Interview with Spider Jones Continued - "A Man With A Mission"

Spider Jones

Motivational Speaker/Radio & Television Personality

THE INSIDE SCOOP allows us to not only do just that, get THE INSIDE SCOOP but, it sometimes allows us to gain further insight into the what, why, and how’s of these interesting people and what makes then successful. I recently had this opportunity, while speaking with none other than Mr. Spider Jones, a man with a mission!
I asked Spider just where he got such a nick-name. He chuckled and said, “Well, my momma didn’t give it to me”. Spider participated in the 1960’s during a Pro-Am Card fight (boxing match) and won the covenanted Golden Glove. It was at Sully’s Gym, where Sully Sullivan gave Spider his nick-name, stating that "Spider fought like he had 6 pairs of hands, just like a spider"! He also won the Golden Glove Champion 3 times and in 1996 was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame. If you read Mr. Jones biography (http://www.spiderjones.com/) you will see his amazing list of achievements and accomplishments. THE INSIDE SCOOP found out that Spider’s greatest accomplishment (as he shared with me) was “going back to school at age 30 with only a grade 5 educations, and graduation from Seneca College”. At this time, he told me “I won the most prestigious award called the Pre-Mayor Award for his contributions to the community”! With this being said, Spider tells me that he feels “education is a great liberator; therefore, we need mentors to help our youth of today”! He believes that the popular figures in our communities need to stand up and take a stand! Although the efforts of mentoring are appreciated, the truth is that money and financial contributions are just as an important part of the equation. Mr. Jones main charity focus is the organization called Believe to Achieve (http://www.believetoachieve.ca/ ) . Spider says it is critical to reach out to the youth of today, particularly children in school grade 5-8. He says “it is important to help these young children purse their dreams. to help feed their creative spirit”! I wondered how Spider and his organization helped these children and he tells me that Believe to Achieve offers workshops to provide different tools and techniques as aids to assist with their ambitions.

What about Spider himself? As a motivational speaker, I wondered how he keeps himself focused, anchored and positive. He simply says “he associated himself with positive people”. Spider says that "in order to be positive and think positively, you need constant repetition, push out the negatives with positives and eventually being positive will be instinctive”. Spider says “its part of my nature to be positive and continue to learn.” “You can be negative or you can take the good things and be happy and feel blessed with what you have”! Again, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with THE INSIDE SCOOP. I would like to think that if we can understand how a positive person processes the ongoing challenges of today, and if we can get THE INSIDE SCOOP with people, we might gain some insight as to how and why they are so successful in their Causes (an event, fundraising efforts, awareness in the communities, obtain volunteers, etc.).
(To be continued)