February 2, 2025 • 62 mins
Just imagine you are living your life and going about your day to only have the course of your whole life change in a flash. This is what happened to Brian P. Swift back on December 26, 1979. Brian was just a gregarious 17 year old off school on winter break. He just finished celebrating Christmas with his family, and he was looking forward to spending the rest of the winter break relaxing and having some fun. He called his buddies to go play some football, and there was a group of guys who got together in a nearby field. This was where Brain received a tackle that changed the complete trajectory of his life....it was a tackle where he had issues getting up from the tackle. Brian couldn't move, nor could he feel. Brian suffered from c6 quadriplegia.
As much as Brian was down, he refused to be out. Brian had surgery and went to the Chicago Rehabilitation Center where statistics were grim about the quality of life for those with quadriplegia. It would be easy for anyone to get depressed and feel discouraged seeing the grim outlook that was given for people with quadriplegia. However, Brian used those statistics to motivate him further to achieve a quality of life he could be proud of. Brian went from being a student who didn't consider himself a studious person to going on to law school. Brian left the legal field and went into sales where he won an award his first year for bringing in the most sales. Brian eventually became an author, business executive coach, speaker, and radio host of WJOL. Brian refused to let quadriplegia define him, but rather, he was going to define what quadriplegia was. He defied statistics, and he showed people that life doesn't have to be so grim if you have the mindset to not let it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of On
the Spectrum with Sonia, apodcast where we discuss autism,
spectrum disorder, mentalhealth challenges and anybody
who's overcome any adversity intheir life.
That will provide people withconnection, love, hope and
inspiration in a world,especially that tries to leave
(00:25):
us feeling disconnected.
Just imagine now I wanteverybody to imagine this.
Just imagine, okay, you gothrough your everyday life, your
everyday routine, doing whatyou need to do to get through
the day, going through.
So you, whether it's getting upworking out before work in the
morning, whether it's, you know,going to school, whether it's
getting up working out beforework in the morning, whether
(00:46):
it's, you know going to school,whether it's hitting a gym
afterwards being, you know,doing your grocery runs or gas
filling up your gas tank becauseof your commute to work,
whatever it may be.
But then just imagine nowwaking up where it all changes
for you in a flash.
(01:07):
Our guest today exactly had thatkind of situation happen.
He was just a 17-year-oldplaying, you know fun,
gregarious outgoing guy,outgoing guy used to play cards,
(01:30):
get together with friends,watch movies, go out, date all
that.
You know all that what a highschool guy does.
And he also was a jock playedmany sports and it was Christmas
break, december of 1979.
And it was the day afterChristmas and sunshine is out,
(01:51):
some snow on the ground.
Weather was good enough to gettogether with a group of the
guys go out and play somefootball.
There was a group of 12 peopleand they were all playing
football together and he gottackled.
But unlike any tackle he's beenthrough before, this is a
tackle that monumentally changedhis life.
(02:15):
Here to discuss this is Brian PSwift.
He is a coach, he is a lawyer.
He is a coach, he is a lawyer,he has a radio show, wjol, out
in Will County, he is a father,he is a husband and you know he
(02:37):
also never let circumstancesdefine him.
Instead, he wanted to definehis circumstances, and the
circumstance we are talkingabout and the situation we're
talking about is that tacklethat he suffered that day,
december 26, 1979, was one thatleft him with a C6 quadriplegic.
(03:03):
That left him with a C6quadriplegic.
So, here to discuss all this,please, let's welcome Brian P
Swift.
Brian, thank you for being heretoday.
Sonia, thank you very much forhaving me.
No, thank you, thank you.
So, going back in your life now, you wrote this book and I
(03:25):
really recommend everybody readthis.
It's called Up.
You talk about being dragged byyour feet that day when you
were playing with the group ofthe guys.
Do you have any memory of theplay-by-play in real time?
What had actually?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
happened happened, circumstances, what landed you?
I do and and actually it's sovivid because it wasn't a tough
hit.
Actually I got tackled frombehind.
So I remember a guy hanging onmy leg and then another guy
coming in and like kind ofgrabbing my waist.
So the reality of it was therewere times when in in athletic
terms, you got lit up, I mean,somebody hit you so hard.
(04:10):
You know, this wasn't one ofthose.
This was like I got somebodygrabbed one of my legs, somebody
grabbed me around the waist andI just went down, um, so it
wasn't one of those like wowhits.
You know where you hear peoplego, oh, and you're wondering if
the guy's going to get up andremember what happened.
(04:31):
This was just gosh, it was sosimple.
Nobody fell on my head, nobodyfell on my neck.
I didn't hit my head, I didn'thit my neck.
But you know, after everybodygot off, um, and I went to try
to get up, there was no gettingup.
So I was laying there andthought, okay, maybe it was what
(04:55):
some people call stinger, whereit's almost like a concussion
to your spine and it takes acouple minutes for you to kind
of recover from it, but I mean,after a minute I knew it was
something worse than that, and Iwasn't in pain at that time, I
just couldn't feel anything.
So, yeah, I shipped.
(05:15):
A couple guys ran off to makephone calls Because there was no
cell phones in those days.
So they had to hop in theircars and we were only five
minutes from the house.
So it was get my parents callan ambulance.
And, you know, none of us hadan idea.
I think we all feared the worst, which was I broke my C6
(05:35):
vertebrae and, you know, in aheartbeat became a quadriplegic
became a quadriplegic and youhad to have surgery where they
took bone out of your hip tofuse your neck.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yes, and that's when they had confirmed that it was
quadriplegic, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Exactly Because of the nature of the break and
anything above the C level,which is C1 through C7, you're
quadriplegic, means you'reparalyzed from the neck down.
What they don't know is, oncethe swelling goes down, how much
you'll regain.
But what they do know is a C2will be able to move, you know,
(06:20):
if the best case scenario is,you know, say, a c5 should be
able to get some arm movementback, maybe some wrist movement,
no hands, blah, blah, blah.
C6 will get this back, a c7will get this back.
And you're kind of likestatistically um labeled, which
I get, they have to kind of giveyou an understanding of what
(06:43):
could be that scenario.
And they're pretty back thenthey were pretty upfront with
kind of saying you probablyaren't going to walk, but
there's always that miraclechance.
And you know this is now, don'tforget, this is 1979.
It was a long time ago.
So, yeah, you were let knownright away.
(07:04):
And then, after the surgery,they put a halo brace on you
which is what you see, where itcomes way down on your chest,
way down and back, and then fourscrews get screwed into your
skull to keep everything frommoving.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Right and you used to talk about this is when, now,
after the surgery, that's whenyou felt the pain in your neck.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Absolutely Like.
It wasn't when I got hurt.
It wasn't even like the dayafter the surgery.
It was like and that could havebeen because of the medication
they give you, you know what Imean, you're kind of doped up
and whatnot.
So it was several days laterand then, after about a week of
(07:51):
being in the hospital, I waslucky enough to go to RIC, which
is now the Shirley ReinabilityLab, which was a premier spinal
cord injury facility in its timeand hard to get into.
I was blessed to get into itand that's where rehab starts
and unfortunately, that's alsowhen, you know, the pain really
(08:13):
started to kick in.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And you spent your time at the Rehabilitation
Institute of Chicago, what itwas known back then, now known
as Cheryl Ryan, but back thenand you spent, you took a lot of
classes.
Now, from my understanding, youtook occupational therapy, you
had physical therapy, and thisis where you were learning to
kind of use your hands, again,trying to move your arms,
(08:38):
because you had discussed, youknow, after your injury you were
only able to move your armsfour inches at best, side to
side Right, and so what was thatprocess like?
To be in the RehabilitationInstitute and go through the
process of everything?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, you know what?
This may sound odd, but it's asafe place because you're in
there with lots of similarpeople or worse.
There are also some people thatare in better situations, but
you're all kind of in the samesituation.
You're surrounded byspecialists, so it's a very safe
place and you're kind of tryingto get some normalcy into your
(09:25):
life, which is tough for thefirst month because you know
it's about okay.
Is your bladder going to work?
Are your bowels going to work?
A lot of those things don'twork.
You lose use of your diaphragm.
You cannot.
You only have like 40% lungusage.
So even talking like we are now, I would have to stop and take
(09:48):
breaths like every sentence,like really force that breath
because your diaphragm isparalyzed.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So you're really learning just how to deal with
your injury and hoping youregain some use and hoping you
regain some use, and it seemedto me that, even though, too,
(10:16):
from my understanding of whatyou wrote in Up, that
Rehabilitation Center was goingby a lot of what was driven by
statistics, right, absolutely.
So now we're talking 1980.
And we're.
You know the average cost totake care of somebody with
quadriplegia would have been$1.35 million average cost.
(10:37):
There was an 88% of peoplenever getting married, staying
single.
There was no statistics ofanybody with quadriplegia
getting married or having kids,much, let alone and I think the
statistics of like what, 24.3 orsomething around that range,
right of persona people gettinga job.
(10:59):
And you discussed that.
You know and I know for youthat was like also an uphill
battle to even want to do morein your rehabbing, such as
walking on parallel bars, goingswimming in the therapeutic pool
.
So tell me, like what wasdriving you?
You know you wanted to keepgoing for more.
(11:21):
So what do you feel was likethat driving force?
You're like, let me keep doingthis, let me push past this.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know, I think there's several things.
I think one thing was my faith,and it wasn't that I hoped I
would walk.
I always kept that in the backof my mind, but it was just give
me the strength and the wisdomto deal with this.
And, as my mom would say, whowas my faith?
(11:53):
And drove?
All that was?
I never sat around trying tofigure out why.
As my mom would say, you know,things happen for a reason.
We don't always know what it is, and even if we did, it doesn't
change anything.
So I really grabbed onto thatand said you're right, you know
you're right.
So now, what can I do to goforward?
(12:16):
How do I get back up?
You know that's the whole book.
You know getting up is the keyto life.
Right, I mean, everybody'sgoing to get knocked down, but
getting up is the key to lifeand moving forward.
And then it was my dad who wasthis just like try and think of
the way to describe him.
He was this man that hadabsolutely no tolerance for
(12:40):
being told what can and can't bedone for his kids, and he
really drove.
That you know.
Okay, you know how much arepeople.
You know, when I was liftingweights, which were just these
five pound weights.
At one point you know he'dpoint out look at that, look at
that guy over there, he's gottwo sets on.
You know, look at that guy overthere, he's lifting a lot more
(13:03):
than you.
You know, look at that guy overthere, he's lifting a lot more
than you.
And so for me it was um,wanting to show him I can do
more and be more.
But that all came after aconversation, a one-way
conversation with my dad, andthat conversation was in January
, the middle of January, and hecame up to visit me and he took
(13:29):
his coat off, sat down and afterabout 10 minutes he went over
and got his coat.
And my guess was and I don'tremember the conversation, but
my guess was I was probably notin the best spirits, I was
probably a little salty, why Iwas turning 18 at the end of the
month and this was not how Ihad planned to spend my 18th
birthday.
Right, I mean, 18 is that wasthat age of even more freedom
(13:52):
and adulthood.
I'm spending mine sitting there, not able to feed myself, not,
you know, peeing into a tubehooked up to.
You know all the stuff, notbeing able to do much, not to
what I had planned.
He came over to the side of thetable where I was sitting.
He looked down and said youknow, if I ever come up here
again and you're not smiling,I'll turn around and leave and
(14:14):
won't come up again.
He said and these are I meanverbatim, almost it is your
responsibility to keep thisfamily up.
He said it is yourresponsibility to keep this
family happy and to keep thisfamily going.
Said if you are smiling, wewill all be okay.
(14:34):
If you're up, we will all beokay, but it is your
responsibility to stay smilingand to keep this family happy.
Took his coat off, sat down,had lunch.
We chatted Don't remember what.
Nothing ever was said about it.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And when you reflect back on that conversation, how
did that make you feel to knowthat your father put that
responsibility in your hands andsaid that it was up to you to
keep the family going and keepthe smile and to keep a positive
?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
upward attitude.
You know, in that sarcastictone I was thinking, yeah, sure,
is there anything else I coulddo?
You know what I mean.
You know what else can I do foryou guys?
But that lasted about a secondor two.
I really didn't think about ituntil probably that night, when
I was probably more, you know inmy room alone thinking and
(15:35):
reliving the conversation andthinking he's right, he's right,
he's 100% right, he's right,he's a hundred percent right.
That that you know.
I didn't like to be around someof the patients because they
were cranky, they weredepressing, they were they, they
were just downers and eventhinking of my friendships, like
(15:59):
we all had this fun, spiritedway of moving forward, laughing,
enjoying life, and if I wasgoing to take this accident,
like it wasn't going to be methat broke up my family and it
wasn't going to be me thatbecame that person that I saw a
lot around the rehab.
That, you know, just bitter,salty.
(16:21):
Life's too short and peopledon't believe this, but I've
never prayed or asked God tohelp me walk.
I've asked him to give me thewisdom and strength to deal
whatever life throws at me.
It's all I've asked him for andhe has blessed me with that and
(16:42):
I thank him every day, on agood day, I thank him On a bad
day.
I thank him because I've beengiven this ability to just keep
moving forward mentally,spiritually, emotionally,
physically, to just keep movingforward.
And that's what I base a lot ofmy coaching, my executive
(17:02):
coaching, even business coaching, on is how do we move forward?
Something's going to happen,right.
And then the question I askpeople is now what I was
thinking about now what I got inan accident?
Now what I got a flat tire, nowwhat Life's about figuring out
solutions?
It's about now what yeah, youbroke your leg, now what?
(17:23):
Now you broke your neck.
Now what you got divorced, nowwhat.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Now, what's the best way to move forward in a healthy
fashion?
You had to cope with and youtalking about moving forward in
the best way.
What did?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
you find was your best way to move forward.
Well, I, you know I probablywould have went into the trades
If I didn't get hurt.
I come from a very blue collarfamily background.
A lot of my dad's friends hadgreat, successful families and
enjoyed life that were in thetrades.
Well, I was going into thetrades, now, right.
(18:20):
So it was like I am not goingto spend my time dragging my
parents down taking care of memy whole life.
So what's the natural course?
You know they're like well,people need to get educations.
Okay.
So finished up high school.
I had enough credits.
(18:43):
I finished up high school theday I got home after four months
in the rehab on a Friday.
That Monday I went back to highschool for three weeks to
graduate.
After I graduated three weeks,it was one day of summer, one
week of summer and then Istarted junior college and I got
picked up by the bus and I gotdriven to college and the first
day I think my mom went with mejust to see if I could push
around and find, you know, makesure I knew where the rooms were
(19:05):
.
And I just started that journey.
I knew it was my success wasgoing to be through my faith and
getting an education.
That's how I was going to beatthose statistics.
And I had a girlfriend thatstayed with me after I got hurt,
and so I kept looking at youknow, I kept looking at what.
(19:26):
Now, what can I do Now?
What can I do Now?
What can I do Now?
What can I do?
I'm tired.
I worked out hard, but whatelse can I do?
You know, it's been a long day.
It's the first time I pushedthat much up at school.
I got home, you eat.
Now what can I do?
Should I go out into the garageand work out?
Yeah, you know, you God, youreally pushed yourself hard
today.
Yeah, that's what I need to do.
(19:51):
I do.
I have anything left?
I don't know.
Let's go figure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's go find out.
And for you I know that um soyou were doing high school still
, while you were in the rehab.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, they had you go to certain classes high school
classes and I think it was yourbasic classes.
I know I had a math class highschool classes and I think it
was your basic classes.
I know I had a math class, anEnglish class, maybe another one
, so outside of OT and PT, andthen strength training you had I
had two high school classes andwhen you went back to school,
how did people receive youcoming back?
(20:25):
You know, I mean, obviously Ihad a pretty decent group of
friends and they were allencouraging in there and I think
they were, you know, like howdo we treat you and how do we
talk about you.
But it didn't take long forthem to realize it was the same
old sarcastic Swifty that theyknew for all the years.
(20:47):
It was, you know, I joked aboutstuff.
I mean I, you know I would makethem feel bad.
You know they'd say something.
I'd be like, oh, I can'tbelieve you said that in front
of me.
And then you know, they'd belike, oh, and I'd be looking,
going you're a meathead, youknow they don't bother me.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, so it seems like you had pretty positive
reception um people are beingvery um empathic, um so, and I
also understand like you alsowent through your stages of
grief, you know, with the injury, and in that, did you ever have
(21:27):
any resentment towards the guythat attacked you, I mean that
tackled you?
Rather, did you have anyresentment towards?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
No, no, I mean I.
I I played the sport so longI've tackled guys and hurt their
knees.
I've tackled guys and and giventhem concussions.
It's part of the game.
And no, they didn't do anythingwrong.
So I was so focused on movingforward that I didn't care, like
that didn't matter, I didn'thave.
(21:55):
You know, this negativity is itwill rob you of energy, of hope
, of faith, of I didn't havetime for that and I don't think
I dealt like I never had that.
I never went into a rabbit holewith my injury.
I didn't have time to.
(22:16):
I stayed so darn busy that Ididn't allow myself to really
fall into a dark hole with myinjury.
And I mean just to give you anidea, I mean, the household I
lived in.
There was no sitting in yourbedroom.
I mean growing up, you couldn'teven shut your bedroom door.
We had no TVs in the bedroom.
(22:37):
We had no radio.
The bedroom was a place tosleep.
You were out with family or youwere out with guests.
I mean, and to give you afurther idea of my dad's mindset
, probably four or five monthsafter I got home from the
hospital, I was in the kitchenwith my mother and I think I was
(22:57):
being sarcastic with her and Iknow it was hot and quads don't
deal with heat well, because wedon't sweat.
My dad had come in the frontdoor and he must have heard
something I said and just hetook it in a different context,
I think, than what was said,because my mom was even kind of
(23:18):
surprised.
He said it and, I think,explained to him no, he wasn't,
that's not what he was kind of,you know.
But he walked through thekitchen and said you know, if
you're looking for sympathy, youcould find it in the dictionary
between shit and syphilis.
And then he kept walking andwent out to the family room,
turned on the TV and sat down.
I mean, you know you weren'tgetting sympathy in my house.
(23:41):
I had plenty of love and I hadplenty of empathy, but dad
wasn't a sympathetic dude and Inever expected it from him.
I knew he loved me and I knewhe felt for me, knowing what I
was going through, but he wouldnever show it why that
generation didn't, and it's asign of weakness.
(24:04):
I mean, what is the best thingI've done for my three kids?
I get up every day and I wentto work and I came home with a
smile.
I woke up with a smile and Icame home after working eight,
10 hours and changed clothes anddrove them to their sports or
(24:24):
played catch with them.
The best thing you could do forpeople around you is live by
example and show people whatyou're made of.
That's how you build resilience, that's how you build pride,
that's how you build character.
That's how you build respect.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's what I was going to do and so a lot of this
was, too, you know, so a lot ofit seems rooted too in your
upbringing of there was nowhereto go but forward, and that was
ingrained in you young.
And so when it came time totest that in yourself which,
(25:04):
when people are faced with anykind of adversity, that's what
they're, you know, kind ofpushed to do, in what they're,
you know, kind of pushed to doin one way, shape or form Right,
when it came time to do that,you had a basis in some ways
that you were able to tap intoand be like okay, this is the
only place I'm going to go isupward, right, there's no
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I mean, don't forget, I came from the generation
where you learned how to swimwhen your dad threw you in the
deep end.
I mean, don't forget, I camefrom the generation where you
learned how to swim when yourdad threw you in the deep end.
I mean that was the way lifewas right.
I mean, you know, you gotthrown in the deep end and it's
like swim, you know and I don'tmean that just figuratively, I
mean that's the way a lot of uslearn how to swim.
You know you go to the beach,your dad would throw you off the
(25:47):
end of the pier swim.
You know you go to the beach,your dad would throw you off the
end of the pier.
Not that you were a greatswimmer, but you know he was.
Like this is how you learn toswim, right, you?
You get neck deep.
Which way do you want to go?
Um, and it just.
It was a great way to grow up,though, because like there was
no, like it was black or white,and it was either swim or sink.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Um, it just the way it was.
You figured it out.
They put you in circumstanceswhere you just figured it out.
You grew up, and even I grew upto some extent growing up in
the 80s and 90s.
Here to how kids are growing upnow you talk about certain
things you see being lost intranslation.
What do you find is the biggestdifference nowadays?
(26:38):
Lack of cope?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, I don't believe they know how to cope.
I don't believe they know howto solve a problem, solve.
I don't know how they find anypeace and joy because
everything's been handed to them.
I shouldn't say everything.
A lot of stuff has been handedto them and we do it under the
guise of well, they play sports.
(27:03):
Sports can take up a lot oftime.
Well, he's in choir, well,she's in band, and, trust me, I
know how much time those thingstake.
Sure, they take too much timebecause it robs families from
family time.
But my kids did all that and Istill held them accountable to
(27:24):
do things that cut the lawn.
I mean my kids.
They've used every power toolimaginable.
They've cut down 40-foot trees.
They've cut the lawn sincethey've all been in their early
teens.
This empowers them to feel goodabout themselves.
(27:45):
It empowers them to feelconfident.
You don't build the qualitiestoday by handing people
everything I don't know.
You know they're not in thepresent anymore, the kids today,
and I think there's a hugesense of entitlement.
You know that we didn't have.
(28:09):
You probably didn't see it.
You probably can tell thedifference in your generation to
now and not that we're.
You know, I'm much older thanyou but I agree with you.
You came probably from more mystyle of our parents versus the
style today.
You were just empowered.
You didn't go to your parentsand say you were bored.
(28:31):
God, if I went to my dad andsaid I was bored, he'd hand me
some tools and say go cut thegrass, go paint the garage.
There was no can I go do.
It just was different, and itwas different in a good way.
I think there was more familytime.
I grew up with my grandparents.
I had to help them out.
They lived three houses away.
(28:52):
It just built and in doing youbuild confidence and you build a
lot of great characteristics.
I think a lot of that's missing.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And that's a very insightful view that you have,
and because you are veryobservant and one of the things
that you know, you have saidthat the injury had led you to
was being more observant, likegoing and observing football
practice at the park, going andseeing things and so going to,
(29:25):
you know, I know you startedcoaching actually when you were
in college and you talk about avery important person in your
life, sister Dennis, I believeyes, and she actually was a very
instrumental driving force foryou in deciding career path and
(29:46):
education and moving forward.
So you went to college.
Now you had the original planbefore injury of being either
like a Piper or like Trisha,growing up in the tray, you know
, because you also describedyourself as not a school person.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I'm not.
I was never viewed as I mean.
I never viewed myself as smartand I know I never took school
serious enough.
I was first generation college.
I mean, you know my, mygrandparents went to grammar
school, I know they I don't evenknow if they finished.
My parents, same thing, I meanSame thing, I mean.
(30:36):
So we were first generationcollege, let alone having now to
have confidence that I'm smartenough, and that's probably one
area I didn't.
But you know what?
I worked hard.
I finished junior college intwo years, got my associate
degree, started my four yeardegree at St Xavier University
and two years later graduated.
And the Sister Dennis part of itwas, you know, my senior year
going what do you want to do?
You know I was a criminaljustice and business major.
(30:59):
And she's like well, I'm goingto, you know.
And I was like I'm not totallysure she goes.
Well, you know what, you'regoing to go to law school.
And I was like, yeah, that'sfunny, sister, I'm not.
You know, I'm not that guy, I'mnot that like, I'm not that guy
.
And she goes no, you're goingto go to law school, come to my
office, you know.
And she was this I don't know,five foot seven, you know, 90
(31:21):
pound wet nun that weren't, youknow, had the habit and just
like, floated through the placeand she was well-known, she was
a staple of that collegeuniversity campus and she said I
(31:41):
want you to see me after school.
You went to Sister Dennis'soffice and I went in there and
she's like, well, this is whatwe're going to do.
And it was not even an ask,almost it was like this is what
you're going to do.
Okay, the LSAT, which is thelaw school entrance exam, is
going to be in.
You know, it's offered thistime and this time.
(32:02):
Well, this time you should,you're going to take it this
time.
That gives you time to take acourse.
Here's the information on theprep course.
You know, I went home and itwas like, uh, um, sister Dennis
said I should go to law schooland I think even my parents were
like, yeah, that's funny,that's a good one, that's a good
one, brian, you know.
(32:22):
So I was like, no, this is whatshe wants.
And you know, after a while Istarted saying why not me?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You know, after a while I started saying why not
me?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Why not me?
I took the LSAT.
I didn't do great on it.
I took it again, did muchbetter, and I got into three
different law schools and I wasoff to DePaul College of Law and
three and a half years later Igraduated.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, and I remember you talking about you.
Later I graduated yeah, and Iremember you talking about you.
Know your law school experience, you know, and you know having
a study partner that reallyhelped you in grad school.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
How to study, because it's.
You know, when you go to lawschool, it's not your simple
regurgitation, right, you readand regurgitate material.
It's a completely different waythat you go to law school.
It's not your simpleregurgitation, right, you read
and regurgitate material.
It's a completely different waythat you have to think.
And you know, I actuallyremember the fact pattern that
you gave an example of andtalking about, like somebody was
(33:23):
driving 25 miles an hour in a25 mile hour speed zone, a
little nine-year-old goes,chases after a ball and doesn't
really pay attention to the roadand the person has to swerve
and then another guy who'sspeeding hits the car and then
knocks into a pole that wasdefective and then just a cold
(33:44):
causal chain oh my gosh yeah Iremember reading that I oh my
God, this is bringing back likememories because I did law
school too and it was totally Iwas just thinking off the bat
top of my head okay, productliability here, negligence,
negligence.
I was thinking what possible Icould think of and it's tough.
(34:08):
It's tough and I can totallyempathize and I think you know a
lot of people, especially thosewho went to law school, can
empathize with you when they,you know, when they, when you
talk about that struggle of youknow having to, you know, have
all this reading and you knowhaving to memorize things or
especially the different lawsand how things are applied in
(34:30):
different, maybe key court cases.
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
And I think I did more reading in one semester of
law school than probably twoyears of junior college.
I mean you know the amount ofreading you do.
I mean it's insane, it'sabsolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
But one thing I found interesting, though you talk
about your third year electiveand so in college you were a
criminal justice and businessmajor.
You talk about taking CrimProyour last year of college and
you were not that interested init.
So I'm a little bit curious toknow what what happened.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, you know what you know.
Negotiations I wanted to addsomething to my resume besides
went to three years of lawschool.
So negotiations was a part ofwas an extracurricular thing
that you couldn't do andbasically it was like, you know,
(35:25):
a mock negotiation.
You got a set of facts and Iwas like, oh dude, you know one
of my other friends I go, haveyou done anything?
Now, the guy who helped methrough law school, my good
friend, he was in law review.
So this dude was smart, crazy,at a level that I've never seen
before.
But I had another friend whowas kind of like me.
(35:46):
It was way smarter.
But we're, like, you know,thinking now you're thinking of
graduating, where are you goingto apply for?
What are you going to do?
Have you done anythingextracurricular?
And I'm like, heck, no, youknow, I took every ounce of
energy just to get through lawschool.
We're like, let's do thisnegotiation thing.
Oh man, today's the last dayfor signups.
Just sign us up, we'll figureit out.
(36:08):
Right, you know, at least wecould say we did it and we went
into it and it, trust me, oncewe got, we got, we were able to
get into the competition and itwas an inter-school competition
and you had three sets ofnegotiations that you did in a
law.
You did it actually in a, in alegal setting, so you were in a
(36:31):
court-like setting, and younegotiated with two other people
and I'll even I remember thefirst time we did it.
We were representing nurses,the other people were
representing the union, and sowe did it, and you don't know
how well you do, because afterlike two days they just
announced you know the top threepeople, top three teams.
(36:52):
So you know it was, you knowteam.
You know I remember you know itwas team three, team two, and
we ended up winning the DePaulLaw School negotiation
competition, which meant we wenton to regionals.
So we went on to regionals,held in this beautiful hotel,
and we had to negotiate againstteams like Northwestern and and,
(37:14):
and, uh, university of Illinoisand and so it was all around.
So it was you know Notre Dameand all you know like 16 premier
law schools.
So we went on to that and wewere like, oh, this is awesome,
we get to put this down on aresume, right.
So we went and again him and Ijust clicked.
(37:36):
We worked.
Well, you know we go in thereand you know I've got my
briefcase that's been beat upbecause it's fallen off my lap
400 times.
I'm wearing the same suit Iprobably wore senior year, you
know.
Or maybe I got a new suit forgraduation.
You know these guys are comingin and you know designer
three-piece suits $70 ties Iprobably got my $13 tie that I
(37:59):
got from God knows where.
But we work well together and Iremember being at the end of the
two-day competition, sittingthere with the professor because
he was all pretty psyched, andsitting there when they read the
results.
We're in a huge, beautiful,ornate room and they read the
(38:21):
results and third place waswhatever it was.
It was something a you know lawschool of, you know high old
law school and I I rememberlooking at my partner going, oh,
like dang, if we would havejust gotten third place, like
that would have been cool, youknow, because we felt we'd done
pretty well.
And then second place was, youknow, uh, whatever, notre dame,
(38:45):
you know, and they were like youknow, and they were like, oh,
you know, like, all right, let'sget a drink.
You know, like, because we justfigured, okay, we're hoping for
second or third would be kindof cool.
I'll never forget it the waythat I said it was and, believe
it or not, that the regionalnegotiation champions are from
(39:10):
DePaul college of law, brian andElvada, brian Swift and Elva
I'm trying to remember how topronounce his name Elvado
Sanchez.
We didn't even like catch it,like cause we had started to.
There was a buyer next to, sowe had gone up to the bar to get
(39:32):
a drink and and like I don'teven remember hearing it right
away, and then we look at eachother and we were like did they
just say our names?
Well, the, the, the professor'scoming up to us, my, my wife's
coming up to us, his wife likeoh my God, and I do.
(39:54):
You know what?
The first thing I said to theprofessor I guess this gets me
my A.
So it was one of, so I, it wasmy only class I got an A in in
law school.
I'm not ashamed to say thatbecause I worked extremely hard,
you know, and he laughed and wewent on to regional competition
and it was probably one of theproudest moments of my life
(40:16):
because we worked real hard forit and it just shows you like we
didn't have the expectations towin.
What a shame, you know, weworked hard.
But we just didn't have thoseexpectations and I don't know,
maybe that helped us, maybe thatkept us loose, I don't know.
But here we are now and ourstory gets bigger because we're
off to nationals in Philadelphia.
(40:38):
So yeah, it's a great, greatstory.
Sorry to drag it on.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
No, no, I remember reading that and I just felt so
happy and so proud of you.
Thank you, I have caught in.
One theme that I've caught sofar in the theme of your book
was whatever you saw as achallenge was also another
(41:05):
opportunity for you, right,absolutely Whatever you put in
your mind, you just went for it,you manifested it and you went
for it right.
So it was like you had this,because you even wrote this in
your book I was determined toget an A before I graduate law
school.
Right, you did it.
You know you.
(41:26):
You know you talk about, youknow, wanting to do better in
law school.
You did better in law school,right, your first semester, with
the grades being what they wereto, pulling them up and getting
a better GPA, you know.
So, everything that you've done, you know, it seems like you
know.
It started, you know, with thatmindset and mentality of I am
(41:49):
going to do this, I want to dothis, I'm going to this, I'm
going to, you know, absolutely.
You know, and I just feel likeyou know.
I have this one quick questionI've been dying to ask, though.
Okay, ask away so you, okay, I'mgonna sound like the biggest
(42:10):
nerd right now, but well, I am anerd, I don't care.
Okay, yeah, I'm brown after all.
Okay, okay, that's a funny jokefor everybody out there.
All right, um, you tookcriminal justice, did crim pro.
When you took it, did it remindfruit of the poisonous tree
search and seizure, likelearning, basically, cop life
(42:33):
basically, even though I thinkthe cases now would be outdated
with some of the ways that someof the cases, especially when it
pertains to certain kinds ofsubstances that people are
getting.
Sure, that's not applicable intoday's day.
(42:54):
That's not applicable intoday's day, but, um, you know,
like the whole idea of you know,just like, even like
surveillance, what's a search?
All that Did?
It did any of like?
Maybe you know what you learnedin your earlier days.
Come back for you what was that?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it was a lot of what Ihad done in college and it was
basic because, like you said, itwas less about the rule of the
law Don't get me wrong, theytalked about it but it was more
about the situations.
Yes, right, I mean it was moresituational and that for me was
(43:31):
way easier to remember some ofthat stuff.
The situations, what isprobable cause?
I mean I don't know if that'sreally changed, I mean to a
degree.
I'm sure things have changed tosome degrees, I could say.
But you know what is areasonable search and seizure,
what you know, what is in plainview, what constitutes, you know
(43:53):
?
So everything was, it wassituational and I was able, and
those situations stuck with me.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yes, yes, and for all those listeners who don't maybe
necessarily understand some ofthe legal language here, fruit
of the poisonous tree refers towhen a cop seizes things into
evidence that is based off anillegal search and the seizure
therefore is unlawful.
Because the search and seizure,because of the way that it was
(44:20):
unlawful from the get-go, yes,uh, plain view exception if you
have, let's say, weapons thatare open in a?
Um state where that's illegal,and if a cop can see it, um, in
plain view, um, they don't needa search warrant at that point
because they can see it um.
(44:42):
So, like an automobile, forexample, that's best way to put
it.
That's how I remembered it.
Um, you know probable cause,you know reasonable suspicion if
you were doing something thatyou know is gives rise to
criminal activity, right?
exactly that, um, you know thatstuff miranda and messiah rights
(45:03):
.
Miranda rights that's beforewhen you are getting your rights
read to you.
Messiah rights is after you'vebeen accused.
So, yep, this is what I rememberof that, that's how you're
right remember, because I likedit so much I took it twice in
law school.
That means I failed it thefirst time.
Everybody, okay, proud moments,all right, but yes, yeah, so I
(45:29):
mean that's so.
Did you so when you were doingyour majors?
So you went into a firm afterlaw school, you went to you, you
got into a firm where you weredoing criminal appeals criminal
law and personal injury criminallaw and personal injury.
You were doing court appeals.
Um how long did you work in thelegal field before you switch?
(45:53):
Because I know that you hadswitched into sales at one point
.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, I went, you know, probably two years.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Okay, and what was the deciding point that you were
like you know what this ismaybe not necessarily my jam,
you know and what of it you know.
And and when you reflect backon this too, you know, I know,
like the sister dentist reallykind of instilled in you, hey,
come to law school, do this.
When you reflect back, wasthere something perhaps that you
(46:21):
may have were thinking about,maybe dabbling into, but didn't
pursue because you admire, yourespected sister dentist so much
and you respected how she wastrying to guide you.
You just went for it.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
you respected how she was trying to guide you, you
just went for it.
Yeah, I mean I always wanted tobe part of a big corporation
and help run it, so that wasalways in my mind from a
business standpoint.
Plus, you know, I'll tell you.
You know, remembering themoment I opened the acceptance
letter and seeing I don't thinkI've ever seen tears come out of
(46:57):
my dad's eyes but twice in mylife, three times and just
seeing how proud him and my momwere, I mean I was going.
I mean I was going to lawschool.
It was a done deal.
So about two, you know what,two years into it, I wasn't, it
wasn't my jam and there weresome other things.
What, two years into it, Iwasn't, it wasn't my jam and
(47:20):
there were some other things,but I took my talents and said,
I know I could do a lot of otherthings.
I mean, I'm an asset, you know,and I tried to get into a
training program and runtraining.
But they're like, everybodystarts in sales.
So I went into sales and Ikilled it.
I mean, I was rookie of theyear.
I had, you know, in my firstfive years I had exceeded
(47:42):
expectations.
Four out of the five went ontrips and I mean, life was good,
I was rocking and rolling andthat led me to, you know,
promotions into training,running training, developing
training programs, which led meto promotions into running teams
(48:04):
.
You know bigger teams and youknow, then that led me to
promotions of running.
You know divisions and kind ofwhat I'd always thought about,
you know.
I mean, before I left corporate, I was on the 27th floor of the
Aeon building.
You know, right on MichiganAvenue, my office overlooked the
(48:25):
lake.
What else can you ask for?
I'm a dude in a wheelchair,that's not smart.
And I'm sitting on the 27thfloor with a corner office.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
You refer to yourself as not smart a couple times, so
I want to know how do youdefine smart?
Because intelligence is verysubjective too.
So I want to know how to definesmart, because you called
yourself not smart a coupletimes now, and the therapist in
me, because I left law too and Iwent and became a therapist.
(48:57):
You know, given you know justmy life circumstances, what I've
been through in my life andbeing on the autism spectrum, I
felt like that would be a greatplace for me to make impact.
But you, you know, and one ofthe things we learned is
intelligence.
There's two types right.
So there's crystallizedintelligence, right, that you
born with.
(49:17):
There's that amount you're bornwith, and then there's that
fluid intelligence, intelligenceyou develop along the way.
I want to know for you how areyou defining smart?
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Well, I didn't have that built-in intelligence where
, like you just got good gradesand you didn't have to work
crazy hard and everything I andyou didn't have to work crazy
hard and everything I,everything you know, I had to
work crazy.
Like I was a C student and mymindset was C's, get degrees,
which is a horrible, horribleway to look at things, and I
(49:47):
would not share that with mykids by any stretch, because I
wanted them to work hard.
And if work hard men, you gottasee I'm good with that.
But I know I didn't work hard.
Um, so I just guess I neverviewed myself as being like that
, like that, um, like that lawschool smart like that.
(50:09):
You know, like I said, myfriend was in law review.
Um, that was a different kindof smart to me, which I was not.
But I knew that I could outworkanybody.
I knew that when push came toshove I could do enough.
So now you've got what's betterto be really smart or to have
(50:33):
this will and grit mindset?
Well, the ultimate answer isboth, but would be both right,
and very few people have both.
I had that will and gritmindset that most people will
never, ever, ever be able tokeep up with you cannot.
(50:59):
You'll back in there that youcould not keep up with me
studying, working, thinking,whatnot.
So I was, I guess I alwaysmaybe a different kind of smart,
and I knew that after lawschool.
I realized, okay, you'resmarter than you thought and you
can accomplish anything you setyour mind to, regardless of
(51:21):
your circumstance.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So you know, and that's why I wanted to just
challenge you on that a littlebit about that use of not smart,
because everybody hasintelligence, but in different
ways.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
And I feel like you know what.
Even you know.
I know you gave this example.
You know you could get good.
You know you're not one ofthose people who are able to get
good grades and not really haveto like study or do a lot of
work, but truth of the matter isa lot of these people who are
smart, right that you think arenot doing it.
They're probably.
You know, you'll be surprisedhow many people are reading when
(51:57):
nobody's watching.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
Right, no, I agree.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
Yeah, you know there's they're probably doing
this when no one is watching,cause I remember people used to
brag about this a lot when I wasyounger and I talked to a
family friend about this and shesaid you know what, sonia,
these people, I bet you this, Ican bet any money to you right
now they're reading somethingwhen no one is watching them,
right, like, so I mean, she'slike, don't buy into that story
(52:22):
if they're bragging about this,because a lot of times it's not
even the case, right, and so youknow, and I feel like this is
kind of weird, but you know, butyou know, and your, your
intelligence.
The thing is, you know, and onething that is a defining moment
for you is how you know.
You had things in you all alongright, and all of this grit,
(52:47):
all of the mentality you had,the strength, you had the
perseverance, the will to pushforward, all of this was in you.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
The will to push forward.
All of this was in you.
You develop it to the levellike I guess it's like a great
sculpture, they say, if somebodywho is a great sculptor, the
(53:16):
artwork, the David that comesout, was in that chunk of marble
.
It's chipping away these pieceson the outside that reveal it.
And chipping it away means youknow getting outside your
comfort zone.
It means testing your limits.
It means you know dealing withthe fear factor and going beyond
it.
It means pushing yourself.
That's all chipping away todiscover what's really down in
(53:39):
sight.
Most people don't do that.
They don't have to because,let's face it, our human nature
is to run from pain and hardcircumstances.
I am the one meathead that runto pain and tough circumstances
because it has given me thisdivine ability to crush it, go
(54:04):
through it, go over it, goaround it.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yes, yes, and it's you know, and I also feel like
for you.
Anytime that there is a toughcircumstance, you're like okay,
another challenge, let's go.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Right, like you know, lace up the yeah, lace up the
boots, put on the gloves.
Let's see what we got.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
And you know so.
After law school, after you gotout, you know you were working,
you were studying for the bar.
I know that the bar exam wasquite difficult for everyone.
I also will join you in thisand say I did not pass it the
first time I took it.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
And I know you were studying again for it, and it
was at that time you ended upgetting married.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
You moved into a house that you had kind of like
a fixer upper home.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
And so you get married, and then you have three
children you've adopted whenfrom?
Speaker 2 (55:02):
So my oldest son was adopted from the east side of
Chicago Okay, southeast side.
My next child is my daughter,sydney.
She was adopted from China, andthen my youngest son was
adopted from Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
And what would you say has been like a defining
family memory for you, or likejust one memory that like, just
really stands out for you, justto remind you of your purpose
and to remind you of yourjourney and to remind you of all
(55:44):
of your strengths.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
I have so many of those and they all revolve
around family.
That's all about family.
One of my mantras is faith,family and friends, and you know
that has carried me because myfaith has blessed me and I've
tried to drive that into mychildren that that is the number
(56:10):
one thing you have.
On a good day you thank God.
On a bad day you thank them forwhat he's given you and family
slash health.
You know you have to work at itand nothing is easy.
If it's easy, it won't lastlong.
So you know, being able to takemy family on vacation when I
left corporate, one of my goalswas to spend more time with my
(56:31):
family.
In four years I took my family,including my mom and dad.
In four years I took my family,including my mom and dad, on
four vacations my mom and dad onevery one of them, you know to
Florida, to South Carolina.
We did a fishing vacation inCanada.
My goal was I'm spending timewith these people that have been
(56:53):
so blessed to help me get towhere I'm at that have been so
blessed to help me get to whereI'm at.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
You know, and it's like you know, it's also your
way of just showing yourgratitude, just showing your
love.
You know, it seems like that'slike a love language for you too
.
Yes, that time spent, you know,taking your family on vacation
as a way of showing time spenttogether, you know, to people
who supported you all along.
(57:21):
So, as we're wrapping this uphere, brian, what is one piece
of advice or encouragement youwould give to people who may be
in a rut in their life right now, maybe feeling down on
themselves, maybe feelingdisappointed about something or,
you know, just maybe not in agood headspace, what is
something you would tellsomebody?
Speaker 2 (57:44):
You know, I believe everybody has a beautiful story
inside of them that can unlocknot just their ability to live a
divine, inspired life, but helpothers and you can go from
being a mess to being blessed ifyou set your mind to it.
(58:05):
And that might mean a lot oflittle changes.
Maybe it's nothing big, butyou've got to want it and then
you got to seek it out andyou've got to surround yourself
with those people that will helpyou on that journey, because
nobody does it alone.
So if going help means findinga dietician, go get that
dietician.
Invest in yourself.
(58:26):
If you do not invest inyourself, your investments I
mean would you invest any amountof money without understanding
where it is and be checking onit?
We don't do that with ourselvesenough.
You want to be successful,invest in yourself.
Get a mentor, get a coach.
If you want to lose weight, geta dietician.
If you want to be inspired,surround yourself with five
(58:50):
people that are inspirational.
You are the sum of the fivepeople you surround yourself
with.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
And Brian, how can people find you number one if
they wanted to reach out to you,and how can they get a copy of
your book?
Speaker 2 (59:04):
Well, you could go, so find me first.
I'm on Facebook and LinkedInunder Brian P Swift, and I'm on
Instagram under the underscorequadfather, so you can find me
on almost all social media.
You can reach out to me atbswift62, b-s-w-i-f-t.
(59:25):
62 at comcastnet, and you cango to Amazon, barnes and Noble.
And actually my one book that Iwanted to write is now turned
into publishing my ninth bookabout a year and a half ago.
Speaker 1 (59:41):
Excellent, excellent.
And what drove you to writeyour story up?
What got you to tell your story?
What was that final breakingpoint that can help other people
break out and write their ownstories?
Speaker 2 (59:56):
So I wrote up.
Getting Up is the Key to Lifeis the full name of the book,
and I didn't write that to shinea light on me.
I wrote that book to help notjust people with disabilities
but the caretakers, theirparents, their brothers, their
sisters.
I wrote the book to help shinelight on other people's
(01:00:19):
situations and give them hope,and give them the opportunity to
see that there is a light atthe end of the tunnel, that you
can thrive despite whateveryou're dealing with, and give
them some steps, actionablesteps, to hopefully help them
(01:00:40):
get there.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Oh, thank you so much for your time today.
Brian, everyone, brian P Swift,we absolutely are blown away by
you, brian.
I mean, you're the only Swift Iwill be a Swifty for, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Not the musician but you.
Thank you, I will be a Swiftyfor, and I think you know,
anybody who has the chance tomeet you has a chance to hear
you speak.
He will be speaking at CreativeCon this February, this
(01:01:20):
February, and when I heard himspeak last February at
CreativeCon, everybody was blownaway.
I've even heard people be likewow in the audience.
He's just that good.
So I'm going to be speaking atCreativeCon this February at the
Intercontinental Hotel inChicago.
February 21st to the 23rd arethe dates of it.
Also, on February 21st will bemy book launch at Creative Con,
(01:01:43):
and so it's called Dropped in aMaze.
It'll be coming out soon If youhave not already.
Please subscribe and like Onthe Spectrum with Sonia podcast,
on the spectrum with Soniapodcast, um, and also tune in on
W J O L a M for Brian Swift'sum radio show, um and yes, and
(01:02:04):
share with your family, yourfriends, review, rate, subscribe
and, if you've enjoyed thisepisode, stay tuned for more
episodes further to come.
Thank you very much.
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of On
the Spectrum with Sonia, apodcast where we discuss autism,
spectrum disorder, mentalhealth challenges and anybody
who's overcome any adversity intheir life.
That will provide people withconnection, love, hope and
inspiration in a world,especially that tries to leave
(00:25):
us feeling disconnected.
Just imagine now I wanteverybody to imagine this.
Just imagine, okay, you gothrough your everyday life, your
everyday routine, doing whatyou need to do to get through
the day, going through.
So you, whether it's getting upworking out before work in the
morning, whether it's, you know,going to school, whether it's
getting up working out beforework in the morning, whether
(00:46):
it's, you know going to school,whether it's hitting a gym
afterwards being, you know,doing your grocery runs or gas
filling up your gas tank becauseof your commute to work,
whatever it may be.
But then just imagine nowwaking up where it all changes
for you in a flash.
(01:07):
Our guest today exactly had thatkind of situation happen.
He was just a 17-year-oldplaying, you know fun,
gregarious outgoing guy,outgoing guy used to play cards,
(01:30):
get together with friends,watch movies, go out, date all
that.
You know all that what a highschool guy does.
And he also was a jock playedmany sports and it was Christmas
break, december of 1979.
And it was the day afterChristmas and sunshine is out,
(01:51):
some snow on the ground.
Weather was good enough to gettogether with a group of the
guys go out and play somefootball.
There was a group of 12 peopleand they were all playing
football together and he gottackled.
But unlike any tackle he's beenthrough before, this is a
tackle that monumentally changedhis life.
(02:15):
Here to discuss this is Brian PSwift.
He is a coach, he is a lawyer.
He is a coach, he is a lawyer,he has a radio show, wjol, out
in Will County, he is a father,he is a husband and you know he
(02:37):
also never let circumstancesdefine him.
Instead, he wanted to definehis circumstances, and the
circumstance we are talkingabout and the situation we're
talking about is that tacklethat he suffered that day,
december 26, 1979, was one thatleft him with a C6 quadriplegic.
(03:03):
That left him with a C6quadriplegic.
So, here to discuss all this,please, let's welcome Brian P
Swift.
Brian, thank you for being heretoday.
Sonia, thank you very much forhaving me.
No, thank you, thank you.
So, going back in your life now, you wrote this book and I
(03:25):
really recommend everybody readthis.
It's called Up.
You talk about being dragged byyour feet that day when you
were playing with the group ofthe guys.
Do you have any memory of theplay-by-play in real time?
What had actually?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
happened happened, circumstances, what landed you?
I do and and actually it's sovivid because it wasn't a tough
hit.
Actually I got tackled frombehind.
So I remember a guy hanging onmy leg and then another guy
coming in and like kind ofgrabbing my waist.
So the reality of it was therewere times when in in athletic
terms, you got lit up, I mean,somebody hit you so hard.
(04:10):
You know, this wasn't one ofthose.
This was like I got somebodygrabbed one of my legs, somebody
grabbed me around the waist andI just went down, um, so it
wasn't one of those like wowhits.
You know where you hear peoplego, oh, and you're wondering if
the guy's going to get up andremember what happened.
(04:31):
This was just gosh, it was sosimple.
Nobody fell on my head, nobodyfell on my neck.
I didn't hit my head, I didn'thit my neck.
But you know, after everybodygot off, um, and I went to try
to get up, there was no gettingup.
So I was laying there andthought, okay, maybe it was what
(04:55):
some people call stinger, whereit's almost like a concussion
to your spine and it takes acouple minutes for you to kind
of recover from it, but I mean,after a minute I knew it was
something worse than that, and Iwasn't in pain at that time, I
just couldn't feel anything.
So, yeah, I shipped.
(05:15):
A couple guys ran off to makephone calls Because there was no
cell phones in those days.
So they had to hop in theircars and we were only five
minutes from the house.
So it was get my parents callan ambulance.
And, you know, none of us hadan idea.
I think we all feared the worst, which was I broke my C6
(05:35):
vertebrae and, you know, in aheartbeat became a quadriplegic
became a quadriplegic and youhad to have surgery where they
took bone out of your hip tofuse your neck.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yes, and that's when they had confirmed that it was
quadriplegic, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Exactly Because of the nature of the break and
anything above the C level,which is C1 through C7, you're
quadriplegic, means you'reparalyzed from the neck down.
What they don't know is, oncethe swelling goes down, how much
you'll regain.
But what they do know is a C2will be able to move, you know,
(06:20):
if the best case scenario is,you know, say, a c5 should be
able to get some arm movementback, maybe some wrist movement,
no hands, blah, blah, blah.
C6 will get this back, a c7will get this back.
And you're kind of likestatistically um labeled, which
I get, they have to kind of giveyou an understanding of what
(06:43):
could be that scenario.
And they're pretty back thenthey were pretty upfront with
kind of saying you probablyaren't going to walk, but
there's always that miraclechance.
And you know this is now, don'tforget, this is 1979.
It was a long time ago.
So, yeah, you were let knownright away.
(07:04):
And then, after the surgery,they put a halo brace on you
which is what you see, where itcomes way down on your chest,
way down and back, and then fourscrews get screwed into your
skull to keep everything frommoving.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Right and you used to talk about this is when, now,
after the surgery, that's whenyou felt the pain in your neck.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Absolutely Like.
It wasn't when I got hurt.
It wasn't even like the dayafter the surgery.
It was like and that could havebeen because of the medication
they give you, you know what Imean, you're kind of doped up
and whatnot.
So it was several days laterand then, after about a week of
(07:51):
being in the hospital, I waslucky enough to go to RIC, which
is now the Shirley ReinabilityLab, which was a premier spinal
cord injury facility in its timeand hard to get into.
I was blessed to get into itand that's where rehab starts
and unfortunately, that's alsowhen, you know, the pain really
(08:13):
started to kick in.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
And you spent your time at the Rehabilitation
Institute of Chicago, what itwas known back then, now known
as Cheryl Ryan, but back thenand you spent, you took a lot of
classes.
Now, from my understanding, youtook occupational therapy, you
had physical therapy, and thisis where you were learning to
kind of use your hands, again,trying to move your arms,
(08:38):
because you had discussed, youknow, after your injury you were
only able to move your armsfour inches at best, side to
side Right, and so what was thatprocess like?
To be in the RehabilitationInstitute and go through the
process of everything?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, you know what?
This may sound odd, but it's asafe place because you're in
there with lots of similarpeople or worse.
There are also some people thatare in better situations, but
you're all kind of in the samesituation.
You're surrounded byspecialists, so it's a very safe
place and you're kind of tryingto get some normalcy into your
(09:25):
life, which is tough for thefirst month because you know
it's about okay.
Is your bladder going to work?
Are your bowels going to work?
A lot of those things don'twork.
You lose use of your diaphragm.
You cannot.
You only have like 40% lungusage.
So even talking like we are now, I would have to stop and take
(09:48):
breaths like every sentence,like really force that breath
because your diaphragm isparalyzed.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So you're really learning just how to deal with
your injury and hoping youregain some use and hoping you
regain some use, and it seemedto me that, even though, too,
(10:16):
from my understanding of whatyou wrote in Up, that
Rehabilitation Center was goingby a lot of what was driven by
statistics, right, absolutely.
So now we're talking 1980.
And we're.
You know the average cost totake care of somebody with
quadriplegia would have been$1.35 million average cost.
(10:37):
There was an 88% of peoplenever getting married, staying
single.
There was no statistics ofanybody with quadriplegia
getting married or having kids,much, let alone and I think the
statistics of like what, 24.3 orsomething around that range,
right of persona people gettinga job.
(10:59):
And you discussed that.
You know and I know for youthat was like also an uphill
battle to even want to do morein your rehabbing, such as
walking on parallel bars, goingswimming in the therapeutic pool
.
So tell me, like what wasdriving you?
You know you wanted to keepgoing for more.
(11:21):
So what do you feel was likethat driving force?
You're like, let me keep doingthis, let me push past this.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know, I think there's several things.
I think one thing was my faith,and it wasn't that I hoped I
would walk.
I always kept that in the backof my mind, but it was just give
me the strength and the wisdomto deal with this.
And, as my mom would say, whowas my faith?
(11:53):
And drove?
All that was?
I never sat around trying tofigure out why.
As my mom would say, you know,things happen for a reason.
We don't always know what it is, and even if we did, it doesn't
change anything.
So I really grabbed onto thatand said you're right, you know
you're right.
So now, what can I do to goforward?
(12:16):
How do I get back up?
You know that's the whole book.
You know getting up is the keyto life.
Right, I mean, everybody'sgoing to get knocked down, but
getting up is the key to lifeand moving forward.
And then it was my dad who wasthis just like try and think of
the way to describe him.
He was this man that hadabsolutely no tolerance for
(12:40):
being told what can and can't bedone for his kids, and he
really drove.
That you know.
Okay, you know how much arepeople.
You know, when I was liftingweights, which were just these
five pound weights.
At one point you know he'dpoint out look at that, look at
that guy over there, he's gottwo sets on.
You know, look at that guy overthere, he's lifting a lot more
(13:03):
than you.
You know, look at that guy overthere, he's lifting a lot more
than you.
And so for me it was um,wanting to show him I can do
more and be more.
But that all came after aconversation, a one-way
conversation with my dad, andthat conversation was in January
, the middle of January, and hecame up to visit me and he took
(13:29):
his coat off, sat down and afterabout 10 minutes he went over
and got his coat.
And my guess was and I don'tremember the conversation, but
my guess was I was probably notin the best spirits, I was
probably a little salty, why Iwas turning 18 at the end of the
month and this was not how Ihad planned to spend my 18th
birthday.
Right, I mean, 18 is that wasthat age of even more freedom
(13:52):
and adulthood.
I'm spending mine sitting there, not able to feed myself, not,
you know, peeing into a tubehooked up to.
You know all the stuff, notbeing able to do much, not to
what I had planned.
He came over to the side of thetable where I was sitting.
He looked down and said youknow, if I ever come up here
again and you're not smiling,I'll turn around and leave and
(14:14):
won't come up again.
He said and these are I meanverbatim, almost it is your
responsibility to keep thisfamily up.
He said it is yourresponsibility to keep this
family happy and to keep thisfamily going.
Said if you are smiling, wewill all be okay.
(14:34):
If you're up, we will all beokay, but it is your
responsibility to stay smilingand to keep this family happy.
Took his coat off, sat down,had lunch.
We chatted Don't remember what.
Nothing ever was said about it.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And when you reflect back on that conversation, how
did that make you feel to knowthat your father put that
responsibility in your hands andsaid that it was up to you to
keep the family going and keepthe smile and to keep a positive
?
Speaker 2 (15:12):
upward attitude.
You know, in that sarcastictone I was thinking, yeah, sure,
is there anything else I coulddo?
You know what I mean.
You know what else can I do foryou guys?
But that lasted about a secondor two.
I really didn't think about ituntil probably that night, when
I was probably more, you know inmy room alone thinking and
(15:35):
reliving the conversation andthinking he's right, he's right,
he's 100% right, he's right,he's a hundred percent right.
That that you know.
I didn't like to be around someof the patients because they
were cranky, they weredepressing, they were they, they
were just downers and eventhinking of my friendships, like
(15:59):
we all had this fun, spiritedway of moving forward, laughing,
enjoying life, and if I wasgoing to take this accident,
like it wasn't going to be methat broke up my family and it
wasn't going to be me thatbecame that person that I saw a
lot around the rehab.
That, you know, just bitter,salty.
(16:21):
Life's too short and peopledon't believe this, but I've
never prayed or asked God tohelp me walk.
I've asked him to give me thewisdom and strength to deal
whatever life throws at me.
It's all I've asked him for andhe has blessed me with that and
(16:42):
I thank him every day, on agood day, I thank him On a bad
day.
I thank him because I've beengiven this ability to just keep
moving forward mentally,spiritually, emotionally,
physically, to just keep movingforward.
And that's what I base a lot ofmy coaching, my executive
(17:02):
coaching, even business coaching, on is how do we move forward?
Something's going to happen,right.
And then the question I askpeople is now what I was
thinking about now what I got inan accident?
Now what I got a flat tire, nowwhat Life's about figuring out
solutions?
It's about now what yeah, youbroke your leg, now what?
(17:23):
Now you broke your neck.
Now what you got divorced, nowwhat.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Now, what's the best way to move forward in a healthy
fashion?
You had to cope with and youtalking about moving forward in
the best way.
What did?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
you find was your best way to move forward.
Well, I, you know I probablywould have went into the trades
If I didn't get hurt.
I come from a very blue collarfamily background.
A lot of my dad's friends hadgreat, successful families and
enjoyed life that were in thetrades.
Well, I was going into thetrades, now, right.
(18:20):
So it was like I am not goingto spend my time dragging my
parents down taking care of memy whole life.
So what's the natural course?
You know they're like well,people need to get educations.
Okay.
So finished up high school.
I had enough credits.
(18:43):
I finished up high school theday I got home after four months
in the rehab on a Friday.
That Monday I went back to highschool for three weeks to
graduate.
After I graduated three weeks,it was one day of summer, one
week of summer and then Istarted junior college and I got
picked up by the bus and I gotdriven to college and the first
day I think my mom went with mejust to see if I could push
around and find, you know, makesure I knew where the rooms were
(19:05):
.
And I just started that journey.
I knew it was my success wasgoing to be through my faith and
getting an education.
That's how I was going to beatthose statistics.
And I had a girlfriend thatstayed with me after I got hurt,
and so I kept looking at youknow, I kept looking at what.
(19:26):
Now, what can I do Now?
What can I do Now?
What can I do Now?
What can I do?
I'm tired.
I worked out hard, but whatelse can I do?
You know, it's been a long day.
It's the first time I pushedthat much up at school.
I got home, you eat.
Now what can I do?
Should I go out into the garageand work out?
Yeah, you know, you God, youreally pushed yourself hard
today.
Yeah, that's what I need to do.
(19:51):
I do.
I have anything left?
I don't know.
Let's go figure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Let's go find out.
And for you I know that um soyou were doing high school still
, while you were in the rehab.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, they had you go to certain classes high school
classes and I think it was yourbasic classes.
I know I had a math class highschool classes and I think it
was your basic classes.
I know I had a math class, anEnglish class, maybe another one
, so outside of OT and PT, andthen strength training you had I
had two high school classes andwhen you went back to school,
how did people receive youcoming back?
(20:25):
You know, I mean, obviously Ihad a pretty decent group of
friends and they were allencouraging in there and I think
they were, you know, like howdo we treat you and how do we
talk about you.
But it didn't take long forthem to realize it was the same
old sarcastic Swifty that theyknew for all the years.
(20:47):
It was, you know, I joked aboutstuff.
I mean I, you know I would makethem feel bad.
You know they'd say something.
I'd be like, oh, I can'tbelieve you said that in front
of me.
And then you know, they'd belike, oh, and I'd be looking,
going you're a meathead, youknow they don't bother me.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, so it seems like you had pretty positive
reception um people are beingvery um empathic, um so, and I
also understand like you alsowent through your stages of
grief, you know, with the injury, and in that, did you ever have
(21:27):
any resentment towards the guythat attacked you, I mean that
tackled you?
Rather, did you have anyresentment towards?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
No, no, I mean I.
I I played the sport so longI've tackled guys and hurt their
knees.
I've tackled guys and and giventhem concussions.
It's part of the game.
And no, they didn't do anythingwrong.
So I was so focused on movingforward that I didn't care, like
that didn't matter, I didn'thave.
(21:55):
You know, this negativity is itwill rob you of energy, of hope
, of faith, of I didn't havetime for that and I don't think
I dealt like I never had that.
I never went into a rabbit holewith my injury.
I didn't have time to.
(22:16):
I stayed so darn busy that Ididn't allow myself to really
fall into a dark hole with myinjury.
And I mean just to give you anidea, I mean, the household I
lived in.
There was no sitting in yourbedroom.
I mean growing up, you couldn'teven shut your bedroom door.
We had no TVs in the bedroom.
(22:37):
We had no radio.
The bedroom was a place tosleep.
You were out with family or youwere out with guests.
I mean, and to give you afurther idea of my dad's mindset
, probably four or five monthsafter I got home from the
hospital, I was in the kitchenwith my mother and I think I was
(22:57):
being sarcastic with her and Iknow it was hot and quads don't
deal with heat well, because wedon't sweat.
My dad had come in the frontdoor and he must have heard
something I said and just hetook it in a different context,
I think, than what was said,because my mom was even kind of
(23:18):
surprised.
He said it and, I think,explained to him no, he wasn't,
that's not what he was kind of,you know.
But he walked through thekitchen and said you know, if
you're looking for sympathy, youcould find it in the dictionary
between shit and syphilis.
And then he kept walking andwent out to the family room,
turned on the TV and sat down.
I mean, you know you weren'tgetting sympathy in my house.
(23:41):
I had plenty of love and I hadplenty of empathy, but dad
wasn't a sympathetic dude and Inever expected it from him.
I knew he loved me and I knewhe felt for me, knowing what I
was going through, but he wouldnever show it why that
generation didn't, and it's asign of weakness.
(24:04):
I mean, what is the best thingI've done for my three kids?
I get up every day and I wentto work and I came home with a
smile.
I woke up with a smile and Icame home after working eight,
10 hours and changed clothes anddrove them to their sports or
(24:24):
played catch with them.
The best thing you could do forpeople around you is live by
example and show people whatyou're made of.
That's how you build resilience, that's how you build pride,
that's how you build character.
That's how you build respect.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
That's what I was going to do and so a lot of this
was, too, you know, so a lot ofit seems rooted too in your
upbringing of there was nowhereto go but forward, and that was
ingrained in you young.
And so when it came time totest that in yourself which,
(25:04):
when people are faced with anykind of adversity, that's what
they're, you know, kind ofpushed to do, in what they're,
you know, kind of pushed to doin one way, shape or form Right,
when it came time to do that,you had a basis in some ways
that you were able to tap intoand be like okay, this is the
only place I'm going to go isupward, right, there's no
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I mean, don't forget, I came from the generation
where you learned how to swimwhen your dad threw you in the
deep end.
I mean, don't forget, I camefrom the generation where you
learned how to swim when yourdad threw you in the deep end.
I mean that was the way lifewas right.
I mean, you know, you gotthrown in the deep end and it's
like swim, you know and I don'tmean that just figuratively, I
mean that's the way a lot of uslearn how to swim.
You know you go to the beach,your dad would throw you off the
(25:47):
end of the pier swim.
You know you go to the beach,your dad would throw you off the
end of the pier.
Not that you were a greatswimmer, but you know he was.
Like this is how you learn toswim, right, you?
You get neck deep.
Which way do you want to go?
Um, and it just.
It was a great way to grow up,though, because like there was
no, like it was black or white,and it was either swim or sink.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Um, it just the way it was.
You figured it out.
They put you in circumstanceswhere you just figured it out.
You grew up, and even I grew upto some extent growing up in
the 80s and 90s.
Here to how kids are growing upnow you talk about certain
things you see being lost intranslation.
What do you find is the biggestdifference nowadays?
(26:38):
Lack of cope?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Yeah, I don't believe they know how to cope.
I don't believe they know howto solve a problem, solve.
I don't know how they find anypeace and joy because
everything's been handed to them.
I shouldn't say everything.
A lot of stuff has been handedto them and we do it under the
guise of well, they play sports.
(27:03):
Sports can take up a lot oftime.
Well, he's in choir, well,she's in band, and, trust me, I
know how much time those thingstake.
Sure, they take too much timebecause it robs families from
family time.
But my kids did all that and Istill held them accountable to
(27:24):
do things that cut the lawn.
I mean my kids.
They've used every power toolimaginable.
They've cut down 40-foot trees.
They've cut the lawn sincethey've all been in their early
teens.
This empowers them to feel goodabout themselves.
(27:45):
It empowers them to feelconfident.
You don't build the qualitiestoday by handing people
everything I don't know.
You know they're not in thepresent anymore, the kids today,
and I think there's a hugesense of entitlement.
You know that we didn't have.
(28:09):
You probably didn't see it.
You probably can tell thedifference in your generation to
now and not that we're.
You know, I'm much older thanyou but I agree with you.
You came probably from more mystyle of our parents versus the
style today.
You were just empowered.
You didn't go to your parentsand say you were bored.
(28:31):
God, if I went to my dad andsaid I was bored, he'd hand me
some tools and say go cut thegrass, go paint the garage.
There was no can I go do.
It just was different, and itwas different in a good way.
I think there was more familytime.
I grew up with my grandparents.
I had to help them out.
They lived three houses away.
(28:52):
It just built and in doing youbuild confidence and you build a
lot of great characteristics.
I think a lot of that's missing.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And that's a very insightful view that you have,
and because you are veryobservant and one of the things
that you know, you have saidthat the injury had led you to
was being more observant, likegoing and observing football
practice at the park, going andseeing things and so going to,
(29:25):
you know, I know you startedcoaching actually when you were
in college and you talk about avery important person in your
life, sister Dennis, I believeyes, and she actually was a very
instrumental driving force foryou in deciding career path and
(29:46):
education and moving forward.
So you went to college.
Now you had the original planbefore injury of being either
like a Piper or like Trisha,growing up in the tray, you know
, because you also describedyourself as not a school person.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I'm not.
I was never viewed as I mean.
I never viewed myself as smartand I know I never took school
serious enough.
I was first generation college.
I mean, you know my, mygrandparents went to grammar
school, I know they I don't evenknow if they finished.
My parents, same thing, I meanSame thing, I mean.
(30:36):
So we were first generationcollege, let alone having now to
have confidence that I'm smartenough, and that's probably one
area I didn't.
But you know what?
I worked hard.
I finished junior college intwo years, got my associate
degree, started my four yeardegree at St Xavier University
and two years later graduated.
And the Sister Dennis part of itwas, you know, my senior year
going what do you want to do?
You know I was a criminaljustice and business major.
(30:59):
And she's like well, I'm goingto, you know.
And I was like I'm not totallysure she goes.
Well, you know what, you'regoing to go to law school.
And I was like, yeah, that'sfunny, sister, I'm not.
You know, I'm not that guy, I'mnot that like, I'm not that guy
.
And she goes no, you're goingto go to law school, come to my
office, you know.
And she was this I don't know,five foot seven, you know, 90
(31:21):
pound wet nun that weren't, youknow, had the habit and just
like, floated through the placeand she was well-known, she was
a staple of that collegeuniversity campus and she said I
(31:41):
want you to see me after school.
You went to Sister Dennis'soffice and I went in there and
she's like, well, this is whatwe're going to do.
And it was not even an ask,almost it was like this is what
you're going to do.
Okay, the LSAT, which is thelaw school entrance exam, is
going to be in.
You know, it's offered thistime and this time.
(32:02):
Well, this time you should,you're going to take it this
time.
That gives you time to take acourse.
Here's the information on theprep course.
You know, I went home and itwas like, uh, um, sister Dennis
said I should go to law schooland I think even my parents were
like, yeah, that's funny,that's a good one, that's a good
one, brian, you know.
(32:22):
So I was like, no, this is whatshe wants.
And you know, after a while Istarted saying why not me?
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You know, after a while I started saying why not
me?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Why not me?
I took the LSAT.
I didn't do great on it.
I took it again, did muchbetter, and I got into three
different law schools and I wasoff to DePaul College of Law and
three and a half years later Igraduated.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, and I remember you talking about you.
Later I graduated yeah, and Iremember you talking about you.
Know your law school experience, you know, and you know having
a study partner that reallyhelped you in grad school.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
How to study, because it's.
You know, when you go to lawschool, it's not your simple
regurgitation, right, you readand regurgitate material.
It's a completely different waythat you go to law school.
It's not your simpleregurgitation, right, you read
and regurgitate material.
It's a completely different waythat you have to think.
And you know, I actuallyremember the fact pattern that
you gave an example of andtalking about, like somebody was
(33:23):
driving 25 miles an hour in a25 mile hour speed zone, a
little nine-year-old goes,chases after a ball and doesn't
really pay attention to the roadand the person has to swerve
and then another guy who'sspeeding hits the car and then
knocks into a pole that wasdefective and then just a cold
(33:44):
causal chain oh my gosh yeah Iremember reading that I oh my
God, this is bringing back likememories because I did law
school too and it was totally Iwas just thinking off the bat
top of my head okay, productliability here, negligence,
negligence.
I was thinking what possible Icould think of and it's tough.
(34:08):
It's tough and I can totallyempathize and I think you know a
lot of people, especially thosewho went to law school, can
empathize with you when they,you know, when they, when you
talk about that struggle of youknow having to, you know, have
all this reading and you knowhaving to memorize things or
especially the different lawsand how things are applied in
(34:30):
different, maybe key court cases.
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
And I think I did more reading in one semester of
law school than probably twoyears of junior college.
I mean you know the amount ofreading you do.
I mean it's insane, it'sabsolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
But one thing I found interesting, though you talk
about your third year electiveand so in college you were a
criminal justice and businessmajor.
You talk about taking CrimProyour last year of college and
you were not that interested init.
So I'm a little bit curious toknow what what happened.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Well, you know what you know.
Negotiations I wanted to addsomething to my resume besides
went to three years of lawschool.
So negotiations was a part ofwas an extracurricular thing
that you couldn't do andbasically it was like, you know,
(35:25):
a mock negotiation.
You got a set of facts and Iwas like, oh dude, you know one
of my other friends I go, haveyou done anything?
Now, the guy who helped methrough law school, my good
friend, he was in law review.
So this dude was smart, crazy,at a level that I've never seen
before.
But I had another friend whowas kind of like me.
(35:46):
It was way smarter.
But we're, like, you know,thinking now you're thinking of
graduating, where are you goingto apply for?
What are you going to do?
Have you done anythingextracurricular?
And I'm like, heck, no, youknow, I took every ounce of
energy just to get through lawschool.
We're like, let's do thisnegotiation thing.
Oh man, today's the last dayfor signups.
Just sign us up, we'll figureit out.
(36:08):
Right, you know, at least wecould say we did it and we went
into it and it, trust me, oncewe got, we got, we were able to
get into the competition and itwas an inter-school competition
and you had three sets ofnegotiations that you did in a
law.
You did it actually in a, in alegal setting, so you were in a
(36:31):
court-like setting, and younegotiated with two other people
and I'll even I remember thefirst time we did it.
We were representing nurses,the other people were
representing the union, and sowe did it, and you don't know
how well you do, because afterlike two days they just
announced you know the top threepeople, top three teams.
(36:52):
So you know it was, you knowteam.
You know I remember you know itwas team three, team two, and
we ended up winning the DePaulLaw School negotiation
competition, which meant we wenton to regionals.
So we went on to regionals,held in this beautiful hotel,
and we had to negotiate againstteams like Northwestern and and,
(37:14):
and, uh, university of Illinoisand and so it was all around.
So it was you know Notre Dameand all you know like 16 premier
law schools.
So we went on to that and wewere like, oh, this is awesome,
we get to put this down on aresume, right.
So we went and again him and Ijust clicked.
(37:36):
We worked.
Well, you know we go in thereand you know I've got my
briefcase that's been beat upbecause it's fallen off my lap
400 times.
I'm wearing the same suit Iprobably wore senior year, you
know.
Or maybe I got a new suit forgraduation.
You know these guys are comingin and you know designer
three-piece suits $70 ties Iprobably got my $13 tie that I
(37:59):
got from God knows where.
But we work well together and Iremember being at the end of the
two-day competition, sittingthere with the professor because
he was all pretty psyched, andsitting there when they read the
results.
We're in a huge, beautiful,ornate room and they read the
(38:21):
results and third place waswhatever it was.
It was something a you know lawschool of, you know high old
law school and I I rememberlooking at my partner going, oh,
like dang, if we would havejust gotten third place, like
that would have been cool, youknow, because we felt we'd done
pretty well.
And then second place was, youknow, uh, whatever, notre dame,
(38:45):
you know, and they were like youknow, and they were like, oh,
you know, like, all right, let'sget a drink.
You know, like, because we justfigured, okay, we're hoping for
second or third would be kindof cool.
I'll never forget it the waythat I said it was and, believe
it or not, that the regionalnegotiation champions are from
(39:10):
DePaul college of law, brian andElvada, brian Swift and Elva
I'm trying to remember how topronounce his name Elvado
Sanchez.
We didn't even like catch it,like cause we had started to.
There was a buyer next to, sowe had gone up to the bar to get
(39:32):
a drink and and like I don'teven remember hearing it right
away, and then we look at eachother and we were like did they
just say our names?
Well, the, the, the professor'scoming up to us, my, my wife's
coming up to us, his wife likeoh my God, and I do.
(39:54):
You know what?
The first thing I said to theprofessor I guess this gets me
my A.
So it was one of, so I, it wasmy only class I got an A in in
law school.
I'm not ashamed to say thatbecause I worked extremely hard,
you know, and he laughed and wewent on to regional competition
and it was probably one of theproudest moments of my life
(40:16):
because we worked real hard forit and it just shows you like we
didn't have the expectations towin.
What a shame, you know, weworked hard.
But we just didn't have thoseexpectations and I don't know,
maybe that helped us, maybe thatkept us loose, I don't know.
But here we are now and ourstory gets bigger because we're
off to nationals in Philadelphia.
(40:38):
So yeah, it's a great, greatstory.
Sorry to drag it on.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
No, no, I remember reading that and I just felt so
happy and so proud of you.
Thank you, I have caught in.
One theme that I've caught sofar in the theme of your book
was whatever you saw as achallenge was also another
(41:05):
opportunity for you, right,absolutely Whatever you put in
your mind, you just went for it,you manifested it and you went
for it right.
So it was like you had this,because you even wrote this in
your book I was determined toget an A before I graduate law
school.
Right, you did it.
You know you.
(41:26):
You know you talk about, youknow, wanting to do better in
law school.
You did better in law school,right, your first semester, with
the grades being what they wereto, pulling them up and getting
a better GPA, you know.
So, everything that you've done, you know, it seems like you
know.
It started, you know, with thatmindset and mentality of I am
(41:49):
going to do this, I want to dothis, I'm going to this, I'm
going to, you know, absolutely.
You know, and I just feel likeyou know.
I have this one quick questionI've been dying to ask, though.
Okay, ask away so you, okay, I'mgonna sound like the biggest
(42:10):
nerd right now, but well, I am anerd, I don't care.
Okay, yeah, I'm brown after all.
Okay, okay, that's a funny jokefor everybody out there.
All right, um, you tookcriminal justice, did crim pro.
When you took it, did it remindfruit of the poisonous tree
search and seizure, likelearning, basically, cop life
(42:33):
basically, even though I thinkthe cases now would be outdated
with some of the ways that someof the cases, especially when it
pertains to certain kinds ofsubstances that people are
getting.
Sure, that's not applicable intoday's day.
(42:54):
That's not applicable intoday's day, but, um, you know,
like the whole idea of you know,just like, even like
surveillance, what's a search?
All that Did?
It did any of like?
Maybe you know what you learnedin your earlier days.
Come back for you what was that?
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it was a lot of what Ihad done in college and it was
basic because, like you said, itwas less about the rule of the
law Don't get me wrong, theytalked about it but it was more
about the situations.
Yes, right, I mean it was moresituational and that for me was
(43:31):
way easier to remember some ofthat stuff.
The situations, what isprobable cause?
I mean I don't know if that'sreally changed, I mean to a
degree.
I'm sure things have changed tosome degrees, I could say.
But you know what is areasonable search and seizure,
what you know, what is in plainview, what constitutes, you know
(43:53):
?
So everything was, it wassituational and I was able, and
those situations stuck with me.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yes, yes, and for all those listeners who don't maybe
necessarily understand some ofthe legal language here, fruit
of the poisonous tree refers towhen a cop seizes things into
evidence that is based off anillegal search and the seizure
therefore is unlawful.
Because the search and seizure,because of the way that it was
(44:20):
unlawful from the get-go, yes,uh, plain view exception if you
have, let's say, weapons thatare open in a?
Um state where that's illegal,and if a cop can see it, um, in
plain view, um, they don't needa search warrant at that point
because they can see it um.
(44:42):
So, like an automobile, forexample, that's best way to put
it.
That's how I remembered it.
Um, you know probable cause,you know reasonable suspicion if
you were doing something thatyou know is gives rise to
criminal activity, right?
exactly that, um, you know thatstuff miranda and messiah rights
(45:03):
.
Miranda rights that's beforewhen you are getting your rights
read to you.
Messiah rights is after you'vebeen accused.
So, yep, this is what I rememberof that, that's how you're
right remember, because I likedit so much I took it twice in
law school.
That means I failed it thefirst time.
Everybody, okay, proud moments,all right, but yes, yeah, so I
(45:29):
mean that's so.
Did you so when you were doingyour majors?
So you went into a firm afterlaw school, you went to you, you
got into a firm where you weredoing criminal appeals criminal
law and personal injury criminallaw and personal injury.
You were doing court appeals.
Um how long did you work in thelegal field before you switch?
(45:53):
Because I know that you hadswitched into sales at one point
.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, I went, you know, probably two years.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Okay, and what was the deciding point that you were
like you know what this ismaybe not necessarily my jam,
you know and what of it you know.
And and when you reflect backon this too, you know, I know,
like the sister dentist reallykind of instilled in you, hey,
come to law school, do this.
When you reflect back, wasthere something perhaps that you
(46:21):
may have were thinking about,maybe dabbling into, but didn't
pursue because you admire, yourespected sister dentist so much
and you respected how she wastrying to guide you.
You just went for it.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
you respected how she was trying to guide you, you
just went for it.
Yeah, I mean I always wanted tobe part of a big corporation
and help run it, so that wasalways in my mind from a
business standpoint.
Plus, you know, I'll tell you.
You know, remembering themoment I opened the acceptance
letter and seeing I don't thinkI've ever seen tears come out of
(46:57):
my dad's eyes but twice in mylife, three times and just
seeing how proud him and my momwere, I mean I was going.
I mean I was going to lawschool.
It was a done deal.
So about two, you know what,two years into it, I wasn't, it
wasn't my jam and there weresome other things.
What, two years into it, Iwasn't, it wasn't my jam and
(47:20):
there were some other things,but I took my talents and said,
I know I could do a lot of otherthings.
I mean, I'm an asset, you know,and I tried to get into a
training program and runtraining.
But they're like, everybodystarts in sales.
So I went into sales and Ikilled it.
I mean, I was rookie of theyear.
I had, you know, in my firstfive years I had exceeded
(47:42):
expectations.
Four out of the five went ontrips and I mean, life was good,
I was rocking and rolling andthat led me to, you know,
promotions into training,running training, developing
training programs, which led meto promotions into running teams
(48:04):
.
You know bigger teams and youknow, then that led me to
promotions of running.
You know divisions and kind ofwhat I'd always thought about,
you know.
I mean, before I left corporate, I was on the 27th floor of the
Aeon building.
You know, right on MichiganAvenue, my office overlooked the
(48:25):
lake.
What else can you ask for?
I'm a dude in a wheelchair,that's not smart.
And I'm sitting on the 27thfloor with a corner office.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
You refer to yourself as not smart a couple times, so
I want to know how do youdefine smart?
Because intelligence is verysubjective too.
So I want to know how to definesmart, because you called
yourself not smart a coupletimes now, and the therapist in
me, because I left law too and Iwent and became a therapist.
(48:57):
You know, given you know justmy life circumstances, what I've
been through in my life andbeing on the autism spectrum, I
felt like that would be a greatplace for me to make impact.
But you, you know, and one ofthe things we learned is
intelligence.
There's two types right.
So there's crystallizedintelligence, right, that you
born with.
(49:17):
There's that amount you're bornwith, and then there's that
fluid intelligence, intelligenceyou develop along the way.
I want to know for you how areyou defining smart?
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Well, I didn't have that built-in intelligence where
, like you just got good gradesand you didn't have to work
crazy hard and everything I andyou didn't have to work crazy
hard and everything I,everything you know, I had to
work crazy.
Like I was a C student and mymindset was C's, get degrees,
which is a horrible, horribleway to look at things, and I
(49:47):
would not share that with mykids by any stretch, because I
wanted them to work hard.
And if work hard men, you gottasee I'm good with that.
But I know I didn't work hard.
Um, so I just guess I neverviewed myself as being like that
, like that, um, like that lawschool smart like that.
(50:09):
You know, like I said, myfriend was in law review.
Um, that was a different kindof smart to me, which I was not.
But I knew that I could outworkanybody.
I knew that when push came toshove I could do enough.
So now you've got what's betterto be really smart or to have
(50:33):
this will and grit mindset?
Well, the ultimate answer isboth, but would be both right,
and very few people have both.
I had that will and gritmindset that most people will
never, ever, ever be able tokeep up with you cannot.
(50:59):
You'll back in there that youcould not keep up with me
studying, working, thinking,whatnot.
So I was, I guess I alwaysmaybe a different kind of smart,
and I knew that after lawschool.
I realized, okay, you'resmarter than you thought and you
can accomplish anything you setyour mind to, regardless of
(51:21):
your circumstance.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So you know, and that's why I wanted to just
challenge you on that a littlebit about that use of not smart,
because everybody hasintelligence, but in different
ways.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
And I feel like you know what.
Even you know.
I know you gave this example.
You know you could get good.
You know you're not one ofthose people who are able to get
good grades and not really haveto like study or do a lot of
work, but truth of the matter isa lot of these people who are
smart, right that you think arenot doing it.
They're probably.
You know, you'll be surprisedhow many people are reading when
(51:57):
nobody's watching.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
Right, no, I agree.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
Yeah, you know there's they're probably doing
this when no one is watching,cause I remember people used to
brag about this a lot when I wasyounger and I talked to a
family friend about this and shesaid you know what, sonia,
these people, I bet you this, Ican bet any money to you right
now they're reading somethingwhen no one is watching them,
right, like, so I mean, she'slike, don't buy into that story
(52:22):
if they're bragging about this,because a lot of times it's not
even the case, right, and so youknow, and I feel like this is
kind of weird, but you know, butyou know, and your, your
intelligence.
The thing is, you know, and onething that is a defining moment
for you is how you know.
You had things in you all alongright, and all of this grit,
(52:47):
all of the mentality you had,the strength, you had the
perseverance, the will to pushforward, all of this was in you.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
The will to push forward.
All of this was in you.
You develop it to the levellike I guess it's like a great
sculpture, they say, if somebodywho is a great sculptor, the
(53:16):
artwork, the David that comesout, was in that chunk of marble
.
It's chipping away these pieceson the outside that reveal it.
And chipping it away means youknow getting outside your
comfort zone.
It means testing your limits.
It means you know dealing withthe fear factor and going beyond
it.
It means pushing yourself.
That's all chipping away todiscover what's really down in
(53:39):
sight.
Most people don't do that.
They don't have to because,let's face it, our human nature
is to run from pain and hardcircumstances.
I am the one meathead that runto pain and tough circumstances
because it has given me thisdivine ability to crush it, go
(54:04):
through it, go over it, goaround it.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yes, yes, and it's you know, and I also feel like
for you.
Anytime that there is a toughcircumstance, you're like okay,
another challenge, let's go.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Right, like you know, lace up the yeah, lace up the
boots, put on the gloves.
Let's see what we got.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
And you know so.
After law school, after you gotout, you know you were working,
you were studying for the bar.
I know that the bar exam wasquite difficult for everyone.
I also will join you in thisand say I did not pass it the
first time I took it.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:39):
And I know you were studying again for it, and it
was at that time you ended upgetting married.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
You moved into a house that you had kind of like
a fixer upper home.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
And so you get married, and then you have three
children you've adopted whenfrom?
Speaker 2 (55:02):
So my oldest son was adopted from the east side of
Chicago Okay, southeast side.
My next child is my daughter,sydney.
She was adopted from China, andthen my youngest son was
adopted from Guatemala.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
And what would you say has been like a defining
family memory for you, or likejust one memory that like, just
really stands out for you, justto remind you of your purpose
and to remind you of yourjourney and to remind you of all
(55:44):
of your strengths.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
I have so many of those and they all revolve
around family.
That's all about family.
One of my mantras is faith,family and friends, and you know
that has carried me because myfaith has blessed me and I've
tried to drive that into mychildren that that is the number
(56:10):
one thing you have.
On a good day you thank God.
On a bad day you thank them forwhat he's given you and family
slash health.
You know you have to work at itand nothing is easy.
If it's easy, it won't lastlong.
So you know, being able to takemy family on vacation when I
left corporate, one of my goalswas to spend more time with my
(56:31):
family.
In four years I took my family,including my mom and dad.
In four years I took my family,including my mom and dad, on
four vacations my mom and dad onevery one of them, you know to
Florida, to South Carolina.
We did a fishing vacation inCanada.
My goal was I'm spending timewith these people that have been
(56:53):
so blessed to help me get towhere I'm at that have been so
blessed to help me get to whereI'm at.
Speaker 1 (57:00):
You know, and it's like you know, it's also your
way of just showing yourgratitude, just showing your
love.
You know, it seems like that'slike a love language for you too
.
Yes, that time spent, you know,taking your family on vacation
as a way of showing time spenttogether, you know, to people
who supported you all along.
(57:21):
So, as we're wrapping this uphere, brian, what is one piece
of advice or encouragement youwould give to people who may be
in a rut in their life right now, maybe feeling down on
themselves, maybe feelingdisappointed about something or,
you know, just maybe not in agood headspace, what is
something you would tellsomebody?
Speaker 2 (57:44):
You know, I believe everybody has a beautiful story
inside of them that can unlocknot just their ability to live a
divine, inspired life, but helpothers and you can go from
being a mess to being blessed ifyou set your mind to it.
(58:05):
And that might mean a lot oflittle changes.
Maybe it's nothing big, butyou've got to want it and then
you got to seek it out andyou've got to surround yourself
with those people that will helpyou on that journey, because
nobody does it alone.
So if going help means findinga dietician, go get that
dietician.
Invest in yourself.
(58:26):
If you do not invest inyourself, your investments I
mean would you invest any amountof money without understanding
where it is and be checking onit?
We don't do that with ourselvesenough.
You want to be successful,invest in yourself.
Get a mentor, get a coach.
If you want to lose weight, geta dietician.
If you want to be inspired,surround yourself with five
(58:50):
people that are inspirational.
You are the sum of the fivepeople you surround yourself
with.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
And Brian, how can people find you number one if
they wanted to reach out to you,and how can they get a copy of
your book?
Speaker 2 (59:04):
Well, you could go, so find me first.
I'm on Facebook and LinkedInunder Brian P Swift, and I'm on
Instagram under the underscorequadfather, so you can find me
on almost all social media.
You can reach out to me atbswift62, b-s-w-i-f-t.
(59:25):
62 at comcastnet, and you cango to Amazon, barnes and Noble.
And actually my one book that Iwanted to write is now turned
into publishing my ninth bookabout a year and a half ago.
Speaker 1 (59:41):
Excellent, excellent.
And what drove you to writeyour story up?
What got you to tell your story?
What was that final breakingpoint that can help other people
break out and write their ownstories?
Speaker 2 (59:56):
So I wrote up.
Getting Up is the Key to Lifeis the full name of the book,
and I didn't write that to shinea light on me.
I wrote that book to help notjust people with disabilities
but the caretakers, theirparents, their brothers, their
sisters.
I wrote the book to help shinelight on other people's
(01:00:19):
situations and give them hope,and give them the opportunity to
see that there is a light atthe end of the tunnel, that you
can thrive despite whateveryou're dealing with, and give
them some steps, actionablesteps, to hopefully help them
(01:00:40):
get there.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Oh, thank you so much for your time today.
Brian, everyone, brian P Swift,we absolutely are blown away by
you, brian.
I mean, you're the only Swift Iwill be a Swifty for, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Not the musician but you.
Thank you, I will be a Swiftyfor, and I think you know,
anybody who has the chance tomeet you has a chance to hear
you speak.
He will be speaking at CreativeCon this February, this
(01:01:20):
February, and when I heard himspeak last February at
CreativeCon, everybody was blownaway.
I've even heard people be likewow in the audience.
He's just that good.
So I'm going to be speaking atCreativeCon this February at the
Intercontinental Hotel inChicago.
February 21st to the 23rd arethe dates of it.
Also, on February 21st will bemy book launch at Creative Con,
(01:01:43):
and so it's called Dropped in aMaze.
It'll be coming out soon If youhave not already.
Please subscribe and like Onthe Spectrum with Sonia podcast,
on the spectrum with Soniapodcast, um, and also tune in on
W J O L a M for Brian Swift'sum radio show, um and yes, and
(01:02:04):
share with your family, yourfriends, review, rate, subscribe
and, if you've enjoyed thisepisode, stay tuned for more
episodes further to come.
Thank you very much.
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