You have mentioned in the past that your career in autism care was established in part because of the inadequate treatment received by your daughter, whose autism was not correctly diagnosed when she was young. Can you share more about this and how it ultimately led you to founding ABA Centers? My wife, Julie, and I have five amazing daughters and we suspected that one of our older girls might be on the autism spectrum, but she had been assessed previously and was simply diagnosed with speech and language issues. We later received the correct diagnosis that our daughter was, in fact, on the spectrum. She spent years dealing with a misdiagnosis and missing out on the proper treatment that she desperately needed. I was able to see what was available in the space for autism care from a parent’s perspective. The lack of services available was infuriating and the long waiting lists that families were experiencing were just unacceptable. So, I set out to design autism care that would genuinely strive to make a difference in the lives of families when those families need it the most and that is exactly what ABA Centers is doing. How did you incorporate your experience and lessons learned from your previous ventures while establishing ABA Centers? I learned that sometimes failure is out of your control, so you can’t be afraid to fail. I was in real estate earlier in my career, then in 2008 the market crashed. I knew what I was doing; I identified the right projects, I built the right team, I knew how to manage for maximum efficiency, and I made a lot of really good, right decisions. But it still all disappeared overnight. And what I learned is that no matter how smart you are or how hard you work, there are influences beyond your control that have the potential to derail your plans. CHRISTOPHER BARNETT Founder & CEO LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE IN SPECIALISED THERAPY SERVICES USA AWARDS 2024 - CEO TODAY - - 35 -
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