Executive Profile: Jon Robinson, founder and CEO, Enabled Traveler

“And people would comment, saying they were glad someone is saying something about this,” Robinson said. Those encouraging comments pushed him to consider creating a business around the idea.

His wife also pushed him toward establishing Enabled Traveler, Robinson said.

“She asked what I really wanted to do, and I said I wouldn’t mind being a travel host,” he said. “But I knew I couldn’t hike eight miles through the outdoors like some TV travel show hosts. Then it hit me: Why could I do it as a person with a disability, showing how others could do it, too?”

Robinson said he wanted to start a travel show for people with disabilities, but decided to launch a website first, enabledtraveler.com.

Today, his business has three tiers. The first is enabledtraveler.com, which provides booking, consultations and other travel services for people with disabilities. The second is enabledtraveler.org, a nonprofit that helps organizations find funds to improve urban infrastructure to make cities more accessible.

“The reasoning is, if they make these areas more accessible, more of us with disabilities can travel to them,” Robinson said.

The third tier is that TV show he always dreamed of hosting. Colours TV, which bills itself as “America’s only multicultural television network,” has agreed to pick up the show, and Robinson expects the show to appear in early 2011.

“That’s the third piece, but it’s really the centerpiece of the organization,” Robinson said. “That’s what I wanted to do from the beginning.”

Robinson said he’s heard some negative remarks when he explains his ideas, with some people saying that he wouldn’t be able to find places that were totally handicapped-accessible for disabled travelers.

“It’s not about a place being fully handicapped compliant,” Robinson said. “But if there are 10 negative things on your list of why you can’t go to Hawaii, if I remove seven of them, is that now a reason for you to go?”

His plan, as host of the TV show, is to show viewers that if there’s a will, there’s a way.

“There’s a way to do this if you want to do this. We can remove some of the barriers,” he said.

People with disabilities need to find ways to be able to do the things they used to enjoy before injuries or illness sidelined them, Robinson said, and the ability to travel is important quality of life issue for them.

“You can’t just get caught up in your wounds, getting out of bed and getting dressed. That’s not all I need,” Robinson said.

“There’s a lot more involved in making you feel like you’re really living.”

Robinson said he was inspired by a show about a man who was a paraplegic who climbed Mount Hood.

“You don’t have to go out and climb Mount Everest, but you need interaction with family and friends, getting out of the house, whatever makes you want to get up in the morning,” he said. “If you can do some portion of that again, you won’t lose your zest for life.”

Background

Age: 38.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Cleary University, concentrated in Marketing. Currently two classes away from completing MBA at Eastern Michigan University.

Family: Married, no children, unless you count my doggy, Poppy The Doggy.

Residence: Pittsfield Township.

Business Insights

Best business decision: Not being afraid to network. Relationships are key to a business’s success.

Worst business decision: Leaving a field I enjoyed due to external pressures. If I had stayed in it, I would probably be retired now, having earned quite a good living, and made a mark that I could be proud of in said industry.

Best way to keep a competitive edge: Always find ways to keep things fresh. For instance, bringing back a successful campaign that has been forgotten due merely to the passage of time. A good example would be a gas station offering full service attendants that would pump your gas and provide all the little extras that came along with it in days past.

Personal hero: My mother, Pauline Jones. My father Samuel Robinson passed away when I was 3 years old, which left my mother with three children to bring up on her own. She was able to pull it off even though she was disabled due to being hit by a car. She is currently a stage four cancer survivor. I love you, Mom.

How do you motivate people? I believe that actions speak louder than words. So to motivate, you must get out and show that whatever it is you’re advocating, you are willing to get your hands dirty to make happen as well. No one likes an armchair quarterback.

What advice would you give to yourself in college? I would tell myself that if my career choice did not require a college education to succeed in it, to drop out of school immediately. I believe that college is something you need if it’s training you for a particular career and you can only obtain that career through this training. Meaning, to become a doctor you need to go to school. However, to be a concert promoter you probably don’t need that secondary education. You can get all the training you need via on the job training. I am slowly beginning to understand that college is, in some ways, overrated.

Word that best describes you: Worrisome.

First website you check in the morning: Wall Street Journal.

Confessions

What keeps you up at night? Everything. I truly am someone that worries for the world. Everything that is not right in the world keeps me on a constant search for why things are the way they are and how I can help in some small way to make things better. I also worry about leaving the planet with an enduring legacy. I want to be remembered in a positive light.

Pet peeve: Dirty carpet.

Guilty pleasure: Watching “Little House On The Prairie.”

First job: McDonald’s.

First choice for a new career: Full-time travel host of Enabled Traveler TV.

Treasures

Favorite cause: Animals. I am an advocate for the just treatment of animals.

Favorite book: “The Evolution Of God” by Robert Wright.

Favorite movie: “A Raisin In The Sun.”

Favorite hobby: Emceeing (rapping). That was my first profession and first love.

Favorite restaurant: Teriyaki Time in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown.

LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Facebook.

Typical Saturday: Up about 8 a.m., water aerobics at the Washtenaw Recreation Center, stop at Whole Foods Market afterward for some fresh fruit, a haircut at The Fuller Cut in Ypsilanti, a stop off for a pedicure and manicure (Yes, a man can enjoy a mani/pedi), then a stop by my mother’s to check on her, and then back home for a nice afternoon nap. Get up and plot the evening’s course with my wife. The evening will more than likely involve going to dinner and a movie, or something similar to this. Come back home, play with the dog, and then head to bed so I can rise early Sunday morning to check out my favorite painter, Bobby Ross on PBS.

What team do you root for? All Michigan teams, even the Lions.

Wheels: Currently a Mercury Milan is the wheels of choice. However, the next go round will more than likely be a Lincoln MKS. I can’t resist— it’s a really nice looking car.

Who would play you in a movie? I don’t know, but I would love to play Stephen Hawking in a story about his life.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at sarahrigg@yahoo.com.