and just when I had
that highest moment one of the other
kids is grabbing my chair
and I go back to turn like this to see
who's doing it and I fall headfirst
right into the radiator and I was
bleeding you know everywhere there was a
pool of blood and my parents the way
they described it it was very traumatic
they said that I was never the same
especially when it came to to learning I
mean I became painfully shy I wasn't
myself
and we're really showed up was in school
because I didn't understand things very
well and teachers would have to repeat
themselves over and over and over I
became so introverted and not talking to
anybody and the big thing was like also
I couldn't read I would just look at
pages and I just see letters and they
didn't mean anything to me we would get
in circles and the teacher would give a
book out and one by one you would have
to read out loud to the other students
and my heart's beating out of my chest
right now even thinking of it because
ever since every time somebody finished
it would get closer the book will get
closer and closer and closer to me and
how it just because I couldn't read and
then when the book got to me I just
didn't know what to do and I would just
stare at it and I would just start
crying the teacher would come and take
the book and I pass it on to the next
person and I remember my teacher
pointing to me talking to another adult
saying that's the boy with the broken
brain and I always thought you know it
really pushed something deep inside of
me saying that I'm not enough there's
something that was wrong with me
that I wasn't like everybody in hell
that I couldn't be like them and it took
me an actually an extra three years to
learn how to read I taught myself by
reading comic books when my parents
thought I was sleeping I would be under
the covers with my flashlight every
night looking at the pictures my
favorite comic books growing up were the
x-men not because they were the
strongest or the fastest it's just they
didn't fit in because they were mutants
and they were a bully like I was bullied
and they were they're pushed aside and
told that they weren't worth anything it
was a metaphor for me of like what
people were capable of and what humans
are their potential is at night when I
was doing my nighttime reading I found
out the school of the gifted Professor X
school for these superheroes was in
Westchester in New York and that's where
I grew up in the suburbs of New York
City the next day I got on my bicycle
and I started riding around my
neighborhood trying to find the school
for the x-men and I did that consecutive
every single weekend that's what I did
it brought the words to life and I
learned what reading was for me and so I
remember though we had a parent-teacher
conference where my parents came in I
had one chance to really succeed and it
was this book report they were willing
to make this like my book report to
counted more because I was not doing
well and we decided on a topic and that
topic was on Leonardo da Vinci she
thought that it would be interesting you
know for me to study to learn about you
know this genius they say that he had
like dyslexia and he had some learning
challenges and I had this heart-to-heart
talk with my parents saying you know I
know I haven't measured up up to this
point but I'm gonna make you proud and I
picked up every single book on Leonardo
da Vinci and I just dreamt about
Leonardo and at breakfast I would read
about Leonardo and and everything was
about this person this was like my where
the LA spotlight is on you and you have
to be able to perform and this is going
to decide if I was some
and that that there was more than a book
report and when we get there in class
the teacher said okay Jim I want you to
give a presentation and from the class
about it and my life just right now my
world is crumbled because growing up
with learning difficulties I was
painfully shy because it was like going
back to that reading circle again we're
hiding talk in front of a group of
people because up to that point I never
did that and so I looked her right in
the eyes because my heart was beating on
my chest I was sweating so much
I said I didn't do the book report and I
basically lied she just took me for my
word and I got a zero while I had in my
backpack like bound this book report
which signified aired all my dreams my
potential there I remember to this day
walking up you know out of the classroom
and there's a trash can right there and
I threw the book report in there and
along with that everything in terms of
my hopes and my abilities my pride my
promises it just felt like he just went
in the trash and I still look back with
you know regret and sorrow that I didn't
step up be able to do that but I was a
product at that moment of my
conditioning I was believing my
self-talk that I wasn't enough your
brain is this super computer and your
self-talk is the program it will run so
you have to be very mindful of your
thoughts and so when you grow up with
these challenges and you're the boy with
the broken brain you suffer and struggle
and you wonder why at the age of 18 I
wanted to run away I didn't know how to
tell my parents how I was gonna quit
school and I remember at that time my
friend said hey why don't you come with
me over the weekend I'm gonna go visit
my family get some space get some
perspective and I go to California and I
remember like it was yesterday the
father is walking me around his property
and asked me a very innocent question a
question you would ask an 18 year old
kid but it was the worst question on
earth to ask me how school I break down
and I just collapsed I just start crying
to this complete stranger because I have
all the pressure that I'm holding in and
I tell him my whole story about growing
up with learning challenges and
difficulties and my brain injury and I'm
gonna disappoint my parents and be a bad
role model to my younger brother and my
younger sister and he looked at me and
he asked me a question
it's Jim why are you in school what do
you want to be what do you want to do
what do you want to have what do you
want to share with the world I didn't
have any answers because I've never
asked myself that question before and he
pulls out a journal out of his back
pocket and he takes out a couple of
sheets of paper tears him out and hands
them to me with a pen and he makes me
write down my answers he looks at me and
he says Jim you are this close to
everything on that list and he spreads
his index fingers about a foot apart I'm
thinking there's no way give me ten
lifetimes I'm not gonna crack that list
and he takes his index fingers and he
puts something aside in my head and
between that you know obviously is my
brain meaning that's the bridge to
everything that I need in life that's
the key to unlock this to unlock my
dream life and so fast-forward I'm back
at school and I'm sitting at my desk and
I have a pile of books that I have to
read for school and a pile of books that
I committed to that I want to read so
what do I do I don't eat I don't sleep I
don't work out I don't do anything on
spend time with friends I just live in
the library after a while I end up
passing out one night in the library I
fall down a flight of stairs again
I hit my head again and I wake up in the
hospital two days later and I wasted
away on down to a hundred and seventeen
pounds I thought I'd died I mean it was
the darkest time in my life because I
felt like what's my value on this planet
but when I woke up in that hospital bed
another part of me woke up saying there
has to be a way of fixing this and as
soon as I had that thought the universe
responded the nurse came in with a mug
of tea and on that mug of tea was a
picture of a genius Albert Einstein and
it had a quote the same level of
thinking that's created your problem
will not solve your problem and it made
me ask another question again what's my
problem and I said my problem is I have
a very slow brain I'm a very slow
learner
maybe I can learn how to learn faster
and I was like okay where do I go to
learn and I thought Oh school I started
looking through all the classes and I
started reading every single one and I
realize all these classes are on what to
learn but there were zero classes on how
to learn how does my brain work so I
could work my brain how does my memory
work so I can work my memory
I made that my study that was my aha
moment a light switch just went on and I
started to understand things for the
very first time I started to have better
focus I started to read faster and I
wasn't getting distracted all the sudden
I mean I started to started to make
friends I started to be more confident
haven't be more happy and having more
joy enjoying myself and I remember when
I had that epiphany I couldn't help but
help other people because why did I have
to suffer and struggle go through all
this difficulty but I could have been
taught he's easy to learn techniques
about how my mind work how the memory
worked and so I wanted to start helping
everybody that's been my quest for the
past 25 years and I remember how
recently I remembered somebody's name in
an audience and that person referred me
to the chairman of 20th Century Fox and
he I get a call from their office saying
hey I heard about your work I want you
to please come in and spend a half a day
with our executive team and I go there
on a Friday morning and I give one of
the best trainings I've ever done when
I'm done the chairman of 20th Century
Fox comes to me says Jim this was
incredible one of the very best
trainings we've ever offered and I see a
movie poster of Wolverine and it was for
a movie it wasn't coming out for a few
months and I was like wow I can't wait
to see that film and the Chairman comes
to me he says Jim I didn't know you
liked superheroes but we have another 30
days of filming the new x-men movie in
Montreal how would you like to go there
and be there just experience it and I
was like that's incredible I would I've
never been on a movie set before and so
he picks me up the next morning Saturday
morning at 8 o'clock we get on the plane
they call it the x-jet waiting on the
plane for me she is the entire cast of
x-men I see Wolverine and Professor X
and I'm sitting between Jennifer
Lawrence and Halle Berry and I get to
share some of my brain tips and speed
reading and memory tips to these amazing
superheroes and when we get to Montreal
the very first scene took place in
Charles Xavier z-- superheroes
and pump still does nine-year-old boy
and I'm looking at the school the place
I've always dreamed that I've always
searched and seek before and I got to
see my superheroes come to life right in
front of it when I go home after that
there's a package waiting for me it's
the size of maybe a television and I
open it up and it's this photograph of
me and the entire cast of x-men there's
a note in there from the chairman of Fox
and it says Jim thank you so much for
sharing your superpowers with all of us
I know you've been looking for your
superhero school ever since you were a
child
here's your class photo what I've
learned is this a lot of people say oh
I'm not that smart or how smart am I or
how smart are my kids you're asking the
wrong question it's not how smart you
are it's how are you smart a superhero
for me is somebody who is on the path of
discovering and developing their
superpowers like their strengths their
unique ability their unique talents and
I feel like the world needs more
superheroes in the world deserves more
of us to be able to show that there's a
superhero version of all of us find your
superpower