July 2, 2022 • 40 mins
Chris Spetzler, Executive Director of the Decision Education Foundation along with two students Zach and Ben discuss the importance of good decision making and how it has helped them choose the right path for their lives, with podcast producer Dave Ungrady.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah. It was obviously an object lesson that many coaches
used to uh preached to their players about making good
decisions because all of those choices, all of those decisions
can have impacts that reverberate far beyond what you think
(00:22):
of in the moment the head taps God. The NBA executive,
a former coach and a friend of Lambias were gifted
and optimized his gifts as a basketball player to realize
the dream of being an NBA player, and in a
moment or moments of a bad choice or decision around
(00:46):
cocaine drug use, it's cast him his life. And that's
his message that resonates, not just because it was drugs,
but because life is fragile and sometimes the choices we
make can be fatal. And it's a reminder for all
of us, the choices we make, the associations we have
(01:10):
with others. We just have to be mindful, though if
we're not careful, it can it can sometimes end not
just badly, but but favor made park former NBA player
and college basketball television analysts Glenn Bias was one of
the best in college basketball, and he's projecting to be
(01:32):
one of the best ever play the game in the NBA,
and he never may had that chance because of the
choices he made, and for that reason alone, we need
to keep his story alive. Bonnie Bernstein, a former University
of Maryland gymnasts and a Network sports fest So poor decision,
(01:53):
and you know, you don't know what led up to
that decision, but it really does emphasize the fact that
you've got to think about what you're doing. From Dan Bonner,
a college basketball television analysts. What we need to do
is help people to think clearly about their decisions. And
we also know that human beings are not completely rational
and that there are what we call decision traps. We
(02:15):
want to think about how we can make better decisions. Well,
what we would like to do is to have these
skills and have them be practiced to the level that
they do come naturally. Christ Spetzler, the executive director of
the Decision Education Foundation. In this episode of len Bias
(02:39):
A Mixed Legacy Epilogue, Episode one, we will explain the
tools you need to help you make the right decision,
focusing on two students who faced critical decisions. Since the
death of len Bias, many branches of blame have sprouted
from the fertile tree of speculation. It was a lefty
(03:03):
grisel's fault for not watching his players more closely. Some
have said the University of Maryland should have better policies
in place to better gauge drug use on campus. Others
have said those close to Bias field they should have
more aggressively questioned him about things he had done in
his final months. All these points are certainly debatable, but
(03:27):
one set of facts is indisputable. Left he didn't put
the cocaine in Lenny's nose. He didn't buy the cocaine
for Lenny or any of that stuff. Lenny, you know,
was over the age of consent. He was an adult
and he did that um on his own accord. That's J. J. Bush.
(03:47):
He started as a Maryland athletic trainer in nine two,
and he continued in that role at Maryland until Athletic
trainers are an insightful bunch when it comes to athletes.
They see and here are things that most others do not.
The wisdom of Bush in the previous comment speaks volumes
about who is to blame for the death of Len Bias.
(04:10):
The death of Bias comes down to this. He made
a bad decision to have use drugs to the point
where it killed him. No one told him to do it.
Len's death underscores the importance of making clear minded, values
based decisions, especially when it comes to considering actions that
(04:31):
can have life shaping consequences. With that in mind, we
are continuing this podcast series about the legacy of Len
biased with what we are calling a functional epilogue, episodes
in the discussion format that will help us learn about
the importance of making the right decisions. We will use
(04:51):
the tragic story of Len Bias as a teaching tool
to better understand the importance of making effective decisions. We
will exp plaining what it takes to make not just
a good or bad decision, but an effective decision to
help us in that process. We are working with the
Decision Education Foundation. The d EF teaches decision skills and
(05:15):
helps people understand the importance of making the best possible decision.
They are also a promotional partner in this podcast series.
We will discuss decision making with several people. They include
d e F Executive Director Chris Spectler. Chris is a
respected authority on the topic and as a national leader
(05:38):
in the movement of decision education. Chris will be our
point person for explaining the principles of effective decision making.
There is so much more to making the right decision
than simply telling people that you need to make the
right decision. Christ will help explain the tools we need
to use. Joining us in this first of three episodes
(06:03):
on decision making are Zach Reid and Ben Katoko. They
are students who have benefited from decision education and learning
to make better decisions has played an important role in
their lives. In future episodes, three others will discuss decisions
they have made and how they arrived at those decisions.
(06:24):
They include Justin Gatlin, a former Olympic and World champion
in the hundred meters. He later served a four year
suspension for a performance enhancing drug violation. Justin later returned
to a sprint career, winning Olympic silver and at the
age of thirty five, who was again a world champion.
(06:45):
In that race, he beat the fame Hussain bald. Also
one of the top high school basketball coaches in the
country is Glenn Farrello of Paul the Sixth High School
in Fairfax, Virginia. His teams have repeatedly finished among the
top twenty in the country over the last two decades.
(07:06):
Our final guest will be Travis Garrison. Travis grew up
in the same county as Lend Bias, Prince George's county.
Like lenn he played basketball at Maryland. Travis was a
term from two thousand two to two thousand six. He
has overcome two assault convictions and now is using his
platform to help people make better decisions with his program
(07:29):
called Think First, Make the Right Choice. Chris Spezler joins
us now. Chris first, tell us about the Decision Education
Foundation and its role in helping people make the right decision.
Thanks Dave, So Yeah, I'm the executive director of the
Decision Education Foundation, and our mission is to empower young
(07:52):
people with effective decision skills that helped them to make
better decisions and have better outcomes in life. And um,
I've got a couple of students that I've invited along
this session who are going to share how some of
the stuff that we teach has been important in their lives.
But in short, we're all making decisions throughout our life,
(08:15):
and our lives are very much built based on the
decisions that we make. Um. You know, unfortunately, with len Bias.
He made a lot of good decisions in his life,
but what we know, um, is that one bad decision
really made everything go in the wrong direction for not
only him, but for a lot of people around him
(08:36):
and for society in general. UM. So if we can
help people to make better decisions, UM, a single better
decision can also be life changing. And we don't always
talk about things. You know, don't do this, don't do that.
What we want to do is help people to understand
how to make better decisions so that they can make
(08:57):
better decisions throughout their life. Became aware of d e
f right after I wrote the book about len Bias,
Born Ready to Mixed Legacy of len Bias that came
out in and that forms the basis of this podcast series.
I was out and um uh selling the books that
a lot of basket of youth basketball tournaments and and
(09:20):
other events, and often people would come up to me
and say, hey, that's a great story. I'm glad to
wrote the book, but what are you doing about it?
I mean, it's it's it's a hard story, it's a
tough story. But where's the where's the good that's coming
out of this? Then I realized at that point that yes,
this story comes down to len did make a bad decision?
And how can I talk to people about making better decisions?
(09:42):
And I discovered your foundation, Chris, can you give us
an overview of the technical aspect of making the right decisions? Yeah? So, um,
we know that just say no, it doesn't work. What
we need to do is help people to think, to
really about their decisions. And we also know that human
(10:03):
beings are not completely rational and that there are decision traps.
We want to think about how we can make better
decisions and one tool that we have in that sense
is something we call the decision chain. And it's a
chain because it's only as strong as its weakest link.
And the links of the decision chain are values. What
(10:26):
it is that you want in your decision, alternatives, what
it is that you can do, information, what it is
that you can know, And because the future is uncertain,
we also have to be able to think about probabilities.
And that's where sound reasoning comes in, where we can
(10:46):
identify the alternative that gets us the most of what
are we want our values given what we can know
the information. So those are four links in the chain
and one other import link is commitment to follow through,
because if you just make up your mind but you
never do anything about it, that's not a quality decision.
(11:08):
So I think we all have personal experiences where we
know we didn't follow through. And the final one is
the frame, What is the decision that you're making. And
I would think that Len Bias when he made that
choice to um use cocaine, was not aware that the
(11:29):
frame included the possibility of death, and so he fell
into a decision trap because his frame was too narrow.
And if we can help people to understand how to
improve their framing of a decision or strengthen their chain links,
the ones that I just went through, just having that
(11:50):
as a checklist is something that can take us out
of a um situation where we are being mindless and
make us much more mindful and able to go through
a rational process, slowing us down, keeping us from making
big mistakes. What we would like to do is to
(12:10):
have these skills and have them be practiced to the
level that they do come naturally. Chris, can you mention?
Can you talk about who Zac and Ben are and
how they benefited from their experiences with a decision education foundation? Yeah? So,
Decision Education Foundation works with schools and historically we've also
(12:34):
had classes that we've taught through Stanford pre Collegiate Studies,
So we had high school students that came to Stanford
and Ben took the Stanford course, and Zach was involved
with a charter school up in Oregon where d e
F was a part of the curriculum. Zach overcame some
(12:55):
significant challenges and he'll tell you a little bit about those,
and then and has really been great about creating opportunities
for himself. And he's an entrepreneur down in Los Angeles
and he'll tell you a little bit about that. But
of course entrepreneurs have to know how to take appropriate
risks and um risks and uncertainty. That's the kind of
(13:19):
stuff that d EF helps people to understand. And especially
with the teenage brain being what it is, we know
that the prefrontal cortex of young people is still growing
in and the hot center of decision emotional decision making
is the amygdala. And we got to be able to
(13:40):
help them to navigate a difficult time until their their
rational decision making becomes stronger. Let's start with Ben. Then
you talked about entrepreneurship, Ben, can you tell us what
decision you're facing. The most recent and probably the uh
kind of core decision I made was deciding to leave
(14:04):
post secondary university UM before I finished graduating to actually
pursue the start of venture that I'm working on now.
I had already dabbled in entrepreneurship and kind of been
had been exposed to, you know, what entrepreneurship was and
how it was a tool to be able to solve problems,
and going into the University of Oregon my freshman year,
(14:25):
made the decision, you know, coming into school, if I
have the opportunity to go after building a company, UM,
That's what I'm gonna do. Whether that happens while I'm
in school or after the fact, that was my my
whole focus. So going into my junior year of college, UM,
I had been working on a project with my brother
and essentially the platform we were working on was helping brands, UM,
(14:50):
small boutiques retailers get visibility UM when it comes to
building their brands. And with that, UM, that kind of
gave me a foundation and be like, Okay, this is
something that I feel passionate about and I want to
move forward. With and kind of, um, you know, put
more effort into it, because when you're juggling school and
(15:11):
trying to build a startup, it's you know, you have
to choose one or the either, because you can either
end up you know, chasing to rabbits and catching neither.
So that was the decision that I had to make,
was you know, am I gonna take the time to
finish out the senior year of my college experience or
am I gonna step away from school and put one
(15:33):
of my focus into this startup? Um. And the reason
that decision was big is because in the world of
you know, startups, and specifically our our platform being a
check platform, it's all about feats market. Um. So within
that decision, you know, the frame obviously it's like, Okay,
am I gonna step away or am I going to
continue school? Um? But I really had to assess my
(15:55):
own values in terms of who I am and where
I wanted to be, and also think about the alternatives
whether or not you know, education could be something I
could pursue further down the line, or if this opportunity
would be something I could pursue further down the line.
So with all those things in in in having that
framework of thinking about how I should think about making
(16:19):
this this decision. UM, they gave me clarity, asked to,
you know, bet on myself and kind of pursue my
own sense of purpose in striving to build the startup
that I'm working on today. Chris, as you remember the
process with Ben, what areas did you focus on within
the decision chain or did you use all of them?
(16:42):
Was one more important to the other in in his
decision process? Well. One of the things that is impressive
about Ben's story is that while he was at u OH,
he got this UM startup going with his brother and
they had it in an accelerator and they were already
having success before he made the decision to switch. So,
(17:08):
in addition to being a student and also working to
get through school, he on the side started up this
business concept and only made the decision to jump once
it started to prove out. So he had limited the
uncertainty and he didn't just jump right at the beginning. UM.
(17:28):
He got started and made sure that there was progress.
And that's really part of why making that decision became critical,
because I was doing so many different things UM and
seeing the potential in what we were trying to build
UM and also juggling responsibilities and commitments, especially with school.
(17:53):
So with those two things, UM, the framework kind of
allowed me to balance who I was, my values and
also UM really gave me a way of understanding how
to part through the options that I did have in
terms of aligning what I was committed to and then
(18:18):
of course the chain um of commitment and follow through.
It's a tough decision to say I'm going to leave school. Uh,
you know, it doesn't make your parents it's extremely happy.
You know, some professors are against it, others are you know,
uh supportive of it. But you kind of have to
take in all those perspectives and then UM decide for
(18:39):
yourself what you're gonna follow through on. You mentioned your
frame and you mentioned your values. How did you define
your frame within this decision and what values were you're
focusing on in this decision? So I'd say the frame
was really I've gotten this far in college, but I'm
seeing success how happening within the startup we're building, and
(19:04):
you're human and you're limited in terms of how many
hours in the day and energy you have to commit
to anything. And if you split that too far then
neither of the things that you're splitting your time out
against really ends up you know, making progress. So that
was the frame. You know, how do I optimize um,
(19:24):
my time in the way that's going to be the
most meaningful meat or meaningful for me moving forward? UM.
And really my values have always been centered around one
helping people UM, and then too a natural kind of
inclination towards entrepreneurship. UM. So my intention going into college. UM.
(19:50):
The first weekend that I ended up UM on campus
in my dorm, I sat in my room that whole
weekend and decided to know why was I in school?
And the reason I set out for myself was to
develop a skill set around you know, communication that would
be able to help me in any field that I
(20:11):
chose to do, whether it's building my own company or
um going into an industry post college. And then also
making connections. UM. But within those two things, gearing them
towards you know, the direction of eventually started my own uh,
you know company, because that's something that I always wanted
(20:33):
to do, UM, given my history, my background and who
who who I am. So those two things, i'd say
kind of encapsulate the frame and the values. Chris, can
you explain what your role and this is an Education
Foundations role was with these two young men, where do
(20:56):
you step in? Well? So in both cases, UM, the
training that Zac and Ben had was several years prior
to these particular situations, and UM, I think we gave
them a platform and a foundation to be clear about
(21:17):
their decisions and UM it became something that UM became
more of an unconscious habit. And so both Ben and
Zach are individuals that stood out in those classes and
kept in touch. Zach, tell us about that that program
you were involved with where you were introduced to decision making.
(21:41):
I was a junior in high school when I met
Chris and the program, and I believe it was it
was either a World Studies class or a governomics class.
And I came to recognize I had been diagnosed as
being asked for, as having asked for their syndrome when
I was a young kid. So I spent a long
time in the RP as a kid figuring things out,
figuring UM out how to handle and make better decisions,
(22:06):
just under different austices as it were with UM with
thinking about cognitive distortions and what and what do I
value what kind of friends do want to have at
such a young age? Everything it was under this. It
was in the same vein as how to make a
good decision, how to how to do the right things
that will benefit you and make you happy without engaging
(22:27):
in these these fallacious thoughts that will lead you astray.
Tell us know about that decision. What decision did you face? UM? Originally,
when when Chris and I first met, my plan was
to go to medical school. UM. A lot of things
happened then my father passed away at a very young age. UM,
and I met Ben and Chris at the at the
(22:49):
Stanford at the Stanford campus UM when the with the
pre collegiate institutes. And while while I was there that
that provided a nice break after losing my father there,
but when I came back to try and be there
for my mother and sister everything, it quickly dawned on
me that medical school is a large investment of time.
(23:11):
There has to be another way to to help people.
Was lucky enough to shadow with a group of surgeons
when I was seventeen, UM, but it was just it
was such a time investment, and after after losing my dad,
it's set at such a young age, I really wanted
to try and minimize the amount of time that I
(23:33):
was in school so I could be there to be
around to see the life events of my mother and
sister and the rest of my family. So that led
me down to being to explore the different alternatives in
healthcare for what I could be, and I eventually, eventually,
after a few years, I settled on physicians assistant. They're
the schooling is less less, is slightly less arduous, responsibilities
(23:57):
are are remarkably similar. I can still help people and
I don't break myself doing it. Exact as you were
going through the process, and we've talked about the decision
the chain before. Was there any link in that chain
that you thought as you were going through the process
with each of those links that was most helpful. The information,
(24:18):
the sound of reasoning, the alternatives, the frame UM and
the commitment and and UM I think, the creative alternatives
and everything because there's such a wide breath and the
field of medicine with what one can do UM. And
one of my human anatomy classes in college, the professor
himself at the end of the term start talking about
like it's not the end of the world, if you
(24:41):
if you don't get the A plus you want in
this class, it really isn't There are plenty of other
things that you can do, and he planted those out.
He creative alternatives were the were the most important thing
for narrowing all of this down, Ben and Zach, what
were the more challenging aspects of the so as you're
making process, was it actually a process that you felt
(25:03):
very natural with? Let's go with the first. Yeah, so
I was gonna say I think of process felt natural.
But the kind of challenge UM probably was mostly around, um,
the sound reasoning in the sense that, you know, making
the decision to leave school to focus on on on
(25:25):
the startup. You know, I had to gauge a lot
of different people's perspectives. Now, it wasn't just a decision
where I was the only stakeholder in there. Um. So
there's my parents, there is you know, my professors, there's friends,
there's no um, you know, so many people who have
invested in me to get to that point. Um. You know,
whatever perspectives that I did get, UM, I weighed them
(25:48):
into the alternatives and kind of you know, ways that
I could approach the decision. Um. But Ultimately in that process,
I realized that, you know, for yourself, you can't not
every decision you make is going to make everyone happy.
So you need to kind of balance your decision with
(26:10):
you know, optimizing it to have the best effect on
people around you or the other stakeholders in that decision.
But then also you have to optimize that for your
own values and what you care about most, and kind
of getting to a place of you know, clarity and concrete, definitive,
you know, confidence and this is what I'm gonna do
(26:32):
and I'm gonna follow through on that. So Chris uh
Ben mentioned something about reasoning and there's the headheart concept
about making decisions. Can you talk a little bit about
that and and how that plays a lot into the chain?
What are the what are the links in the chain
that that the headheart most applies to. Well, So we
(26:55):
want a good decision to both make sense, that's the
sound reasoning, and feel right, and that's typically the heart
and the emotions, and sometimes our emotions and our passions
can run away with us, and um, we need to
balance the head. And sometimes um, we are in a
(27:15):
situation where, um, we're convinced that we know what is right,
and we're gonna do it no matter what. And in fact, um,
somebody that's sitting next to us can say, yeah, I
understand that you believe that you are logically reasoning, but
you may be missing out on the emotional impact of
(27:38):
others who are around you. Let me clue you in
on some of the heart aspects that you're missing. So
balancing head and heart. Some people are naturally leading in
their decisions with the head and others are naturally leading
in the heart. And what we want to do is
we want to meet the decision um where it needs
to be met. And if we're someone who is a
(28:00):
heart centered person and we're facing a financial decision, it's
probably time to reach out and get some professional help.
And if you're a logic person and you're dealing with
a relationship issue, maybe you need to reach out and
get help there as well. Can you qualify the difference
between the two? Is one more important than the other?
(28:20):
The head of the heart of it's got to be
right in the middle. Um. Well, each decision has its
own natural balance, and we want to meet it where
it is. So um, there's any specific decision has its
own correct balance, and that's where we need to UM
(28:42):
kind of work on it and tell we have the
clarity that Ben talked about. UM. You know, if if
we have a balance of head and heart, if we've
got strength in all of the elements of the links
in the chain, then we can be confident in moving
forward recognizing that there is uncertainty and we could have
(29:04):
a bad outcome. But if we made a good decision
and have a good out uh a bad outcome, that
just means that we need to continue making that good
decision and h tell the probability stack up in our favor.
So that balance of head heart really is relative to
the individual I would imagine right, not not necessarily or
(29:28):
or so much the individual, but on the individual decision.
So some decisions are much more UM logic head decisions,
and others are much more heart value focused decisions and relationships.
(29:48):
And so there's no one size fits all. It has
to do with what's the decision that you're facing, and
we need to test and make sure that it makes
sense on the logic and the reason and it also
feels right in the emotions and the values you talk about.
I think the hip uh the hip tool to determine
(30:09):
how how important something is Chris, can you explain what
hip means in relation to decision fitness. Yeah. So the
hip check is a way of thinking about the size
of a decision. So it is H is how will
things change? I is impact, UM, so if it's a
(30:30):
small impact or a bigger impact. And then the final
one is P is permanent. UM. So if something is permanent,
then it's not reversible, and that makes it a bigger decision.
If it's a decision that we can reverse and UM
pay some sort of a cost to get out of UM,
(30:53):
then that's a smaller decision. But you know, if we
think about len Bias, he made a decision and had
a permanent and terribly negative outcome. And I'm not sure
that he um thought about how big of a decision
it could have been at the time and within the
context of lembias also would have impact on many others,
(31:16):
and how all things changed. It changed a lot, So
he certainly he wasn't thinking about that. Uh, Zack, tell
us now, what we're more significant a challenge than the
others within the shape? I would say sound reasoning and
potentially commitment to follow through and figuring out the reasoning
(31:37):
behind why I wanted to choose positions, took a lot
of time to narrow down and then the commitment to
follow through applications to P A, M D. Nursing schools.
They're all very streninous and rigorous. The catalone, I believe
it's like a seven and a half hour test, the
g R E S six. There's just there's a lot.
(32:01):
There's a lot to do when it comes to applications.
But that's just like um, pretty much everything, especially when
you're transition from high school to college. If you're transitioning
to a for year school out of the gate um,
I know you vow and me had wanted me to
write asay um and that was shortly after I lost
my dad. So I managed. I managed to get through it,
(32:24):
but ultimately end up attending an alternative college. It's not
what feels good but feels right, Chris. But again, you're
not gonna know we're gonna gonna be a good or
bad decision until let you work through it. But it's
got to feel right. And that's a big difference, correct, Chris,
Oh sure so um. People often will convince themselves that um,
(32:48):
that they feel good about a decision UM, but their
logic is faulty, and we want to make sure that
we can slow them down enough that they can go
through the steps, maybe the links of the chain and
think through whether or not, for example, they have creative
alternatives that you know, they don't have to do something.
(33:08):
It's not an either or situation. There are often many
other alternatives involved, Zach. Did you find when you were
you consider the commitment part of this decision that you
have to sort of adjust your levels of commitment or
your goals as far as the commitment because you because
because of everything that was happening in your life, maybe
(33:30):
the time frame, uh you're working in the frame now,
the scope and how well it's going to take. Yeah,
I absolutely didn't. Um. Originally I was gonna exit university
right out right at the gate and then head right
towards the A school. I'm obviously not at p A
school right now. UM, But I decided I decided while
(33:51):
graduating last year, during during lockdowns, that I wanted a
break and I wanted to work for a little while
and get a breather. Um. It had been a very
uh vaccine spring. I guess the best way to put
it for the last the last four years and so
(34:12):
I sent it. So I don't have any plans right now.
I'm just working um at at a group of hospitals
here UM in the area and getting experience that way,
and sooner and later I will likely go back to
school and start taking some more classes and then probably apply.
But I'm definitely not jumping to go anytime soon, as
(34:36):
I understand the decision making process and the front and
the decision change. Part of the frame is you want
to see where you are five ten years from now. Well,
it all depends on what you're trying to achieve. I
would think that you definitely want to be UM considering
five ten years out what maybe not what you'll be doing,
(34:59):
but um what kind of skills that you want to have,
because you know, life happens and there's a certain and
sometimes you need to be able to change your course.
But if you've got the right skills in place and
the right accreditations, you can you can move with it.
Up next on lembis some mixed legacy and one person
(35:21):
very familiar with those types of decisions is Glenn Farrello,
head coach of the boys basketball team at Paul the
Sixth High School in Fairfax, Virginia. And I think the
most important part of that decision is you want to
try to find a way to not just talk at
and you want to talk to you and I give
them some information that they can actually think about instead
(35:41):
of being another adult telling them what to do or
you know, the pitfalls of life. I would think that
this is the sort of training that you want to
work with the players off the court, so that then
when they're in that situation, they have something that they
can refer back to that they can use in getting
(36:03):
to think clearly of what their purposes and they're enthusiasm
for what they're doing, then they're much more accepting of
some of the decision making uh decision decisions that they
have to make on the board. For our next segment,
we will talk with a former University of Maryland basketball
player who has overcome some profound personal challenges and now
promotes the importance of making the right decisions. Garrison was
(36:28):
two years old when n Bias Guide. Like lenn he
became a top high school player and chose to play
US college ball at the University of melt It was
one par tick of the time when I did get
in trouble. I coached told us that we weren't allowed
at the bars to hang out. I used to, you know,
drink a lot in my room and then I'll go
hang out. In this particular time, you know, I was
(36:50):
going through stuff, miss league, you know, coming off the injury.
So I just wanted to go hang out, and I
trying to went down to the bars. And decision fitness
is when you are centered. Your decision state is as
good as it can be in terms of processing information,
in terms of making recent judgments, in terms of being
clear on record values are and there are plenty of
(37:14):
situations where we know that that has been impaired. Definitely
wasn't silver minded. I would have handled the things of
that differently, so that definitely did a factor. Um, but
I came as excuse me. This is Davon Grady, President
(37:37):
of god Gradymedia and executive producer of this podcast series.
It is with profound sadness that I inform you about
a tragedy involving the god Grade Immedia in terms Enzo
Avarenga passed away in early June following an accident. He
collided with a van while riding his bicycle near his
(37:57):
home in the Pesta Marymo. Enzo was a rising sophomore
at the University of Maryland majoring in journalism. His work
for US focused on the thirty four plus one campaign
since the late spring of As a volunteer, he helped
edit video and audio clips for our len Bias Legacy
(38:19):
podcast production. He also edited the audio and video clips
for our timeline promotion supporting the podcast. His work was exemplary.
We had hoped to help Enzo earn a credit internship
this summer, but we were unable to do so. Typically,
he said he wanted to help anywhere. We talked today
(38:42):
before he died about his role helping promote the podcast series. Interestingly,
due to COVID, I never personally met Enzo, but we
had lots of zoom and phone calls. He was a
wonderful young man, gentle, respectful, deferential, responsible and diligent in
(39:02):
his work. I met his mother and father at his
funeral service. When I told Enzo's father about his work
on the l Bias project, a smile came to his face.
He was very proud of what he did, he said,
as was everyone at go grade Immedia. This podcast series
(39:35):
is based on the book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy
of Lambias published by Go grade Immedia. The series is
produced by Go Grady Media in partnership with Octagon Entertainment.
This segment was produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus.
It was written by Davon Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
The narrator was Davon Grady, with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
(39:55):
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
produced by Kevin McNalty, Tino Quagliata, Lauren Ross, Georgia brun
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannox and Enzo Alvaringo. Matt
Dewhursts providing the social media assistance special thanks to the
University of Maryland and American University From providing inserts. The
(40:17):
Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner of
this podcast series. For more information, go to go graded
media dot com. This has been a production of Go
Graded Media and the Eight Side Network.
Yeah. It was obviously an object lesson that many coaches
used to uh preached to their players about making good
decisions because all of those choices, all of those decisions
can have impacts that reverberate far beyond what you think
(00:22):
of in the moment the head taps God. The NBA executive,
a former coach and a friend of Lambias were gifted
and optimized his gifts as a basketball player to realize
the dream of being an NBA player, and in a
moment or moments of a bad choice or decision around
(00:46):
cocaine drug use, it's cast him his life. And that's
his message that resonates, not just because it was drugs,
but because life is fragile and sometimes the choices we
make can be fatal. And it's a reminder for all
of us, the choices we make, the associations we have
(01:10):
with others. We just have to be mindful, though if
we're not careful, it can it can sometimes end not
just badly, but but favor made park former NBA player
and college basketball television analysts Glenn Bias was one of
the best in college basketball, and he's projecting to be
(01:32):
one of the best ever play the game in the NBA,
and he never may had that chance because of the
choices he made, and for that reason alone, we need
to keep his story alive. Bonnie Bernstein, a former University
of Maryland gymnasts and a Network sports fest So poor decision,
(01:53):
and you know, you don't know what led up to
that decision, but it really does emphasize the fact that
you've got to think about what you're doing. From Dan Bonner,
a college basketball television analysts. What we need to do
is help people to think clearly about their decisions. And
we also know that human beings are not completely rational
and that there are what we call decision traps. We
(02:15):
want to think about how we can make better decisions. Well,
what we would like to do is to have these
skills and have them be practiced to the level that
they do come naturally. Christ Spetzler, the executive director of
the Decision Education Foundation. In this episode of len Bias
(02:39):
A Mixed Legacy Epilogue, Episode one, we will explain the
tools you need to help you make the right decision,
focusing on two students who faced critical decisions. Since the
death of len Bias, many branches of blame have sprouted
from the fertile tree of speculation. It was a lefty
(03:03):
grisel's fault for not watching his players more closely. Some
have said the University of Maryland should have better policies
in place to better gauge drug use on campus. Others
have said those close to Bias field they should have
more aggressively questioned him about things he had done in
his final months. All these points are certainly debatable, but
(03:27):
one set of facts is indisputable. Left he didn't put
the cocaine in Lenny's nose. He didn't buy the cocaine
for Lenny or any of that stuff. Lenny, you know,
was over the age of consent. He was an adult
and he did that um on his own accord. That's J. J. Bush.
(03:47):
He started as a Maryland athletic trainer in nine two,
and he continued in that role at Maryland until Athletic
trainers are an insightful bunch when it comes to athletes.
They see and here are things that most others do not.
The wisdom of Bush in the previous comment speaks volumes
about who is to blame for the death of Len Bias.
(04:10):
The death of Bias comes down to this. He made
a bad decision to have use drugs to the point
where it killed him. No one told him to do it.
Len's death underscores the importance of making clear minded, values
based decisions, especially when it comes to considering actions that
(04:31):
can have life shaping consequences. With that in mind, we
are continuing this podcast series about the legacy of Len
biased with what we are calling a functional epilogue, episodes
in the discussion format that will help us learn about
the importance of making the right decisions. We will use
(04:51):
the tragic story of Len Bias as a teaching tool
to better understand the importance of making effective decisions. We
will exp plaining what it takes to make not just
a good or bad decision, but an effective decision to
help us in that process. We are working with the
Decision Education Foundation. The d EF teaches decision skills and
(05:15):
helps people understand the importance of making the best possible decision.
They are also a promotional partner in this podcast series.
We will discuss decision making with several people. They include
d e F Executive Director Chris Spectler. Chris is a
respected authority on the topic and as a national leader
(05:38):
in the movement of decision education. Chris will be our
point person for explaining the principles of effective decision making.
There is so much more to making the right decision
than simply telling people that you need to make the
right decision. Christ will help explain the tools we need
to use. Joining us in this first of three episodes
(06:03):
on decision making are Zach Reid and Ben Katoko. They
are students who have benefited from decision education and learning
to make better decisions has played an important role in
their lives. In future episodes, three others will discuss decisions
they have made and how they arrived at those decisions.
(06:24):
They include Justin Gatlin, a former Olympic and World champion
in the hundred meters. He later served a four year
suspension for a performance enhancing drug violation. Justin later returned
to a sprint career, winning Olympic silver and at the
age of thirty five, who was again a world champion.
(06:45):
In that race, he beat the fame Hussain bald. Also
one of the top high school basketball coaches in the
country is Glenn Farrello of Paul the Sixth High School
in Fairfax, Virginia. His teams have repeatedly finished among the
top twenty in the country over the last two decades.
(07:06):
Our final guest will be Travis Garrison. Travis grew up
in the same county as Lend Bias, Prince George's county.
Like lenn he played basketball at Maryland. Travis was a
term from two thousand two to two thousand six. He
has overcome two assault convictions and now is using his
platform to help people make better decisions with his program
(07:29):
called Think First, Make the Right Choice. Chris Spezler joins
us now. Chris first, tell us about the Decision Education
Foundation and its role in helping people make the right decision.
Thanks Dave, So Yeah, I'm the executive director of the
Decision Education Foundation, and our mission is to empower young
(07:52):
people with effective decision skills that helped them to make
better decisions and have better outcomes in life. And um,
I've got a couple of students that I've invited along
this session who are going to share how some of
the stuff that we teach has been important in their lives.
But in short, we're all making decisions throughout our life,
(08:15):
and our lives are very much built based on the
decisions that we make. Um. You know, unfortunately, with len Bias.
He made a lot of good decisions in his life,
but what we know, um, is that one bad decision
really made everything go in the wrong direction for not
only him, but for a lot of people around him
(08:36):
and for society in general. UM. So if we can
help people to make better decisions, UM, a single better
decision can also be life changing. And we don't always
talk about things. You know, don't do this, don't do that.
What we want to do is help people to understand
how to make better decisions so that they can make
(08:57):
better decisions throughout their life. Became aware of d e
f right after I wrote the book about len Bias,
Born Ready to Mixed Legacy of len Bias that came
out in and that forms the basis of this podcast series.
I was out and um uh selling the books that
a lot of basket of youth basketball tournaments and and
(09:20):
other events, and often people would come up to me
and say, hey, that's a great story. I'm glad to
wrote the book, but what are you doing about it?
I mean, it's it's it's a hard story, it's a
tough story. But where's the where's the good that's coming
out of this? Then I realized at that point that yes,
this story comes down to len did make a bad decision?
And how can I talk to people about making better decisions?
(09:42):
And I discovered your foundation, Chris, can you give us
an overview of the technical aspect of making the right decisions? Yeah? So, um,
we know that just say no, it doesn't work. What
we need to do is help people to think, to
really about their decisions. And we also know that human
(10:03):
beings are not completely rational and that there are decision traps.
We want to think about how we can make better
decisions and one tool that we have in that sense
is something we call the decision chain. And it's a
chain because it's only as strong as its weakest link.
And the links of the decision chain are values. What
(10:26):
it is that you want in your decision, alternatives, what
it is that you can do, information, what it is
that you can know, And because the future is uncertain,
we also have to be able to think about probabilities.
And that's where sound reasoning comes in, where we can
(10:46):
identify the alternative that gets us the most of what
are we want our values given what we can know
the information. So those are four links in the chain
and one other import link is commitment to follow through,
because if you just make up your mind but you
never do anything about it, that's not a quality decision.
(11:08):
So I think we all have personal experiences where we
know we didn't follow through. And the final one is
the frame, What is the decision that you're making. And
I would think that Len Bias when he made that
choice to um use cocaine, was not aware that the
(11:29):
frame included the possibility of death, and so he fell
into a decision trap because his frame was too narrow.
And if we can help people to understand how to
improve their framing of a decision or strengthen their chain links,
the ones that I just went through, just having that
(11:50):
as a checklist is something that can take us out
of a um situation where we are being mindless and
make us much more mindful and able to go through
a rational process, slowing us down, keeping us from making
big mistakes. What we would like to do is to
(12:10):
have these skills and have them be practiced to the
level that they do come naturally. Chris, can you mention?
Can you talk about who Zac and Ben are and
how they benefited from their experiences with a decision education foundation? Yeah? So,
Decision Education Foundation works with schools and historically we've also
(12:34):
had classes that we've taught through Stanford pre Collegiate Studies,
So we had high school students that came to Stanford
and Ben took the Stanford course, and Zach was involved
with a charter school up in Oregon where d e
F was a part of the curriculum. Zach overcame some
(12:55):
significant challenges and he'll tell you a little bit about those,
and then and has really been great about creating opportunities
for himself. And he's an entrepreneur down in Los Angeles
and he'll tell you a little bit about that. But
of course entrepreneurs have to know how to take appropriate
risks and um risks and uncertainty. That's the kind of
(13:19):
stuff that d EF helps people to understand. And especially
with the teenage brain being what it is, we know
that the prefrontal cortex of young people is still growing
in and the hot center of decision emotional decision making
is the amygdala. And we got to be able to
(13:40):
help them to navigate a difficult time until their their
rational decision making becomes stronger. Let's start with Ben. Then
you talked about entrepreneurship, Ben, can you tell us what
decision you're facing. The most recent and probably the uh
kind of core decision I made was deciding to leave
(14:04):
post secondary university UM before I finished graduating to actually
pursue the start of venture that I'm working on now.
I had already dabbled in entrepreneurship and kind of been
had been exposed to, you know, what entrepreneurship was and
how it was a tool to be able to solve problems,
and going into the University of Oregon my freshman year,
(14:25):
made the decision, you know, coming into school, if I
have the opportunity to go after building a company, UM,
That's what I'm gonna do. Whether that happens while I'm
in school or after the fact, that was my my
whole focus. So going into my junior year of college, UM,
I had been working on a project with my brother
and essentially the platform we were working on was helping brands, UM,
(14:50):
small boutiques retailers get visibility UM when it comes to
building their brands. And with that, UM, that kind of
gave me a foundation and be like, Okay, this is
something that I feel passionate about and I want to
move forward. With and kind of, um, you know, put
more effort into it, because when you're juggling school and
(15:11):
trying to build a startup, it's you know, you have
to choose one or the either, because you can either
end up you know, chasing to rabbits and catching neither.
So that was the decision that I had to make,
was you know, am I gonna take the time to
finish out the senior year of my college experience or
am I gonna step away from school and put one
(15:33):
of my focus into this startup? Um. And the reason
that decision was big is because in the world of
you know, startups, and specifically our our platform being a
check platform, it's all about feats market. Um. So within
that decision, you know, the frame obviously it's like, Okay,
am I gonna step away or am I going to
continue school? Um? But I really had to assess my
(15:55):
own values in terms of who I am and where
I wanted to be, and also think about the alternatives
whether or not you know, education could be something I
could pursue further down the line, or if this opportunity
would be something I could pursue further down the line.
So with all those things in in in having that
framework of thinking about how I should think about making
(16:19):
this this decision. UM, they gave me clarity, asked to,
you know, bet on myself and kind of pursue my
own sense of purpose in striving to build the startup
that I'm working on today. Chris, as you remember the
process with Ben, what areas did you focus on within
the decision chain or did you use all of them?
(16:42):
Was one more important to the other in in his
decision process? Well. One of the things that is impressive
about Ben's story is that while he was at u OH,
he got this UM startup going with his brother and
they had it in an accelerator and they were already
having success before he made the decision to switch. So,
(17:08):
in addition to being a student and also working to
get through school, he on the side started up this
business concept and only made the decision to jump once
it started to prove out. So he had limited the
uncertainty and he didn't just jump right at the beginning. UM.
(17:28):
He got started and made sure that there was progress.
And that's really part of why making that decision became critical,
because I was doing so many different things UM and
seeing the potential in what we were trying to build
UM and also juggling responsibilities and commitments, especially with school.
(17:53):
So with those two things, UM, the framework kind of
allowed me to balance who I was, my values and
also UM really gave me a way of understanding how
to part through the options that I did have in
terms of aligning what I was committed to and then
(18:18):
of course the chain um of commitment and follow through.
It's a tough decision to say I'm going to leave school. Uh,
you know, it doesn't make your parents it's extremely happy.
You know, some professors are against it, others are you know,
uh supportive of it. But you kind of have to
take in all those perspectives and then UM decide for
(18:39):
yourself what you're gonna follow through on. You mentioned your
frame and you mentioned your values. How did you define
your frame within this decision and what values were you're
focusing on in this decision? So I'd say the frame
was really I've gotten this far in college, but I'm
seeing success how happening within the startup we're building, and
(19:04):
you're human and you're limited in terms of how many
hours in the day and energy you have to commit
to anything. And if you split that too far then
neither of the things that you're splitting your time out
against really ends up you know, making progress. So that
was the frame. You know, how do I optimize um,
(19:24):
my time in the way that's going to be the
most meaningful meat or meaningful for me moving forward? UM.
And really my values have always been centered around one
helping people UM, and then too a natural kind of
inclination towards entrepreneurship. UM. So my intention going into college. UM.
(19:50):
The first weekend that I ended up UM on campus
in my dorm, I sat in my room that whole
weekend and decided to know why was I in school?
And the reason I set out for myself was to
develop a skill set around you know, communication that would
be able to help me in any field that I
(20:11):
chose to do, whether it's building my own company or
um going into an industry post college. And then also
making connections. UM. But within those two things, gearing them
towards you know, the direction of eventually started my own uh,
you know company, because that's something that I always wanted
(20:33):
to do, UM, given my history, my background and who
who who I am. So those two things, i'd say
kind of encapsulate the frame and the values. Chris, can
you explain what your role and this is an Education
Foundations role was with these two young men, where do
(20:56):
you step in? Well? So in both cases, UM, the
training that Zac and Ben had was several years prior
to these particular situations, and UM, I think we gave
them a platform and a foundation to be clear about
(21:17):
their decisions and UM it became something that UM became
more of an unconscious habit. And so both Ben and
Zach are individuals that stood out in those classes and
kept in touch. Zach, tell us about that that program
you were involved with where you were introduced to decision making.
(21:41):
I was a junior in high school when I met
Chris and the program, and I believe it was it
was either a World Studies class or a governomics class.
And I came to recognize I had been diagnosed as
being asked for, as having asked for their syndrome when
I was a young kid. So I spent a long
time in the RP as a kid figuring things out,
figuring UM out how to handle and make better decisions,
(22:06):
just under different austices as it were with UM with
thinking about cognitive distortions and what and what do I
value what kind of friends do want to have at
such a young age? Everything it was under this. It
was in the same vein as how to make a
good decision, how to how to do the right things
that will benefit you and make you happy without engaging
(22:27):
in these these fallacious thoughts that will lead you astray.
Tell us know about that decision. What decision did you face? UM? Originally,
when when Chris and I first met, my plan was
to go to medical school. UM. A lot of things
happened then my father passed away at a very young age. UM,
and I met Ben and Chris at the at the
(22:49):
Stanford at the Stanford campus UM when the with the
pre collegiate institutes. And while while I was there that
that provided a nice break after losing my father there,
but when I came back to try and be there
for my mother and sister everything, it quickly dawned on
me that medical school is a large investment of time.
(23:11):
There has to be another way to to help people.
Was lucky enough to shadow with a group of surgeons
when I was seventeen, UM, but it was just it
was such a time investment, and after after losing my dad,
it's set at such a young age, I really wanted
to try and minimize the amount of time that I
(23:33):
was in school so I could be there to be
around to see the life events of my mother and
sister and the rest of my family. So that led
me down to being to explore the different alternatives in
healthcare for what I could be, and I eventually, eventually,
after a few years, I settled on physicians assistant. They're
the schooling is less less, is slightly less arduous, responsibilities
(23:57):
are are remarkably similar. I can still help people and
I don't break myself doing it. Exact as you were
going through the process, and we've talked about the decision
the chain before. Was there any link in that chain
that you thought as you were going through the process
with each of those links that was most helpful. The information,
(24:18):
the sound of reasoning, the alternatives, the frame UM and
the commitment and and UM I think, the creative alternatives
and everything because there's such a wide breath and the
field of medicine with what one can do UM. And
one of my human anatomy classes in college, the professor
himself at the end of the term start talking about
like it's not the end of the world, if you
(24:41):
if you don't get the A plus you want in
this class, it really isn't There are plenty of other
things that you can do, and he planted those out.
He creative alternatives were the were the most important thing
for narrowing all of this down, Ben and Zach, what
were the more challenging aspects of the so as you're
making process, was it actually a process that you felt
(25:03):
very natural with? Let's go with the first. Yeah, so
I was gonna say I think of process felt natural.
But the kind of challenge UM probably was mostly around, um,
the sound reasoning in the sense that, you know, making
the decision to leave school to focus on on on
(25:25):
the startup. You know, I had to gauge a lot
of different people's perspectives. Now, it wasn't just a decision
where I was the only stakeholder in there. Um. So
there's my parents, there is you know, my professors, there's friends,
there's no um, you know, so many people who have
invested in me to get to that point. Um. You know,
whatever perspectives that I did get, UM, I weighed them
(25:48):
into the alternatives and kind of you know, ways that
I could approach the decision. Um. But Ultimately in that process,
I realized that, you know, for yourself, you can't not
every decision you make is going to make everyone happy.
So you need to kind of balance your decision with
(26:10):
you know, optimizing it to have the best effect on
people around you or the other stakeholders in that decision.
But then also you have to optimize that for your
own values and what you care about most, and kind
of getting to a place of you know, clarity and concrete, definitive,
you know, confidence and this is what I'm gonna do
(26:32):
and I'm gonna follow through on that. So Chris uh
Ben mentioned something about reasoning and there's the headheart concept
about making decisions. Can you talk a little bit about
that and and how that plays a lot into the chain?
What are the what are the links in the chain
that that the headheart most applies to. Well, So we
(26:55):
want a good decision to both make sense, that's the
sound reasoning, and feel right, and that's typically the heart
and the emotions, and sometimes our emotions and our passions
can run away with us, and um, we need to
balance the head. And sometimes um, we are in a
(27:15):
situation where, um, we're convinced that we know what is right,
and we're gonna do it no matter what. And in fact, um,
somebody that's sitting next to us can say, yeah, I
understand that you believe that you are logically reasoning, but
you may be missing out on the emotional impact of
(27:38):
others who are around you. Let me clue you in
on some of the heart aspects that you're missing. So
balancing head and heart. Some people are naturally leading in
their decisions with the head and others are naturally leading
in the heart. And what we want to do is
we want to meet the decision um where it needs
to be met. And if we're someone who is a
(28:00):
heart centered person and we're facing a financial decision, it's
probably time to reach out and get some professional help.
And if you're a logic person and you're dealing with
a relationship issue, maybe you need to reach out and
get help there as well. Can you qualify the difference
between the two? Is one more important than the other?
(28:20):
The head of the heart of it's got to be
right in the middle. Um. Well, each decision has its
own natural balance, and we want to meet it where
it is. So um, there's any specific decision has its
own correct balance, and that's where we need to UM
(28:42):
kind of work on it and tell we have the
clarity that Ben talked about. UM. You know, if if
we have a balance of head and heart, if we've
got strength in all of the elements of the links
in the chain, then we can be confident in moving
forward recognizing that there is uncertainty and we could have
(29:04):
a bad outcome. But if we made a good decision
and have a good out uh a bad outcome, that
just means that we need to continue making that good
decision and h tell the probability stack up in our favor.
So that balance of head heart really is relative to
the individual I would imagine right, not not necessarily or
(29:28):
or so much the individual, but on the individual decision.
So some decisions are much more UM logic head decisions,
and others are much more heart value focused decisions and relationships.
(29:48):
And so there's no one size fits all. It has
to do with what's the decision that you're facing, and
we need to test and make sure that it makes
sense on the logic and the reason and it also
feels right in the emotions and the values you talk about.
I think the hip uh the hip tool to determine
(30:09):
how how important something is Chris, can you explain what
hip means in relation to decision fitness. Yeah. So the
hip check is a way of thinking about the size
of a decision. So it is H is how will
things change? I is impact, UM, so if it's a
(30:30):
small impact or a bigger impact. And then the final
one is P is permanent. UM. So if something is permanent,
then it's not reversible, and that makes it a bigger decision.
If it's a decision that we can reverse and UM
pay some sort of a cost to get out of UM,
(30:53):
then that's a smaller decision. But you know, if we
think about len Bias, he made a decision and had
a permanent and terribly negative outcome. And I'm not sure
that he um thought about how big of a decision
it could have been at the time and within the
context of lembias also would have impact on many others,
(31:16):
and how all things changed. It changed a lot, So
he certainly he wasn't thinking about that. Uh, Zack, tell
us now, what we're more significant a challenge than the
others within the shape? I would say sound reasoning and
potentially commitment to follow through and figuring out the reasoning
(31:37):
behind why I wanted to choose positions, took a lot
of time to narrow down and then the commitment to
follow through applications to P A, M D. Nursing schools.
They're all very streninous and rigorous. The catalone, I believe
it's like a seven and a half hour test, the
g R E S six. There's just there's a lot.
(32:01):
There's a lot to do when it comes to applications.
But that's just like um, pretty much everything, especially when
you're transition from high school to college. If you're transitioning
to a for year school out of the gate um,
I know you vow and me had wanted me to
write asay um and that was shortly after I lost
my dad. So I managed. I managed to get through it,
(32:24):
but ultimately end up attending an alternative college. It's not
what feels good but feels right, Chris. But again, you're
not gonna know we're gonna gonna be a good or
bad decision until let you work through it. But it's
got to feel right. And that's a big difference, correct, Chris,
Oh sure so um. People often will convince themselves that um,
(32:48):
that they feel good about a decision UM, but their
logic is faulty, and we want to make sure that
we can slow them down enough that they can go
through the steps, maybe the links of the chain and
think through whether or not, for example, they have creative
alternatives that you know, they don't have to do something.
(33:08):
It's not an either or situation. There are often many
other alternatives involved, Zach. Did you find when you were
you consider the commitment part of this decision that you
have to sort of adjust your levels of commitment or
your goals as far as the commitment because you because
because of everything that was happening in your life, maybe
(33:30):
the time frame, uh you're working in the frame now,
the scope and how well it's going to take. Yeah,
I absolutely didn't. Um. Originally I was gonna exit university
right out right at the gate and then head right
towards the A school. I'm obviously not at p A
school right now. UM, But I decided I decided while
(33:51):
graduating last year, during during lockdowns, that I wanted a
break and I wanted to work for a little while
and get a breather. Um. It had been a very
uh vaccine spring. I guess the best way to put
it for the last the last four years and so
(34:12):
I sent it. So I don't have any plans right now.
I'm just working um at at a group of hospitals
here UM in the area and getting experience that way,
and sooner and later I will likely go back to
school and start taking some more classes and then probably apply.
But I'm definitely not jumping to go anytime soon, as
(34:36):
I understand the decision making process and the front and
the decision change. Part of the frame is you want
to see where you are five ten years from now. Well,
it all depends on what you're trying to achieve. I
would think that you definitely want to be UM considering
five ten years out what maybe not what you'll be doing,
(34:59):
but um what kind of skills that you want to have,
because you know, life happens and there's a certain and
sometimes you need to be able to change your course.
But if you've got the right skills in place and
the right accreditations, you can you can move with it.
Up next on lembis some mixed legacy and one person
(35:21):
very familiar with those types of decisions is Glenn Farrello,
head coach of the boys basketball team at Paul the
Sixth High School in Fairfax, Virginia. And I think the
most important part of that decision is you want to
try to find a way to not just talk at
and you want to talk to you and I give
them some information that they can actually think about instead
(35:41):
of being another adult telling them what to do or
you know, the pitfalls of life. I would think that
this is the sort of training that you want to
work with the players off the court, so that then
when they're in that situation, they have something that they
can refer back to that they can use in getting
(36:03):
to think clearly of what their purposes and they're enthusiasm
for what they're doing, then they're much more accepting of
some of the decision making uh decision decisions that they
have to make on the board. For our next segment,
we will talk with a former University of Maryland basketball
player who has overcome some profound personal challenges and now
promotes the importance of making the right decisions. Garrison was
(36:28):
two years old when n Bias Guide. Like lenn he
became a top high school player and chose to play
US college ball at the University of melt It was
one par tick of the time when I did get
in trouble. I coached told us that we weren't allowed
at the bars to hang out. I used to, you know,
drink a lot in my room and then I'll go
hang out. In this particular time, you know, I was
(36:50):
going through stuff, miss league, you know, coming off the injury.
So I just wanted to go hang out, and I
trying to went down to the bars. And decision fitness
is when you are centered. Your decision state is as
good as it can be in terms of processing information,
in terms of making recent judgments, in terms of being
clear on record values are and there are plenty of
(37:14):
situations where we know that that has been impaired. Definitely
wasn't silver minded. I would have handled the things of
that differently, so that definitely did a factor. Um, but
I came as excuse me. This is Davon Grady, President
(37:37):
of god Gradymedia and executive producer of this podcast series.
It is with profound sadness that I inform you about
a tragedy involving the god Grade Immedia in terms Enzo
Avarenga passed away in early June following an accident. He
collided with a van while riding his bicycle near his
(37:57):
home in the Pesta Marymo. Enzo was a rising sophomore
at the University of Maryland majoring in journalism. His work
for US focused on the thirty four plus one campaign
since the late spring of As a volunteer, he helped
edit video and audio clips for our len Bias Legacy
(38:19):
podcast production. He also edited the audio and video clips
for our timeline promotion supporting the podcast. His work was exemplary.
We had hoped to help Enzo earn a credit internship
this summer, but we were unable to do so. Typically,
he said he wanted to help anywhere. We talked today
(38:42):
before he died about his role helping promote the podcast series. Interestingly,
due to COVID, I never personally met Enzo, but we
had lots of zoom and phone calls. He was a
wonderful young man, gentle, respectful, deferential, responsible and diligent in
(39:02):
his work. I met his mother and father at his
funeral service. When I told Enzo's father about his work
on the l Bias project, a smile came to his face.
He was very proud of what he did, he said,
as was everyone at go grade Immedia. This podcast series
(39:35):
is based on the book Born Ready The Mixed Legacy
of Lambias published by Go grade Immedia. The series is
produced by Go Grady Media in partnership with Octagon Entertainment.
This segment was produced by Davon Grady and Don Marcus.
It was written by Davon Grady and edited by Don Marcus.
The narrator was Davon Grady, with additional narration by Jamal Williams.
(39:55):
Technical production was provided by Octagon Entertainment. Production assistance was
produced by Kevin McNalty, Tino Quagliata, Lauren Ross, Georgia brun
Casey Fair, Jamal Williams, Kelsey Mannox and Enzo Alvaringo. Matt
Dewhursts providing the social media assistance special thanks to the
University of Maryland and American University From providing inserts. The
(40:17):
Decision Education Foundation is a content and promotional partner of
this podcast series. For more information, go to go graded
media dot com. This has been a production of Go
Graded Media and the Eight Side Network.
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