"I can't convey the positive impact that Isaac had on my team! I've had countless numbers of team members say his presentation was the highlight of their week. and still getting positive feedback! Thanks again!!""
-Verizon"We brought more than 700 of our worldwide Managing Directors together for aweek of leadership development. Isaac Lidsky closed the program, teaching us to master our reality by embracing our potential and overcoming our perceived limitations. Our leaders were captivated and inspired by Isaac, and the session ended in a standing ovation … something that doesn't happen too often around here! We would love to host Isaac again soon."
-Accenture"Isaac is inspiring. He triumphs in the face of great challenges, with grace and humility. I have seen how Isaac meaningfully connects with and touches those around him, and each of us is better for it. Because of his exceptional experiences, Isaac has much to teach readers about his practical yet expansive approach to life. They will greatly benefit from his book."
-Sandra Day O'Connor Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court (Ret.)"Few people have excelled in as many different ways as Isaac Lidsky has-and few have surmounted such hurdles. He has a fascinating, inspiring story to tell, and many practical, powerful insights to impart."
-Gretchen Rubin, Bestselling Author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before"This year’s center stage at YPO’s Global Leadership Conference and Edge in Dubai was incredible. I loved Sting; his words and music were memorable. Being in the presence of Sheik Mohammad was remarkable. But the highlight of the experience was the inspirational talk by Isaac Lidsky. He shared powerful ideas on how to live and lead that I will always remember.”"
-1513 Group, LLC"The Global Leadership Conference and EDGE in Dubai this year was an amazing event. The highlight of my experience was the courageous and inspiring story of Isaac Lidsky. His positive attitude in life was contagious and he deserved the over-the-top standing ovation he received. Simply awesome, fantastic!!!”"
-Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO)"Thank you, Isaac Lidsky for your powerful message. As leaders, there is nothing more valuable than learning directly from the wisdom of our peers. Your personal story and passion for helping others to live with their eyes wide open is truly inspiring.”"
-Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO)"I want to share some preliminary comments received from your keynote so you can truly understand the difference you make as you speak to audiences around the nation. Your message is truly something special. • Best speaker I've ever heard. Most inspirational. • Incredibly motivational story and message. Instantly applicable • Very enlightening presentation with a very clear message. • I loved him! Easy to follow and extremely engaging! • Such a wonderful session. Very engaging i didn't want it to end. He is an inspiration....and puts life into perspective. • Wow! What an amazing journey and insight into life and living! Very inspiring! • I really needed this • Everyone should have the opportunity to hear his powerful message • Super privilege to have had the opportunity to hear Isaac speak. Thank you. • I needed this-I've been discouraged and insecure. Thank you for the insight • Made me think of my life differently. Challenged me. I hope to incorporate his questions into my consciousness when I'm facing fears or talking negatively to myself. Excellent presentation • What an amazing story that one could apply to any profession • Powerful story! Thank you so much for sharing it. I love ending the conference with a session that stretches my thinking in this way. I look forward to reading his book! • So profound. Thank you, Isaac, for sharing your story with us. • Awesome. I leave inspired! • Unbelievably inspiring and motivating; great content for work but better for life • Excellent and practical motivator. Thank you for bringing him to us! • Eye-opener! • Thank you. An awesome presentation. Thank you for sharing your stories, lessons learnt and Thought provoking and eye-opening message. • Very good message. Focus on the moment and progress! • He was an amazing and inspirational speaker • Eye opening and incredibly inspirational. • Excellent presentation! He really "DID" make my "Eyesight Wide Open" • A great way to begin the next step • Beautiful person • Incredible man. • Powerful message behind fear. I can't wait to read your book. Thank you for sharing your story. • Amazing, inspirational speaker • A pleasure to hear him speak! • Amazing story and fantastic outcome • Phenomenal!!!! • Passionate about his work! • Incredible • IMPACTFUL!!! • Lots to think about • Very powerful • Very inspiring. Enjoyed this so much. • What a privilege to hear you speak and receive your message. Thank you for doing what you do!"
-Studer GroupEyes Wide Open
You create your own reality, and you believe it. Isaac will prove it to you, sharing his eye-opening perspective of sight itself as an example. You’ll gain the vision to shape your life deliberately, with awareness and accountability.
Leadership & Teams
To lead is to listen. True leadership is the alignment of intentions and effort, and true success a byproduct of common purpose. We accomplish nothing alone, and we accomplish little if we cannot listen to each other. Isaac will talk you through it. Listen to him and you’ll learn to conduct a harmonious team.
Motivation & Achievement
In every moment you choose who you are and how you want to live your life. With this empowerment comes responsibility, complete and inescapable. When you’re beset by challenges, you’re tempted to plead with your heroes, blame your villains and surrender to your limitations. This is a temptation to relinquish your choice, to abdicate your control. Isaac will inspire you to make a better choice. Your heroes, villains and limitations are fictions you perceive as reality. Choose to see through them. Choose to let them go.
Change
Fear is a powerfully destructive force in our lives. Above all else we fear the unknown. Yet to thrive in transition we must find empowerment in uncertainty. Isaac will show you how to deconstruct fear’s oppressive tunnel. You’ll learn to embrace the expansive possibilities of the undefined and uncharted.
Entrepreneurial Endeavor
Effort without purpose is entropy. When we labor without a goal we are destined to fail. Using his 3 successful startups as examples—an internet advertising technology company in New York (sold for $230 million); a nonprofit to fund scientific research in Washington, DC ($0 to $5 million in 5 years); and a construction services business in Florida ($15 to $150 million in 5 years)—Isaac will show you how success is a matter of definition. You’ll learn to reinvent yourself and create the organization that expresses achievement as you see it.
Mastering Your Reality
Transformative CEO and New York Times bestselling author of Eyes Wide Open, ISAAC LIDSKY interviews "an esteemed line-up of masters of reality from business, education, the arts, entrepreneurship, academies and politics" to carry forward the passionate work he started with the publication of his bestselling Eyes Wide Open and bring you the principles of exceptional living and leading.
“Isaac Lidsky may possess the most eclectic resume in business. Over the years, he has been a child television star (he played series regular “Weasel” on NBC’s “Saved By The Bell: The New Class”), a Supreme Court clerk (for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and the co-founder of an internet startup. More recently, Lidsky has used his gift for logistics to build ODC Construction into one of the fastest-growing construction businesses,” transforming an unsophisticated $11 million concrete subcontractor that was hemorrhaging money into an industry-leading $150 million construction services company—in 5 years.”
-Inc. Magazine, The Incredibly Inspiring Journey of a Blind Entrepreneur, October 1, 2015.
The full list of his accomplishments is far longer. Lidsky graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics and computer science. He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. As a U.S. Justice Department lawyer, Lidsky argued more than a dozen appeals in federal court on behalf of the United States and never lost a case. He founded a nonprofit organization to fund the development of treatments for blinding diseases and within 5 years grew it to a dozen cities nationwide and more than $5 million. The technology company he founded sold for $230 million.
In 2016 Lidsky set out to share with others his empowering approach to living and leading, and he was promptly recognized as a visionary thought leader. Penguin Random House acquired for publication his first book, Eyes Wide Open, and it hit the shelves as a New York Times best seller in March 2017. TED invited Lidsky to present a mainstage TED Talk at TEDSUMMIT 2016 in Banff, Canada, and it was viewed more than a million times in 20 days. Lidsky now speaks to and works with organizations around the world.
He has been recognized for his achievements dozens of times and his leadership is routinely sought after. He is an advisor to a $1+ billion tech “unicorn.” He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), the world’s premier peer network of chief executives and business leaders, and was tapped to lead the Orlando Chapter and to serve on the Regional Executive Committee for the Southeast U.S. and Caribbean. He was asked to join the Young Entrepreneur Council. He has been appointed to State leadership positions by the Governor of Florida and to a federal position by a U.S. Senator. He sits on the Board of the Florida Hospital For Children. He was named 1 of 4 Temple Bar Scholars by the United Kingdom’s Inns of Court and brought to London for a month-long idea exchange with UK Supreme Court Justices and leading barristers.
Perhaps most striking, Lidsky is only 37, and he is blind. Born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a rare degenerative disease of the retina, from age 12 to 25 he slowly lost his sight. As his bio makes clear, neither his youth nor his blindness have limited him, however.
This is true in his professional life and personal life alike. Isaac married Dorothy, the love of his life, in June 2004. In September 2010 she gave birth to their triplets, Lily Louise, Phineas and Thaddeus—collectively, “The Tripskys”—and in December 2015 baby Clementine completed the family. The six Lidskys live in Windermere, Florida.
Unsurprisingly, Lidsky has been featured in numerous national media, including Forbes, MSNBC, U.S. News & World Report, 60 Minutes, CNN, Voice of America, Business News Daily, Daily Business Review, Business Insider, Men’s Health, People Magazine, the National Law Journal, and the American Bar Association Journal. He is regularly asked by the media to provide his commentary on the construction industry, leadership and/or entrepreneurship. Invariably, his story shines through his commentary, and with his story, great inspiration.