People with Autism often struggle with finding meaningful employment. Here’s Ben’s remarkable story and essays on his journey and his advice for others living with autism:
“Despite having autism, I managed to have employment success. I started writing articles for websites and magazines in 1999. This got me access to attending fitness conventions yearly such as the Arnold Sports Festival, the Los Angeles fit expo and the Mr. Olympia weekend in Las Vegas with a media press pass. I write published reports on these events even to this day.
I also interview some of the biggest name celebrities in the world at these events. For example, I interviewed Super Bowl champions for Iron Man Magazine after they won the Super Bowl, and I did projects with celebrities ranging from top name movie stars, singers, athletes, and entertainers. I also made friends with all kinds of interesting people from over 88 different countries. I have set some weightlifting records at these events. Iron Man magazine has given me my own bio for some of my achievements.
Autism has given me the toughness, memory, creativity, and fixed interests to make achievements that are impossible for others to make. I also have had jobs where I helped others train at sports camps, and where I trained those on the autism spectrum. I love helping others with developmental disabilities. I call this deep pleasure and I have found this rewarding.
I worked in a restaurant, and I became the first employee to make the Six Flags Johnny Rockets Hall of Fame. With my fast brain, I could take 2,000 pieces of silverware and sort them all in 30 seconds. I also bartended. I made friends with all employees ranging from people who were 15 to over 80. My mind was able to adapt to their minds because I knew something about their interests. I also could adapt to their energy.
I made friends with all kinds of employees who I would do everything with from paddle boarding, boating, late night outings such as going to the bars in Saratoga, having days of fun with work friends at the Six Flags Great Escape amusement park and I have gone on international trips to places such as Europe with friends I met at the restaurant.
We also did fun things such as have air hockey competitions, basketball arcade shooting games, racing games and had fun playing all kinds of games in the arcade. Johnny Rockets took my picture, my world records, my accolades, and my iron man magazine bio as they put it on their sports bar wall for every guest and tourist to see. It’s standing there next to other sport greats such as Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan.
I would encourage others on the spectrum to work if it’s something they like to do. Work has many benefits. For example, it teaches life skills! It teaches how to have a good relationship with others and allows people to meet people who they wouldn’t meet naturally by other means. Work also teaches people to build toughness and be a team player for the world. If one is Introverted, work is a way for someone to go within and learn to feel their high euphoria
of autism (internally,) and feel eudaimonia as satisfaction.
There can be lots of production to work on all kinds of levels from building character to achieving goals even outside of work. Do what makes you happy, but work is always an option that can lead to numerous opportunities, dreams, memories, fulfillments, purposes, and rewards. With the right attitude and by being a good team player, work enhances compassion, happiness and the challenge of work enhances inner advancement."
Autism weaknesses
becoming strengths
“As weird as this may sound, autism helped me achieve some of my dreams…
As a kid, I showed many behaviors that resembled a disability. Some of these include being overly hyper, not being focused, asking strangers too many crazy questions, getting inappropriately silly, fearing germs, doing anything for a laugh, locking myself in my room, not being able to sit still and having fixed interests. Some of these behaviors landed me in special schools or created conflict around others, but later they helped me live my dreams. All it took was channeling these behaviors in directions that were healthy.
I learned that my aggressive energy could allow me to set some records in weightlifting or help me with active jobs. I learned that not always being focused could make me happy in an infinite blissful way that focused people don’t always understand. There can be a random euphoria to autism, that neurotypicals don’t always understand. I learned that asking too many questions allowed me to interview celebrities ranging from names such as John Cena, The Rock, Floyd Mayweather, Carmen Electra and hundreds of others. It was just a matter of finding the right people to ask the right questions over time. I learned that getting silly was a useful tool to have fun with friends in ways that being overly serious, and tense doesn’t always allow.
I did jobs at an early age to overcome my fear of germs, as that allowed me to meet all kinds of friends at different jobs. Jobs also taught me to be tough and how to socialize with people from all different walks of life. I learned that you can’t communicate with everyone the same way as everyone has different interests, experiences, personalities, and minds. Maybe sitting still was hard for me as a kid, but through traveling and doing my own thing, I learned I can find solitude from sitting still when I relax. Intense extrinsic energy through meditations can transform into healthy prodigious energies and bliss. Having fixed interests was hard when I was younger, but later I discovered that it was a tool to go farther with my interests and goals than if I was indifferent and proper all the time. Fixed interests also gave me the detailed mind to do unique things such as kick as basketball from full court into a hoop repeatedly. It takes desire and having a passion to find success and people with autism often have lots of passion. The key is guiding it in the right ways, and it starts often with a job or a discipline tool, meaning a productive interest.
I believe that others on the spectrum can be successful. They just have to learn to utilize their unfocused energies into production. Dreams can come true. Make some changes. All of our memories stay with us, and all of our future memories create dreams that could never happen without them. Do not fear failure because it takes some risks to get the boat rocking! Once the ship becomes unstoppable, failure doesn’t seem like failure because you have a dedicated support and the successes will outweigh the failures. Once the journey to progress starts and a system develops, it only gets easier. Go for it."
Ben's Photo Gallery
Get to know Ben a bit better by checking out some photos that he shared with us of some of his hobbies, interests, and strengths!
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