Born without arms, John Foppe has had to break down and re-engineer every aspect of day-to-day life. He learned that the inability to do something didn’t rest on the lack of resources or vision - it is the emotional reaction to meeting an obstacle, even a small one, head on.
In the field as part of his master’s degree in social work, John saw this scenario play out over and over. To his surprise, he discovered that some people are not willing to continue their improvement and instead have built systems supporting their perceived limitations. As a speaker, John also witnessed this resistant mindset operate in all sort of companies. He repeatedly heard leaders complain about how difficult is to motivate their people. John has addressed this challenge with a variety of solutions for effectively translate visions into outcomes. Among John’s answers, he has devised an approach he calls the "Ellipse"; a specific set of practices which mobilize one to circumnavigate problems and maintain the vision—to get results.
His compelling story and methods caught the attention of the legendary Zig Ziglar, who broke his long-standing rule of promoting from within and recruited and mentored John.
In 1995, John launched a successful training business that has taken him to 15 different countries, pro-football organizations like the Miami Dolphins, and to Fortune 500 clients such as Boeing, GE, and State Farm.
John’s insights on how the biggest vision can be derailed by the smallest bit of resistance are now being used to orchestrate the missions of visionaries and change agents around the world.
