“Life is like sports; the win is credited to the players, not the spectators.”
MDZ, 1998

Mike DeZinno is a nationally known speaker, widely recognized as a skilled tradesman and an expert in traditional and non-traditional businesses, including the home-based business model. He has achieved documented success in industries where most people fail. Mike is a remarkable individual who has never let his blindness or anything else hold him back.

Mike was born legally blind and became the first blind child allowed to attend public school in the U.S. Being the first, schools were totally unprepared for a blind but gifted child like Mike. Since he was unable to read and Braille was not taught in public schools, there was no standard curriculum for his teachers to follow. He went through twelve years of education as functionally illiterate, relying solely upon what he heard in class and upon his uncanny ability to remember everything he heard.

Still, over the years, a number of his teachers didn’t want him in their class and said so, not only to Mike, but also to anyone who tried to help him. These teachers openly opposed Mike’s attempt to get an education by their hostile attitudes and by the hurtful things they would say to him in front of the entire class. Some even engaged in behaviors that today would be considered criminal child abuse, like when a teacher stood over Mike at his desk and screamed at him because he didn’t have his book open to the correct page! On the first day of school in his senior year, the abuse became physical when a teacher shoved him out of the classroom and forbade Mike to enter the room!

Like many times before, Mike survived by remembering what his mom told him when he was a young child facing opposition. The value of his life wouldn’t be determined by the few things he could NOT do, but rather by the many things he COULD do. So, Mike went back to focusing on his goal to graduate and get that all-important diploma. Mike proved the power of his audiographic memory and his resilience to both his supporters and detractors when he took his SATs orally and scored in the top three percent in the nation before graduating.

The trades were a part of Mike’s life since he was a small child. He grew up in an industrial city in New England where just about every male head of a household was a blue-collar worker with at least one trade skill, and many had multiple skills. Mike’s father was a high school dropout who became a self-taught, highly skilled electrical engineer. He started his own television and radio repair business in the early 1950’s and Mike’s hands-on training in the trades started at seven years old when Mike began working in his father’s business running a drill press. As brilliant as Mike’s father was, it wasn’t enough to overcome the severe alcoholism which caused his business to fail and which led him to abandon Mike, Mike’s younger brother, and Mike’s immigrant mother who had to work three jobs just to survive in a state housing project, in poverty and in substantial debt.

After high school, he attended the University of Connecticut where he double majored in theoretical physics and mathematics. While in college, he had a chance encounter with someone who had a PhD in theoretical physics and who was pumping gas because he couldn’t find a job using his PhD but had to do something to support himself. After investigating and confirming that jobs were indeed scarce even with a PhD, Mike left college, but continued on with the two trade jobs that he had been working to get through school. Mike decided he’d had enough when he discovered that he got only a nickel raise when the people he trained just three months prior had gotten a quarter. When he dared to question it, he was told outright that it was because he was blind. This ultimate in justice was the impetus for Mike to become self-employed. Two weeks later, Mike left his job of six years and started his own home improvement company using his trade skills. Over the next twenty-five years, he earned certifications and worked in many trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, industrial electrical, millwrighting, HVAC, roofing, siding, cabinet making, custom laminating, welding, servicing boilers, elevator repair, general automotive repair, and he even was the head mechanic for a bus company. He did all this while still unable to read and unable to drive.In some years, he had to spend as much as two-thirds of his personal income to pay people to read blueprints or technical manuals to him and/or drive him to get materials or get to the actual job sites. Through it all, Mike was never shaken in his belief that a harvest will only ever come to those who have the faith to sow seeds.

As Mike’s reputation as a skilled tradesman grew, he began to build a substantial real estate portfolio as he moved into inner city rehab, land development, and new home construction, He felt the need to know more about the white-collar world, so he began studying real estate, insurances, securities, and mortgages. There were rules and regulations to learn and tests to take to earn certifications and licenses. Although calculators and open book assistance was allowed, they were useless to Mike. He had to make special arrangements to take all exams orally, relying solely upon his audiographic memory and his strong communication skills. Mike earned six certifications and licenses. The knowledge Mike gained not only helped him, but benefited many others when Mike did consumer protection work as a volunteer for several years.

Mike’s life-long journey of learning and overcoming perceived personal limitations, coupled with Mike’s ability to take very complex concepts and explain them in terms that are easily understood, have put him in an excellent position to do what gives him the most satisfaction: helping other people win.

In keeping with his reputation as a modern-day renaissance man, Mike is launching four ground-breaking public initiatives for 2023.