Good Leaders: Where were you headed when you were 16 years old?

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Terry Esau started living his dreams from the garage: stomping on a wah-fuzz pedal with a funky garage band and tinkering with bicycles. At 16 years old, the headstrong cycling musician rode his bike from Minnesota all the way to the Coast of California. The self-proclaimed cycle-holic returned with visions of becoming the musical “Jingle King of Minneapolis.”

Since then, Esau has written musical scores for TV and film, as well as promotional packages for TV stations across the country. Clients of his music production company apply named “The Coast,” include Target to McDonalds, Pepsi to Perkins, Harley to Honda, Golden Grahams to Billy Graham, and many more.  In Minneapolis, he’s most-known for the KARE 11 TV NEWS theme song. But it’s the noise he’s making with “Free Bikes for Kids” that’s really rockin’ the world.

Terry Esau is the speaker at at the Good Leadership Breakfast this Friday. I first met Terry by reading his second and third books: Surprise Me God and Be the Surprise. His artful storytelling and earthy theology helped light the fire in me that fueled the Good Leadership movement.

Today, Terry Esau is a husband, father and grandfather who is peering over the handlebars into his 60s. On any given Saturday there are still as many as 100 cyclists gathering at the end of his driveway for a 50-mile ride. “On one of those rides, we got the idea of giving free bikes to a family who really needed them as Christmas presents to their kids,” he explained. When he returned and found his own garage full of bikes his kids had outgrown, Free Bikes for Kids was born.

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Hundreds of volunteers are following his lead, collecting bicycles and preparing them for their new owners. In 2013 they donated more than 5000 bikes, distributed through 160 local nonprofit agencies, churches, schools and homeless shelters.  With generous sponsors on board, “Where’s he headed now?” is a good question.

“We could give away 30,000 bikes in the Twin Cites alone,” he said because the need is so great. “Someday, there will be chapters throughout the US and the world!” Esau exclaimed. He still sounds like a headstrong 16 year old who wants to ride his bike to The Coast. Where were you headed when you were 16 years old?

Good leaders make a habit of investing themselves fully in their passions. And they live their lives generously – believing any good idea is worth pursuing as long as we work together.

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Our readers will appreciate knowing: How is the direction you were headed at 16 years old still alive in you today?

Meet Terry Esau at the Good Leadership Breakfast this Friday.

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