Adrian Bradbury's application for the Alternative MBA in NYC

Finally, I'm doing what I love. I have creative ideas. I mobilize people. I take risks and I create change.

I'm the founder and director of Athletes for Africa, where we (i) use sport and celebrity to raise money for sustainable development projects, (ii) raise awareness and provide tools for athletes at every level (especially youth) to be engaged global citizens and (iii) are relentless human rights advocates for children caught in conflict.

My vision is for us not to be exporting sport, but to use sport as a platform to tell a story to a new audience and to educate and engage, in a brand new way. Click over to www.athletesforafrica.com for more info.

Oh, and I also started GuluWalk, but more on that below.

What else do I do? Well, before anything else, I'm a husband, father, volunteer coach and a pretty reliable hockey and soccer transit service for my two boys, Isaac (8) and Owen (5).

There are so many reasons, but more than anything I do this because I have to. Let me explain.

I used to be a dumb jock. I played university basketball (a long time ago). I was reckless and self-centered in university. I could care less about anything beyond my little bubble - - until I ventured into my thirties. When my first son was born (yes, my awakening was a storybook cliché), a light went on. I saw everything in a new way. It felt like I grew up overnight.

At the time, I was a sports journalist and I was meeting a ton of athletes and plenty of them were just like I was during university (yep, plenty of egos and idiots out there), but there was also a number of other athletes who actually had a more balanced perspective, who really cared. They're the ones capable of doing so much more with their audience reach, contacts and financial resources, and they know it. But, they don't know where to begin. I want to give them a place to get involved in Africa - - to come together and be shining examples for every athlete and fan, and help them tell a story to anyone willing to listen.

My wife Kim and I have also been through some incredibly trying times. We have grown so much together and we now have a perspective (after 38 years of searching) that I'm incredibly proud of. I'm also pretty confident in saying that not too many wives would be telling their husbands (who have already left two well-paying jobs to work for nothing to start a charity) that, "You have to apply for this opportunity with Seth and if you get it, you have to take it!" Even if we're way up in Toronto and live check to check to build Athletes for Africa. Kim really is something.

Sure, we're average (in Canadian terms), but we have no debt, we have great kids, and we know that we're still part of the world's top 10%. Very few people on this planet get this. It's dumb luck that I was born into this lap of luxury. I don't have any special skills or knowledge that have afforded me this very typical (by North American standards) silver spoon. That's my recurring rage. That's my motivation. Providing a hand-up to kids caught in conflict, only because of where they were born. Again, dumb luck.

And, it was in the spring of 1996 that my wife was in a serious car accident and was in a coma for 12 hours. After a long recovery, where she had to re-learn how to do everything, including how to walk, she is back to 99%. She was lucky. And, five years ago, I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. It scared the hell out of us then, but now, we just get on with it.

Those moments changed us. Not instantly and not all of the time. Yes, we get selfish and distracted like everyone else from time to time. But the moral compass? Stronger than ever.

That's why I do it. I have to. Seriously, I'm not sure I could get up and go to work tomorrow if I did anything else.

I hold a physical education and history degree, with a resume that revolves around teaching abroad, financial planning and freelance journalism. So, it goes without saying that I'm a self-taught writer, communicator, organizer, advocate and manager.

And while I'm a big believer in the Bertrand Russell notion that, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts," I also know what I need to shake some of those doubts.

Regardless of all of the success I've had over the past three years, I still lack confidence in my skills and abilities. I should be (and can be) a much better fundraiser, manager, strategizer (is that a word), presenter and leader. That's what I want to learn.

I have great ideas, like Football for Good (just to name one). I need to get better at showing, not telling. I need to better understand the business community (their mindset and ambitions) and not just become a better listener, but truly know what to be listening for.

More than anything, I want to be uncomfortable, I want to be challenged, I want to be pushed.

Reposition Athletes for Africa, take risks and build a global brand that changes the way athletes, at every level, engage in Africa.

And if that doesn't work out, I'll find someone who can, so I can go find my niche, and be the best at that.

I first heard the stories of the night commuters of northern Uganda in the spring of 2005, where I read unbelievable accounts of children, as many as 40,000, walking from their rural villages into the town of Gulu and other urban centres to sleep in relative safety and avoid abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for use in the country's 22-year war. I couldn't shake the story of these kids, I thought of my two boys, and it was that moment that sparked the idea for GuluWalk, a 31-day night commute, that I did with Kieran Hayward, to raise awareness about the war in northern Uganda.

Every evening in July of 2005, we walked 12.5 kilometers into downtown Toronto to sleep in front of city hall. At sunrise, after about fours hours sleep, we made the trek home. We both continued to work full-time and attempted to maintain our daily routine to mimic the lifestyle endured by the Acholi children of northern Uganda.

What started as a 31-day attempt by two people to better understand the ordeal of the children of northern Uganda, has now grown into an impassioned, worldwide movement for peace.

When it all started, I really thought that we would walk for 31 days, tell a few people in Toronto (maybe Canada) and go back to our daily lives. Instead, the idea caught on, our daily blog traveled the globe.

GuluWalk, which started with just the two of us in 2005, has grown to include over 75,000 participants in 100 cities and 16 countries, and has created a global movement for peace in northern Uganda, where one never previously existed.

And, since inception, we've raised well over $1.5-million dollars for programs that empower youth in war-ravaged northern Uganda. It's been one hell of a ride. I've met so many great people and have been inspired by the volunteers globally who are now the ones leading GuluWalk.

You can find out more at www.guluwalk.com and you can read a feature story about how it all started by clicking here.

I started Athletes for Africa and GuluWalk at my kitchen table. I was working a full-time job to pay the bills, while toiling evenings and early mornings to make our launch and events possible. I was a staff of one that did fundraising, communications, administration, you name it, and I lived for the time I'd have to work on Athletes for Africa and GuluWalk. During that time, I also became an incredible control freak. No one else's work was good enough. Needless to say, I quickly started running out of time. I couldn't do it on my own.

So, I was left with a choice - - keep Athletes for Africa small and manageable, or let some things go so it could grow. I decided to close my eyes, and let it go (and I've never looked back).

Grow we did and that focus gave me, and Athletes for Africa, new life. Today we're a staff of four and I had a moment just a few days ago that reinforced the fact that I have indeed moved on (even if it was like kicking an addiction). I went to log into our website to make a change and......I had no clue what the password was. I was through the Dip!

That being said, this is the kind of Dip that is starting to creep up on me again, and is another reason why I need the Alternative MBA.

I sold life insurance. Very few people know that, and even fewer would believe it.

I had no idea what I was going to do with my life after returning home from a two-year stint coaching basketball and teaching English at a private high school in Sendai, Japan. I saw an ad, I applied and I took the plunge.Two years or so later I was training for management and two years after that, I was on my way out the door. I grew up a lot in those five years. I learned a lot about sales, old-school management and what it meant to be out there, all alone.

I had a too many queasy Monday mornings to say I enjoyed it, but also gained too much of an education to say it wasn't worth it.

That my two boys do what they love, everyday, and that they do it, more than 50-percent of the time, for someone else.

In past lives I've been a teacher, a financial planner, a freelance journalist and a communications director, all the while searching for some meaning in what I do and who I do it for. I've found it.

I do everything with authenticity. I build partnerships and people believe in me. I have engaged and now work closely with top athletes (like NBA MVP Steve Nash), human rights advocates (like former UN ambassador Allan Rock and Lt. Gen Romeo Dallaire) and volunteers all over the world!

I also have a creative mind and I love to engage it. Since the inception of Athletes for Africa and GuluWalk I've had the privilege of sharing that ability with a number of charities. With design/creative partner Allen Ford, we've developed, and continue to develop campaigns for the likes for the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the Children's Miracle Network. We call that little side venture, Big Train Media.

I love the creative process. I love swinging for the fences, and I love telling stories.

In short, I'm a born-again listener who is not afraid to get knocked down. I'll get back up. I have before. And, I'd be honoured to get knocked around for six months in (or promximal to) the Big Apple.

Here in the office, we just went through a planning process for 2009, where I asked all four of us to write down our 'top fives'. And, everyone one of them had to start with, "It will be a great year for me if....." It was a great process and really got us all thinking. The other part of that planning was for us to also jot down the one thing we were going to learn in 2009 that was going to make us better at what and who we are. And, not word of a lie, this is mine:

"In 2009, I'm going focus my personal development in the areas of business and marketing. I want to make certain that I am bringing new ideas from other sectors to the NGO world through a committed reading program (things like Fast Company, Wired, Harvard Business Review, Rotman, etc.), by setting up a least one mentorship and I will seek out a course/program that provides a foundation in business (perhaps an abbreviated MBA) and social business."

Sounds like an 'Alernative MBA'. Eerie!

And yes, I did send this post to my entire contact list, I talked it up with friends and colleagues. I also have a pretty good network of directors of charities. Almost every single one of them said the very same thing. "That sounds great, you should apply, you'd be great. I'm just too busy. My family situation won't allow it. Really, it's just too much of a risk."

As for me? The risk? That's exactly why I want it.

Seth, this is a great idea, and you will not regret making me part of the 'Class of 2009'. Thanks for your time.

....Adrian

P.S. By clicking here, you can also take a peek at a more formal bio and resume, if you're interested.

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Oh, and down below, that's my new children's book I co-wrote with Eric Walters. That's Jimmy, from Gulu, northern Uganda, on the cover. He's a great kid and has become like a third son. I miss the red dirt roads of Gulu every single day.