What It Takes to Overcome the Unimaginable Feat. Austin Hatch

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1:17This is The Ed Myron Show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. So this week you're going to hear a story that it's really unbelievable, except it actually really happened in this young man's life. So I just want you to sit back and take this all in. And, you know, there's some shows where, you know, I do a lot of preparation and I'm ready to go. This is one of those shows, to be honest with you, everybody, I don't know how you prepare for it. And you certainly can't prepare in the real world for what happened to this young man. Let me just set the stage, but I'm going to let him, you know, explain the story to you.

1:51Can you imagine being in a plane crash with your family? And you live, but several of them don't. And you have to carry that with you. Just imagine that for a second. And then it happens again. Did you hear what I just said? It happens twice. You're in two plane crashes where you lose family members and somehow you end up living. What does that teach you about life? What does that teach you about your faith? Grit, resilience, how to move on, grief. We had a lot to talk about today with this young man. And he's really the only person on the planet qualified to take us through this because I've never heard of anything like this in my life.

2:38He also then went on to play college basketball, everybody, and has become a mega achiever and is living out his dreams. Austin Hatch, it's really an honor to have you on the show, young man. Thank you for being here. Yeah, thank you, Ed. I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the podcast. Really, really grateful. When I say what I just said, like I introduce it that way, is it almost an out-of-body experience for you, no pun intended, when you hear that this is now the story of your life? Because at one point it wasn't the story of your life, right? You were just a young man with a wonderful family with some dreams and basketball and all that.

3:12When you hear it, what dawns on you even when someone else describes it? I'm curious. Yeah, it's sometimes hard to believe that, you know, that actually happened to me and my family. it's like like you think about it you know that's like what you see in a movie or something right and it's sometimes hard to put yourself in the shoes of somebody else that you see a story that's so crazy hard to believe that could ever happen but you know obviously god forbid it did happen to me and my family and stuff how do you respond right what are you going to do about it and i think in life and business we all face challenges all the time we usually can't control them but we always have a hundred percent control of how we choose to respond and that's basically my model for life can't always what happens to us but we can always control how we respond certainly want to talk about that but i want to set the stage a little bit too so when you said like a movie no one would believe this if it was a movie if someone said to me i was in a plane crash and i survived and i lost some family members and i'm gonna have you walk everybody through that in a moment if you don't mind you go okay that's a crazy movie but then you said it happened again twice that's not a movie that's like okay turn it off.

4:20That's not true. That never happened. There's no way. So how old were you the first experience and for what you're comfortable with sharing, take us through what happened. So everyone understands the depth of the loss here that took place in your life. Yeah. Well, first of all, I've got an incredible family in heaven and I'm so grateful for them and their impact on my life and their continued impact on my life. I'm just truly, truly blessed to have them. Amazing mom, Julie. She was an incredible homemaker, everybody's best friend. You know, she was kind of the woman that lit up the room wherever she was.

4:52She was the life of the party, wherever she was. And, you know, I think that kind of brings up the whole idea that there's people in the world that brighten up a room when they enter, like they just bring some kind of energy. Right. But then, you know, unfortunately, there's also some people that brighten up a room when they leave. Right. So I guess, you know, my mom was obviously that first person who she brightened up the room wherever she was um an amazing woman and i had a older sister lindsey she was three years older than me um she was an incredible incredible girl too and obviously like any siblings do you know you have your fair share of you know disagreements and battles and stuff but it's that's normal that's how it should be right um i had a little brother ian three years younger than me um so when i was born i was nine nine 24 and a half inches long so i was a big baby my brother was a little smaller um but he had a big heart he had a big heart so we called him we called him mr big um so i'm six six he probably ended up six you know six two six three um which i'm not sure by any means but you know not as tall as me and uh but yeah it was it was awesome we had an amazing family my dad steve was a doctor in fort wayne for in indiana um and yeah We had the dream childhood.

6:07We all did. My grandparents had a place in northern Michigan where they retired up there, and we'd go visit them all the time in the summer. We were flying back home. My dad was a doctor. As I said, also, we had a small family plane that would fly. So Labor Day weekend, 2003, September 1, 2003, we were flying home from northern Michigan to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where we lived. And as you're preparing to land, tragically, the airplane crashed. And I took a life of my mom, jewel issue, 38 at the time. Dad's high school sweetheart. My sister, Lindsay, as I said, was three years older than me. She was 11 years old, about to turn 12 the next week.

6:48And my little brother, Ian, was only five. Devastating loss, obviously incomprehensible loss. But, you know, my dad and I did our best to rebuild our life. And obviously, you know, that's not something you ever get through, so to speak. because that kind of a loss is never in the rearview mirror. It was with us every single day, but we just did our best to keep moving forward and try to honor them with how we lived our life every day. You know, the reason I admire you so much, it's beyond words, but a lot of people listening, they're going through a hard time in their life. Life is very difficult.

7:21I'm going through a hard time. And then as I hear you talk, I'm like, compared to what? Like, that's hard. you know this young man wakes up and his mom and his siblings are gone i'm putting myself really with you right now obviously there's the loss there's the fear there's whatever the horror of the experience of of being in a plane crash in and of itself is like there's probably watching your dad deal with his grief did you have any like survivor's guilt at that time like why'd i live than they went. I wonder if any of that ever entered the equation in your mind. Yeah, you know, it probably did at some point, but I mean, I'll be honest, I was eight years old, about to turn nine, and I was so young that I don't think emotionally I wasn't really there yet to think that way.

8:11And I followed my dad's example so close. My dad was my hero, right? And um i saw how he responded to that and i was little but whether or not i actually knew it i was paying very close attention to him yeah and how he responded because if he if he scribbles up in a hole and stops living his life and what example does that set for me like what am i gonna do if i don't see him bounce back get back to practicing medicine get back to doing triathlons and running and biking and swimming and doing all like he I mean, obviously we were impacted tremendously by the loss, but you got to keep living, you know?

8:52Yeah. You got to keep growing. I want to go a little deeper on that. What did you learn? Let's say someone listening to this has had a tragedy. Their spouse just left them. Boyfriend, girlfriend broke up with them. Job loss, financial loss, anything, health issue. What did you learn from your dad? I know you're eight, but you did learn you had to go through this twice yourself. What advice would you give to somebody? Is it like, hey, take a moment and pause and heal a little bit and reflect or get right back up? You know, is there an appropriate time when you're knocked down literally in life?

9:23Because there's different theories about it. You've actually lived it. So it's not a theory. What would you say? What's your best advice? I think it's very healthy to to grieve a little like for not let the negative emotion or not let the frustration or any any of that consume you completely. Yeah. But I think it's very healthy to have a, you know, have a reasonable amount of it. Cause it's like, you can't just like keep all your emotions inside you forever. You got to actually express yourself because if you keep it all inside you at a certain point, it's like a balloon. Like you can't just keep blowing up the balloon for decades and expect it to never pop.

10:00You know what I mean? So it's like using that balloon analogy, like when the balloon starts to get a little full, like you need to let it pop a little bit and like express yourself, right? Like you don't want to let it. Just get so big and bottle up so much emotion that like when you let it out, it's like the whole world comes down. It's like friendship. Like you don't want to wait till your friend is driving you completely, completely out of your mind crazy to confront him or her about it. Right. Or your spouse, my wife. Hey, honey, you're an incredible mom. You're an amazing wife. But this thing you're doing is really bugging me and let people know, like, like if this is an issue, because if an issue goes under dress, it becomes like a cancer.

10:37no I agree it's one of those nuances of life that is that you know if I've counseled people that have gone through grief I don't know that I've counseled someone who's gone through well I know I haven't counseled someone who's gone through the double whammy so to speak that you had it's okay so stay with us everybody I know you're going oh my gosh this is actually real everyone and you can see how we're going to get to the good part in a minute because Austin's built an amazing life there's some dadgum lessons from it and he's good at teaching them and we're get into him in a minute but so austin you watch your dad grief you grieve probably shock take us through where dad ended up and then what happened inevitably with your dad and you on the plane again once again yeah so so a couple years later dad was remarried met an amazing woman named kimberly or three kids of her own we had a great blended family awesome to have a mom and siblings at home again and didn't replace what we lost obviously but it was great to have a mom and siblings at home again and we were a family right and um life was good and i was my dream was always play basketball for michigan yeah i was working every day to make that dream a reality and life was good i mean we were going on family trips we were going we're doing you know doing all the great family stuff that you know what most families do and i was working on my game and freshman year, had a good season.

12:02Sophomore year, had a better one. And Coach Beeline from Michigan, former coach, came to see me play sophomore year. Had a good game. Beat a rival school from across town. And it was a big upset. And it was, you know, it was a good game for him to see because I played well. And after, you know, a couple months later, after he saw my transcript from sophomore year, saw I had good grades. He offered me a scholarship to play for him, June 15th, 2011. 1.45 p.m. I remember the call clear as day. Yeah, it was a dream come true. You know, my mom went to Michigan, graduated in class of 87. My grandpa's went to Michigan.

12:38You know, we grew up going to football games in Ann Arbor in the fall. And Michigan is a bigger part of my family as anything. I think a lot of people may not know. Like, I just want to interject, those of you that aren't sports fans. It's almost religion if you're a Michigan grad. Like, it's a huge deal to get a chance to go to Michigan and then to play and to get offered a scholarship when it's your dream. It was an incredible achievement on your part. And I just want to make sure they understand the magnitude for your entire family, honoring your mom's legacy after she had passed. I know the depth of emotion and pride you had in achieving that.

13:15But go ahead, keep going. Yeah, so it was amazing. And I hope to have a great career. I think I could have been pretty good there. Had to get a lot better, obviously. Had to get a lot better. But nine days later, June 24th, 2011, my dad, Steve, my second mom Kim and I were flying to northern Michigan this time the same as we returned from the first plane crashed in 2003 and it's in bad weather I had to go to a different airport and as you're preparing to land again the airplane tragically crashed and um took the life of my dad Steve my second mom Kim and uh should have killed me too man by the grace of God I'm here and you know I was in a coma for a couple months and um came out of it I had to relearn how to do everything and yeah i had a long run to recovery but i think we made a pretty good comeback despite the circumstances god bless you bro this god bless you first off you eventually come out of the coma and now you realize i've lost my dad and my new mom all right this can't be real so what did that look like what did what did you have to relearn to do i have to think you almost had to relearn to think bro relearn to believe i have to imagine everything you thought you knew you probably really doubt it and i bet as i said that sentence there's a lot of people right now driving or they're running on the treadmill they're listening going you know in a different way i'm right there right now everything i thought i knew maybe i didn't know i'm wondering all of it rebuilding your mind your body your ability to walk everything talk take us through that yeah well and um yeah i came out of that coma you know late august early september 2011 um and it's not like i came out of the car i was in a coma and then i opened my eyes and everything was good like the waking up process took a few weeks i had to get reacclimated to real life right i kind of understood the severity of what happened obviously but um yeah it was a kind of a rude awakening obviously right and realizing what i had lost And yeah, man, it was.

15:16But I believe there was a way I was going to find a way. And I would say that one of the most incredible moments for me between obviously all the amazing support that I had. I had so many people and all my family, all my friends from Fort Wayne. Like I had so many people there to support me out of the goodness of their heart. You know, they just did it for me. Obviously, it probably made them feel good to be there for me in a tough situation. but they were just there. My friends, my family, like I had so many people that were there for me, which is incredible. Another big thing for me was Coach Beeline.

15:49He got a special clearance from NCAA because at that point, when you're an unsigned recruit, just verbal commitment, I could only see him on campus at Michigan or at my high school. Yeah. Obviously unique circumstances or he got a special waiver from NCAA to come see me in the hospital. And this is not verbatim, but he basically said, Austin, man, I can't wait to coach you. someday i can't wait to have you on my team whenever you're able to come play for me in michigan man i can't wait to coach you i can't i couldn't walk right i didn't know if i was ever gonna walk ever again um but yeah just that belief and and obviously all all the doctors and people that took care of me and helped me recover and stuff and i look at my life like this is what i went through you could argue that's the worst case scenario right oh gosh yeah i'm what I was, yes, bro.

16:38Yes. But what I was going to say is like, I've had the best case scenario of all the amazing support and people and love. And yeah, I'm just very grateful for it all. Yeah. And you're also incredibly humble. Part of that's that Indiana upbringing probably. But let's just be honest, bro. You're special. So imagine it's midnight. You're on the couch. You're scrolling through this new website, hitting the add to cart button, and you decide to check out, but you remember that your wallet or your credit card is in the other room and you don't want to get off the couch, that's okay. You don't need to because there's that big iconic purple shop button.

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18:55By the way, God chose you for some reason to live this life, right? He holds you in the palm of his hand. There's something special about you. And I love that you give credit to Coach Beeline. What a wonderful man with that job, everything pulling at him. To spend that time with you is remarkable. All the people around you, absolutely. But you are the one who rebuilt your life. You didn't do it alone, but you did. really hard question here what was harder believing in life again and building your thoughts or learning to walk definitely the thoughts because all the physical stuff like as far as like the basics of it like relearning to walk relearning like that obviously it took some time i'm not gonna say it came easy but like that wasn't that wasn't the hard i mean it was difficult but it wasn't it wasn't hard it was difficult but it wasn't hard and like the the hard stuff was like what i lost and you know believing that like getting i can like trying to you know get wrap my mind around what happened and then still convincing myself or like believing that you know know what I'm gonna find a way I'm gonna find a way I don't know how don't know how I want to get to Michigan I don't know how I'm in a coma I'm coming out of a coma I'm in a wheelchair right now I can't walk I can't really walk but I'm gonna find a way to make it to Michigan and join the team and get a great education and I think the biggest thing and what was so impactful for me is I had so many people there who believed in me and were positive and they because it's like I I think our mutual friend, John Gordon, I think he's a guy who says positivity is a competitive advantage.

20:54And being positive doesn't mean we ignore the negative, but obviously we acknowledge it. But it's like, you know what? We're going to find a way. I actually think that it's acknowledging the negative. And I think that that way you know you're telling yourself the truth. And we're going to get into grit and some other things here in a minute, some of your strategies. do you still live in a lot of fear austin i would think that if you do not wow why like i i would think i've had two experiences i live afraid now i would think the life has taught me to be afraid it's taught you a completely different lesson from your experience the most definitive answer of the show so far was right there when you just said no immediately why because if you think about I don't like I had to take stats in college didn't do very well, but like one of the things is like past causation doesn't predict or increase the probability of future causation.

21:50Right. Like if you think about it from like that standpoint, just because I was in these two really bad accidents before doesn't mean that I am somehow more likely to get in a third one. It doesn't like sometimes we let our mind tell us things that aren't true, you know, and I just think that. And also, too, like for me, like this is a whole nother issue. But like, I don't fear dying. I don't want to die. Obviously, I've got a wife and two beautiful kids. Like I obviously not. But like if it's my time to go, man, it must be my time to go. Why? Why are you that way? Is it would you have been this way before both experiences?

22:27Did this teach you something about life and death that you didn't know before? Did it alter your faith? Like, why are you not afraid to die? Most people are. Most people, it's their greatest fear. I don't know for a fact where I'm going, but I think I think I'm doing things the right way. God willing, I'll make it to heaven and, you know, honor him with my continue to honor him in my life. I'll get to see my family again. Right. Like, I believe that. And, you know, I haven't seen my mom and siblings in 22 years. I haven't seen my dad and dad and second mom in 14. I'm obviously I'm excited to see them someday.

23:00But God willing, it's 70 years from now. my wife and I have, you know, a lot of kids and as many as she wants and a lot of grandkids. So, you know, one thing I've learned in marriage, let's just say I wanted three kids. She wanted six. We're going to compromise and have six, right? That's good. One more thing. And I want to go to all the strategies. Everyone's like, all right, I'm ready to write some notes here in a second, too, because they're all, you know, moved. I want to ask you something personal and you can share with me as much of it as you want to or you don't. One of the things that happens in the work I do when someone's experience some type of trauma.

23:34And by the way, trauma can be everything from you watch your mother and siblings die in a plane crash, and that's severe trauma, clearly, to, you know, your parents didn't love you enough. There's a spectrum of trauma in life. It could be one bad experience where you got laughed out of a classroom or the breakup. One of the challenges that a lot of people have, and I'd like you to be as honest as you're willing to be about this, is they replay the video of their mind of the incident. They replay it over and over. And even if someone's left them, they replay them with this new person over and over.

24:08And so they're almost tortured with the thought of an event that took place once that they then put themselves through thousands of times. It was bad enough once, but they put themselves through thousands of times. And when I really get to the heart of the work of what's still causing them to be held back, it is often this video in their mind of the incident or the imagined incident. You've had two horrific videos that you've experienced. Do you still see them? Did you do something to not see them? And what attention do you pay to it? The second one, I had such a bad head injury. I don't remember a couple months before that crash.

24:52I remember stuff if I see pictures or I see a video of it. like if you ask me about something i like i don't remember like like for example like committing to michigan june 15 2011 i don't remember that when i see the footage of it right okay like like it's like on a test you take a test you don't know the answer but then so then someone tells you the right answer oh i knew that i just didn't think about at the time so it's like that so i don't remember the second one at all um they had a really bad head injury which is a blessing to not remember that um first one i unfortunately do um a little like you know you know more than more than i more than i'd like to um and yeah i just i don't know not that i like you know you know suppress it or or try to ignore it but it's like yeah as devastating it is as it is as tragic as it is and um you know i miss my whole family every day obviously um and i think about you all our kids now my mom she'd be an amazing grandma yeah um yeah whatever but it would just be incredible but the cool thing is for me ed like i don't have to wonder what life would be like now if they were here like i know what it'd be obviously not like in detail but i know how involved they'd be i know they would be coming up here all the time and and yeah you know like like i know the kind of grandparents they'd be i know like how my sis how my siblings ian and lindsey what kind of ants and on, but like what, what they'd be like.

26:18Right. And, um, yeah, it's just, I mean, and one thing that I found is, um, um, I'm, I'm very grateful. Yeah. I know it for the life, for the life that I have. I'm just so grateful, Ed. I mean, I can't believe it. Like that. I married the girl, my dreams, we have, we live in, I just can't believe it. Right. And one thing, something about you, bro. One thing I want to tell you, like I study patterns in people and, And I was going to say before you said that, I just want to acknowledge something. Because I think sometimes people do things well unconsciously. Almost everything I've asked you, you've immediately gone to, but you know what I'm grateful for?

26:57But you know what I'm grateful for? But you know the people around me? But you know my wife? What I'm grateful for? And I think what you do is you do see that video, and then you immediately begin to replace it with gratitude. And gratitude videos. And gratitude thoughts. And you've built a massive superpower muscle of giving yourself the gratitude dose that is greater than the grief dose because you've done it repetitively and you're bigger. I just want to tell you what I see in you that is part of your greatness and just speak it to you because it is you. You almost struggle to tell the hard parts of the story because you're so wired with the gratitude of where you are now.

27:40Yeah. And well, thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it. One thing that I found, um, it is, it's, I don't know neurologically, you know, how this works. You know, my best friend is a neurosurgeon in Charlotte, so maybe you should ask him about this, but like, it's a, it's, it's literally impossible to be truly grateful and very negative at the same time. It's literally impossible, right? Like those two emotions can't coexist. And like, like being, and i'm not saying we should ignore all negative emotions and only think about the positives we should think we should acknowledge the negative yeah like i acknowledge what i've lost obviously like i said like obviously terrible losses losing my family in the plane crashes and stuff but it's like look at the life we've built and we're going to build every day and it's just like man like how can you again not that not that not that all the great things now like make all the all the tragic losses like disappear.

28:35Obviously not, but it's just, it just makes for a better experience in life just to be positive and be grateful and focus on the good. You know, I admire you. When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know, your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life and getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at goodtoknowfacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit goodtoknowfacts.org. Abercrombie Kids knows how to make outfitting easy.

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29:44I admire you a great deal. The more I talk with you, the more my admiration grows. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's true. You're a tough dude. I want to get into some of the things you've done to build your life because it's a remarkable life and we'll take them through little Michigan stuff here in a second too and then the amazing speaking career you've built and you need a great speaker guys this is your I got to be honest with the last few weeks multiple people have reached out to me and said just saw this guy Austin Hatch man he's unbelievable and I evidently he's about to go do your show so that's real feedback behind the scenes about him thank you I appreciate that it's a fact you're tough but you also you're gritty you've actually kind of got a formula on grit you share this is where the notes start kind of getting taken everybody on what this man did to build a life from not one but two just unimaginable tragedies in his life take us through grit a little bit your thoughts on it a lot of people talk about grit is you know working hard for the long-term goal um the toughness the all that that's great and being persistent perseverance obviously that's all true um but i think grit isn't just about working for the long-term goal i think grits every day grits every day and i think about my recovery journey you know i was blessed to make a good comeback had an incredible support team who who helped me make it but um you know i was trying to get to michigan but grit wasn't just michigan grit was every day grit was getting out of bed grit was walking the hospital floor grit was learning how to jog again grit was you know grit was learning how to get back in school so So I think grit's more specific than just working hard for that long-term goal.

31:21So I think it's, I'll give you the two minute spiel. Please. And so grit's four letters. I think there's four key components to it. Really believe that. But I think it's driven by a greater purpose. I think we need to be driven by something bigger than ourselves, whether that's your faith, your family, your teammates, your colleagues, the organization, whatever your purpose is. I think we need to be driven by something bigger than ourselves because if it's just for us, it'd be nice if I overcame this challenge or achieved this goal in the face of these trials, but it's only really for me. So it's going to require too much time and effort and sacrifice.