My Gooficity Level Was High — Your Steps Have Considerably Lowered It – Tom F.

About This Speaker Tape

Tom Flynn tells his story at the Atlantic Group with a delivery that is equal parts stand-up comedy and gut-punch honesty. An Irish Catholic from a large family, Tom co-founded a successful company, made a fortune, and then lost everything — his 25-year marriage, his job (fired from the company he helped build), and all his money. He went from living in a fashionable neighborhood to sleeping under a bridge, where he learned what he calls "bridge etiquette" — always pick the top shelf of a double-decker bridge. He ended up in a psychiatric facility, where a very large nurse informed him plainly: "You are nuts."

Tom arrived at AA on August 14, 1980 — divorced, fired, broke, and institutionalized. He describes the guilt of breaking his last sacred promise to someone who loved him, and the shame of breaking promises to a Higher Power he didn't yet believe in. A sponsor named Wally, a man with soft blue eyes and 16 years of sobriety, took him on and explained the concept of perilousness from page 43 of the Big Book: whether you're drinking or stopped, you're in danger either way. Wally told him there's nothing to study in AA — there are things to do.

In sobriety, Tom founded a new company at age 57 using the 12 Traditions of AA as his business principles. Twenty years later, the company operates across the United States with four employees in recovery, has never spent a dollar on advertising, and is extremely successful. Tom describes developing a relationship with Higher Power through plain, honest prayer — no theology required. He shares a moving story about a Spanish nun named Sister Malagra who prayed for him for nine years without knowing his name, only that he was "Sister Sheila's brother, the drunk." When Tom got sober and traveled to Philadelphia to thank her, the elderly nun wept — not because of his gratitude, but because his sobriety proved that Higher Power still knew where she was and still heard her prayers.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Atlantic Group opening, preamble, steps, and traditions read aloud
• 8:30 Mark Alexander shares his story — European upbringing, drinking from age 10, liquid confidence, and finding sobriety in May 2004
• 19:00 Leila shares her story — family history of alcoholism, acting career in New York, 9/11 as an excuse to drink, and her dog cowering in the corner as her bottom
• 30:00 Tom Flynn takes the podium — alcohol as an answer, drinking progression from fun to numbness
• 34:00 Direct hits — divorce after 25 years, fired from company he co-founded, losing his fortune from shark to bait
• 38:00 Living under a bridge — bridge etiquette, double-decker strategy, and the amenity of no mail delivery
• 42:00 Waking up in the institution — the encounter with the very large nurse who told him he was nuts
• 46:00 Getting sponsor Wally — soft blue eyes, the teaching on perilousness from page 43 of the Big Book
• 52:00 Founded a new company at age 57 on AA's 12 Traditions — twenty years of success with under one dollar in advertising
• 57:00 Sister Malagra story — Spanish nun prayed for him nine years, his sobriety proved Higher Power still heard her prayers