Pub. Note: The Edge Foundation is just the latest in a long and illustrious string of accomplishments for Neil Peterson, who I had the privilege of working with back in the ’70s and ’80s at Metro (before it was merged with King County), where he became executive director in 1977 at the tender age of 33. Ever since, he’s been “NP” to me, due to the way he’d always initial memos to the staff.
His major achievement at Metro was spearheading construction of the downtown Seattle bus tunnel. That led to positions as head of transit agencies in Los Angeles and Oakland, CA, followed by a career as a sought-after transportation consultant, who eventually founded three companies. Perhaps the most famous of those was the car-sharing company Flexcar, which eventually became Zipcar. Neil is a nationally recognized businessman and transportation expert, who was known for thinking and operating “on the leading edge.” But he considers his latest endeavor—The Edge Foundation—to be the most important. Here is the remarkable story, in his own words.
By Neil Peterson
Of all the things that I’ve done in my long career, nothing has been more satisfying than my work with The Edge Foundation.
As a businessman and public-sector executive, I always recognized the value of executive coaches. While I eventually found success in my work, I struggled in high school, having trouble reading, staying on task, focusing and following through. I never was diagnosed with anything or had a label placed upon me. But I was told I wasn’t smart.
Fortunately, I focused on my strengths, surrounded myself with good people and tapped my own energy, willpower and perseverance to succeed.
Then, when my two children—Guy and Kelsey—were in their teens, both were diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). When I asked the doctor what caused it, he said it was hereditary. That was like a punch to the gut because I realized my kids had inherited their ADHD from me. Despite never receiving a diagnosis, I knew that I must have it, too, because I had seen them struggle, and their struggles were quite familiar. I had confronted many of the same challenges they faced.
ADHD presents unique hurdles to those who have it. For my children, it meant constant problems in school and poor grades. It meant difficulties with time-management, lack of focus, impulsivity and a host of other issues. Worst of all, it meant low self-esteem. All the years of unwelcome report cards, conflicts at school and excessive effort to do what other kids did so easily chipped away at my kids. Seeing their spirits deflate over the years was one of the most painful things I have experienced. I blamed myself. My children had inherited ADHD from me and, worst of all, I had let them down by failing to identify the problem sooner, when we all could have benefited so much from knowing and understanding the cause of our troubles.
In the years since their diagnosis, my children and I have found many ways to cope with our challenges. Because of our persistence and creativity, we’ve managed well. We’ve all succeeded in different ways that none of us could have imagined back then.
One strategy to cope with ADHD has been to work with personal coaches—something I became familiar with through decades in the corporate world, where employing a personal coach is common. I hired personal coaches for myself and my kids to help us all stay focused, reflect on our successes and failures and monitor our progress on academic, personal and professional goals.
During one of Kelsey’s calls home from college, I came to understand what effect that strategy had on her. “Dad, of all the things you’ve done for me, the most valuable and most appreciated is the gift you gave me of a coach,” she said. I was taken aback because she had not initially seemed to understand the coaching relationship and how it might benefit her. But now she was telling me it was the best thing I had ever done for her. I thought back on the spell-checking, voice-recognition and verbal-dictation software, the specially colored notebooks and specially designed wristwatches, the medications, the complicated diets and sleep regimens—all the methods I tried to help my children deal with ADHD. Yet, out of all the strategies, my daughter had chosen to single out coaching as the most significant to her.
When I retired from the corporate world and wondered what I would do next, my daughter had the solution. “Dad,” she said. “You ought to do for other kids what you did for me and Guy.”
Kelsey had seen my future. It was so simple and powerful. I decided right then to launch The Edge Foundation to help young people with ADHD and childhood trauma realize their potential and their passion. I decided the foundation’s strategy would focus on providing each young person with a professional coach. I figured that if a coach is good enough for the CEOs in this country, it’s good enough for the young people who are struggling with ADHD.
That’s where I am at right now. Coaching for those with ADHD contributes directly to improved academic performance, enhanced social functioning and increased self-esteem. It’s an important—if not critical—tool in an array of intervention strategies.
The Edge Foundation helps a whole array of at-risk students, including non-traditional learners with executive-functioning challenges. Edge Foundation coaches, who go through our thorough training, consider the entire individual and help him or her develop fully on all fronts—academic, social and professional—with an increased sense of purpose, happiness and self-esteem. We provide individual coaching to teens, college students and adults and train school-district personnel how to coach students in their schools.
As of today we have Edge coaches in nearly all the 50 states, Canada, the Netherlands and Israel. We’re also training staffers to be Edge coaches in 40 schools in four states and the District of Columbia. To date, we have coached more than 5,000 young people.
The goals: We’re currently embarking on a $10-million working-capital marketing campaign to allow The Edge Foundation to grow enough to be self-sustaining. I want to make coaching available to more schools and more individuals, ultimately leaving a lasting mark by providing 250,000 students with their own Edge coach and serving 1.5 million students within the next 15 years.
[Visit the Edge Foundation at www.edgefoundation.org]