Inside Personal Growth

In this podcast I  interview a very good friend, and someone that I admire, author and adventurer Michael McCafferty . His new book entitled ” The Spirit of Adventure”  is about his amazing adventure  in a Waco bi-plane around Europe, and while in this interview we speak about Michael’s adventures we also speak about life as a entrepreneur  and father.

Every since I have known Michael he as had a thing for planes and fast cars, not a bad thing to have a fascination with. I remember going to a party at his home in Borrego Springs, CA many years back and his home was a hanger (literally) and the plane was in the living room.

In our interview together we discuss not only the planning it took to coordinate the transportation of his Waco bi-plane to Europe, but the ensuing 96 day adventure throughout the incredibly breathtaking countryside of  Europe.  Michael has lots of great stories from his adventure, and most of them are articulated in the book which is a series of emails that he was sending back to friends and family who were following him on his wonderful adventure.  For three months during the summer of 1997 he “went flying, low and slow, exploring Europe’s coastline, islands, Alps, big-cities and tiny villages.   As Michael recounts in our interview this was the greatest experience of his life”.

A very large part of this adventure has to do with Michael’s son Mike.  You see Mike broke his back in a plane accident in March of 1993 and was paralyzed from the waist down.  Michael stated that his son never once complained during extended rehabilitation and hospitalization, and he persevered.  He is and always will be his father’s hero.

As we discuss in our interview Michael had to decide if he would fly again.  He lamented as you can imagine, but as he states he would have sent the wrong message to Mike that it is OK to quit when things don’t come out as planned if he did not proceed with his bi-plane adventure.  If he had not flown again,  he would have backed away from a great personal goal, so he had on choice and, and the big adventure began.
If you are interested in learning more about Michael McCafferty and “The Spirit of Adventure” I highly recommend reading his book.  100% of the profits from this book go to research to find a cure for paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries as currently being done by Rutgers University’s Keck Center for Collaborative Nuroscience-Spinal Cord Injury Project.  Please enjoy this great interview with a wonderful man with a big adventure.  If you would like to visit his website just click here, and read the many adventures of Michael Mc Cafferty.