We were lucky to catch up with Garry Linton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Garry, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

In the spring of 2019, I made the biggest life changing decision I could have ever made..

I walked away from a $90K corporate job to bet on myself. I gave my two weeks notice with no plan and no idea what my next move would be, just a belief in myself and a bigger purpose in life.

Prior to that moment, I had spent the last 5 years, in a dark place. Mentally I could feel myself losing myself. I’d come home from a 9-5 that was eating at my health and I’d find myself mistreating the people I loved most…my wife and my three kids.

Over the course of that 5 years, my supervisor had changed 4 times which is enough to take a toll on anyone but add to that the culture was toxic. My attitude and patience had slowly wilted, so much so I was barely able to recognize myself.

As a people person, I found myself wanting to isolate myself more and more.

In that time, there was one thing that gave me life…it was basketball training.

I was growing into a basketball coach/trainer part time after hours and found that helping kids learn the game was rejuvenating. The very kids I would coach and train were actually helping me more than I was helping them.

Fast-forward to that warm spring day I gave my notice, I wasn’t sure where life would take me, but I knew I would figure it out.

A decision like that doesn’t come lightly. It doesn’t come without heartache, sleepless nights, tough times at home…but it did come with uncertainty.

Things were working themselves out in the short term, but just months later the world forever changed…covid brought a change of life, no one could have prepared for.

With training and coaching as my main source of income, I was left with little options. As a new business owner, like many during this time, I was scrambling trying to figure things out.

Though the world was shutdown and the circumstances were unlike any we’ve ever seen, the system that I had spent the last 15 years paying into (unemployment) made no exceptions — I voluntarily quit my job, therefore I was inelgible for assistance. My wife and I had a little bit of savings and although PPP loans were an option, I ultimately thought that there were others that needed the assistance more than us (a decision I regret to this day).

Ultimately, my creativity led me to creating a virtual basketball training class that students could attend via zoom. This allowed us to get by for a bit.

Even with everything seemingly against me, I still believed.

Ultimately, we made it through Covid — the hardest time of our lives. And it was that experience that gave me the confidence and belief that if I could make it through Covid…there’s nothing I couldn’t do if I just put my mind to it.

Garry, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was introduced to my passion of teaching basketball when my kids were young.

In the early days, I didn’t want to get involved in coaching — I just wanted to be dad. The more I went to there practices, the more I would find myself frustrated at the way my kids practices would go. I felt they weren’t learning. After some time, I felt like I was doing my kids a disservice as well as their peers by not sharing my knowledge and experience.

So I ultimately got involved in our local rec program. That grew into bigger things like travel basketball, then aau, then starting my own AAU club.

With each step, I learned so much and realized that I was never coaching kids, I was more so training them, building their skills, building their confidence, and helping them improve over time.

Years later, I turned that passion into a business and started “TakeFlight Basketball” — a basketball training business that offers training for grade school kids all the way through pro level athletes.

I knew I was on to something but I didn’t have the resume to prove I knew what I was doing. Over time, some of the kids I was working with began getting recognition — including my daughter who ultimately received a full athletic scholarship to Kent State University – a Division I school in Northeast, OH.

In the process, I learned so much about youth sports — it wasn’t the glitter and gold that I thought it to be. The politics, the drama, the money grabs, and individuals that looked at youth sports through a different lens than I did.

Today, that experience helps me lead in a different way than most — from a parent’s perspective. Most people who follow me on social media have come to appreciate the content I share due to unique point of view — one that uses my failures, shortcomings, and experiences as lessons for parents navigating their own youth sports journey.

All of which led me to uncover my true purpose — helping people, kids and parents, while using basketball as a vehicle to carry that out.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up, I was taught that the key to life was finding a good job, getting a nice salary, and life takes care of itself after that.

There was a time when I considered myself to be very fortunate, I was making great money in my corporate job. Our lifestyle reflected that. But it came with many sacrifices — missing my kids games and school events, limited time off, and my physical and mental health to say the least.

One day I was listening to a podcast and I heard Gary Vee say, “Most people see currency as money, but the true currency is happiness.”

He went on to explain that we exchange our happiness for money.

Most people are miserable in their jobs and they sacrifice their happiness for a paycheck each week.

It wasn’t until I quit my corporate job that I truly understood what he meant.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Ever hear the saying “Knowledge is wealth”?

It’s something I’ve heard since I was a kid in school but never grasped the thought or idea until I entered my 30’s.

During Covid, I challenged myself to read (more like listen) to as many books in a week as possible. Though there’s many that helped mold my thoughts and philosophies, there are two books that really shaped my thinking.

The first one is “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Anchor. This book helped me understand the advantages of being more positive — training the brain to filter out the negative and search for more positivity in many aspects of my life.

The second one is “The Diary of a CEO” by Steven Bartlett — with so much value scattered throughout 33 Laws of Business and Life, it changed not only how I navigate business but how I navigate life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.takeflightbasketbal.com
• Instagram: @takeflightcoach
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/iamtakeflight
• Twitter: @whoistakeflight