Leveraging Love

As Founders we tenaciously work toward that place on the entrepreneurial journey where we find the ‘leverage line’.?We cross a tipping point where clarity, systems, and team converge and the slog for ‘1x’ results shifts to a ‘10x’ return on a collective effort.?From here, how we serve our clients and the positive impact our businesses can make becomes scalable.

What happens when a family leverages the love for a child to have a profound impact on hundreds of others?

My very good friends Megan and Anthony Elliott have two fantastic children, Lara and Max.?Confronted with the reality that Max wasn’t to be one of the 62% of Australian children under fifteen who participate in community sport, the Elliott’s decided to change things so that he could.

They chose the sport of rugby as a platform to broaden the boundaries of community for families of children with autism or learning & perceptual difficulties.?Working with the Brothers Rugby Union Club* in Brisbane, Megan & Anthony developed a thoughtfully curated version of the game that included a simple but critical ingredient; an on-field relationship between each player and a mentor, recruited from the host club’s junior ranks.?The ‘Modified Rugby Programme’ was launched in 2014.

Now, children like Max can be included in a community sport.?But, it’s not about the sport. the emphasis is community - children coming off the sidelines and their parents being on the sidelines, included in a strand of the fabric of Australian life that builds friendships, networks, confidence and delivers life shaping experiences.

The MRP is in its ninth season, with 335 players and PlayerMentors in 30 teams across 13 clubs in two states.

The love for Max that inspired the creation of the MRP has positively impacted the lives of all these players and their families, and having reached a tipping point of its own, will do for many more.

That’s what can happen when you leverage love. (And if you want to see the magic first hand, watch this.)

I am joinging Max, Anthony and a dozen other Modified Rugby Programme supporters and participants on the Trek-4-Inclusion from 5th-11th August 2022, where we will be walking the Laraipinta Trail in central Australia to raise funds to support the Gingercloud Foundation and its Modified Rugby Programme. Click here to support us.

(* As a former University of Queensland Rugby Club player my deep, tribal rivalry with Brothers has been tempered by their embrace of the ElIiott family and the Modified Rugby Programme.?Up the Red Heavies.)