Be The Bubble

By Bradley Dean Silberman

After a brutal attack as a young student, Bradley suffered brain damage that almost killed him.

His long journey to recovery, and the search for answers through coaching, integrated therapies and meditation, gave him the strength and skills to take back control of his life.

In this must-read book, Brad shares his personal story and the life-changing lessons he gained along the way to becoming a sought-after speaker, coach and entrepreneur.

The purpose of the book is to share the principles and concept of BE THE BUBBLE, a powerful toolkit that can literally transform your life. Brad's hard-won life lessons are carefully distilled in a number of concise, accessible chapters.

Today, Brad is a husband and father with successful businesses that align with his learnings, lessons and experience. Join him on this remarkable journey of discovery - you'll learn a bit about Brad and a lot about yourself on the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digital On Demand
• Release date: Nov 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9780620992022

Book preview

Introduction

In 2004 I was attacked by bouncers outside a club. I was a 22 year old engineering student. The attack, which nearly killed me, made headlines at the time and inspired an outpouring of support from all around the world.

My long road to recovery surprised even my doctors. My neurosurgeon and trauma surgeon didn’t have much hope that I’d survive, never mind live a normal, healthy life.

My path to recovery wasn’t easy. It was damn tough, actually. But it taught me life-changing lessons. Strange as it sounds, I’m grateful for what happened and the new direction my life took after that incident.

To help me better understand what I was going through, and communicate my story with others, I completed courses in life coaching, mind power and meditation.

More dauntingly, I had to work to overcome my fear of public speaking so that I could share my story.

Speaking to an engaged audience was actually the catalyst for writing this book. I was invited to give a talk by a community leader. He called me a couple of days later to say that everyone had been enrapt - not just with the sometimes sensational details of my personal story but also by the concrete lessons imparted to the audience.

Straight after that call, I opened my diary and set aside time the next morning, a Monday, to try and put my story and my principles into writing. I’ve managed to fence off a regular session of writing time in the work week, to focus on the project. In retrospect, I realise that the principles I was now living my life by had prompted me to start writing, without waiting for some imagined future moment when I would magically have the time and space to write.

The process of putting these disparate but connected principles into an overall system has proven to be incredibly fruitful, for me as well as those around me. Those around me include family, friends, companies, clients and sales teams.

By writing this book, I have three main purposes: to share these discoveries with everyone who might want to use them; to show how these principles connect and interact with each other; and to show how the principles can connect with and uplift you in every element of life.

Be the Bubble is a concept of mind. It’s a technique for anyone at any level of life.

The system consists of 6 interconnected discoveries that, taken together, enable people to live with intention and purpose. That’s easy to say in abstract, but my aim is to present concrete, achievable steps to help people achieve defined goals.

The book begins with an account of who I was and who I became. More importantly, it details the steps I took to get from the former to the latter. The narrative explains the discoveries and the discoveries reveal the substance of the narrative.

Today I’m a husband and father with successful businesses. Each business aligns with who I now am. I feel like I make a difference. As I hope the book makes clear, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

My name is beef

My name is Beef. That’s what they call me. My real name is Bradley, but I’ve been known as Beef since school. It’s the name my friends use.

It’s not one of those ironic nicknames, like Tiny for a 7 foot athlete. I was the toughest guy in my year, maybe in the whole school. 100+ kilos of brawn and star of the rugby team. I like to think I was a chilled guy, but it’s not like anyone was going to start trouble with me. Sure, I had a naughty streak, but it was harmless. I was just messing around.

My school years were good. At least they seemed to be. I did well academically (even if it meant copying my girlfriend’s notes) and I was popular.

If I didn’t exactly apply myself to my studies, I was doing well enough to satisfy my teachers. I thought I knew what I wanted and I seemed to be well on the way to getting it.

I’m not going to say being a big, tough guy defined me. But it was definitely part of who I was, even if I took it for granted. My personality was formed knowing I never needed to get defensive, that I could walk into a room and dominate it. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by a big mouth, even if that mouth was backed up by big fists. People called me Beef, for goodness sake.

And like most young people, I felt invincible.I wouldn’t even have been able to imagine that before long I would be utterly helpless. Struggling to walk or write my own name. That I would depend on my mother to drive me to meetings and guide me as I tried to figure out the next phase of my life.

I want to tell you how I finally woke up and saw the world and - much more importantly, saw myself - in a completely new way. How I gained clarity and meaning I didn’t even know was missing from a life that seemed satisfying, but I now see was aimless, with no real direction.

Maybe that sounds like a cliche: I was asleep and now I’m awake. A bad thing happened, and I overcame it, and now I’m a better person.

But here’s something else I learned: there was nothing inevitable about my breakthrough. Hardship can be the greatest teacher, but you need to be open to the lessons it provides.

I was lucky. My doctors didn’t think I would survive, never mind live a full and healthy life. But I was lucky in another way. I was