One More

“This much,” says Mike Sformo, casting his eyes toward the millimeter separating his thumb and index finger. “The different between winning and losing is this much.”

This observation comes after a lifetime of marveling over the reality that, for the most part, people are born with the same faculties, but achieve wildly varying outcomes. Some people are positive and happy, while others are negative and vicious. Some are able to create jobs, businesses, and wealth while building wonderful families, yet others are left homeless and begging for food. “Why do some people make it while others don’t?” Mike asks. “I think of this as the success struggle. Everyone goes through heartbreaks and failures in life, and the difference is what you do with them. So often, the difference is just one more try.”

Mike’s life philosophy is reminiscent of the Japanese concept of Kaizen, which means “change for the best” and entails continuous, daily improvement. It’s about laying one brick after another until you feel you’ve depleted yourself completely, and then challenging yourself to lay just one more, one more, one more. “It’s impossible to reach ultimate perfection, but with each step you take toward it, you get closer,” he says.

Thanks to this philosophy, Mike is now the founder, chairman, and CEO of Operation Backbone, a nonprofit dedicated to providing crucial brain and spine surgical treatments to active duty and veterans around the world. A U.S. Navy veteran who recently suffered a non-military injury for which he sought care, Mike launched the venture in 2012 after finding himself snagged in a web of bureaucracy and red tape for requests that should have been simple. His injury was minor, but the experience was a window into the tremendous burden placed on some service members and their families when they suffer more traumatic experiences.

“Our overall goal is to be able to extract any service member or veteran suffering from a brain or spine injury anywhere in the world and integrate them into the Operation Backbone pipeline by bringing them into one of our facilities around the nation and providing them the treatments they need, followed by post strength, nutrition, and mental rehabilitation services through the National Hockey League – Buffalo Sabres (NHL), which we’re partnered with,” Mike explains. “The surgeons on our team provide their time at no cost, and we work with insurance carriers and our generous donors and sponsors to eliminate any monies coming from the soldiers or their families once in our care. We aim to provide the best surgical treatments available on this planet today at no cost to the solider or the family.” By taking into account the needs of the soldier or veteran’s family as well, Operation Backbone is also about showing spouses and children that there are people who care about making a difference for them. In this way, the organization expands its impact to make the success struggle less of a struggle, producing positive results that reach more people through a transformative ripple effect.

Now that he’s set the vision and begun drawing together the team it will take to get there, Mike sets his mind each day on confronting the learning curve before him. One day finds him working with top spine surgeons on stenosis. Another finds him working with world renowned brain surgeons on brain aneurysms. He might begin the week working on cadavers or on research and discovery in the high tech MRI, CT, and FMRI fields of radiology, discussing a multitude of business, finance, personal, and professional matters with his advisory and board members. He might end the week with his focus shifted to developing his partnership with the Buffalo Sabres, or working with the Pentagon to streamline Operation Backbone’s processes, or promoting the organization through interviews. “The people I work with have so much knowledge that it’s mind blowing,” he exclaims. “The key to my success so far has been my willingness to jump into these uncomfortable situations where I’m truly challenged, because my options are to either quit or learn, and I don’t quit. Brain surgery? I’ll try it. Back surgery? I’ll try it. I give it hell and make it happen.”

Mike’s fearless attitude and unconventional approach to learning stems from a lifelong resistance to traditional academic styles of education. Though his father was a school teacher and principle, and his mother taught school before becoming a homemaker, Mike was the wild child of the family and preferred to be out in the world, learning by doing. Born and raised in Corfu, near Buffalo, New York, his Italian and German parents were well-rounded and encouraged him to try art, music, woodworking, clay, kayaking, camping, reading, and math. A talented athlete, he was the only kid in his ninth grade class to make the varsity baseball team, where he played catcher. “I never understood the point of school, but I had an unbelievable childhood,” he says. “I had very little structure and loved running around with my high school sweetheart, Maria. I also loved working on the farm down the street and still go there to bail hay sometimes when I’m visiting home.”

Having spent his childhood dreaming of becoming a professional bodybuilder, Mike knew college wasn’t for him and instead enrolled in the Navy, where he was introduced to a highly structured program that actually resonated with him quite profoundly. Serving from 1991 to 1995 during the Gulf War, Mike traveled the world and remembers it as one of the greatest experiences of his life. “It didn’t change me that much or calm me down,” he remarks. “If anything, it lent more fuel to my fire because I got to see how big the world is, and how much there was for me to do.”

Stationed in California in his early twenties and working on contracts for the military, Mike first realized that business is done on golf courses far more than it is done in offices or meeting rooms. “I thought people won contracts based on the quality of their product and the competitiveness of their prices, but I was wrong,” he remarks. “It’s more about investing your time in the right people.”

As Mike continued to work his way through the military, he began to realize that the more he learned, the less he knew. “When I was young, I thought I knew how everything worked, but as I got to know people who had achieved incredible personal, professional, and financial success, I realized how much I didn’t know,” he says. “I looked at the things people had created, and I was completely in awe of the sacrifice, passion, and tenacity they displayed as they reached certain levels of success, surpassed them, and then went back to help others along the way. I decided that’s what I want to do, too.”

Despite his love of service, Mike readily noted that the pay structure of the military left much to be desired and decided not to reenlist. Thanks to his experience and network in nuclear technology and the rigging he had done on fast-attack and Boomer submarines, he was immediately snatched up by a civilian group called American Rigging, a San Diego company interested in entering the submarine field, where he assumed blue-collar work. “The hours were long and dirty, and when I got my first set of stitches, I said there had to be an easier way,” Mike laughs. “So I kept pushing, and I was finally allowed to apply my industry knowledge to sales.”

Thanks to his unflagging persistence, Mike succeeded in creating his own department within the company for working with the military, and then had the opportunity to branch out into other fields, including training and work with Sea World. The dynamics he learned on the golf course in the Navy remained relevant as purchase decisions were based on how well a buyer liked a seller, and people were drawn to Mike. “I learned more and more,” he affirms. “When you find yourself in front of someone, and you need them, and they’re willing to give you their time, you don’t waste it.”

After a number of years working in that capacity, Mike went to work for a competing firm and ended up in Atlanta, where Maria was working as a schoolteacher. Mike hadn’t seen her since 1993, and she was engaged to be married, but when the two reconnected, it was as if they had never said goodbye. They married in 2007 and decided to move home to the Buffalo area, where he was invited to be a guest on a radio show. Mike was so invigorated by the experience that he created a show of his own, which focused on entrepreneurship and overcoming setbacks in life. “We talked about the real stuff, like debt and repossession,” he says. Over time, the subject matter shifted to cancer research, and Mike became acquainted with the complex interplay between politics and progress. “My work brought me down to D.C. and Congress,” he explains. “I was stunned to see the obstacles put in peoples’ way as they work to develop new treatments.”

The urgency of Mike’s work was underscored later when his own father was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in 2011 and died just 49 days later. Mike’s family was blessed to be in the room when he took his last breath, and today, Mike wears his father’s watch as a reminder to keep pressing forward with all he’s got. “I have a beautiful wife and three incredible kids,” he says. “The third hand on that watch is ticking away, and when I reach my last breath, I want to know that I did everything I could to put them on the right path and to blaze a trail that will help others in the future.”

Mike didn’t have a job when he and Maria moved down to Washington, but his interest in entrepreneurship and in clearing the obstacles that stood in the way of progress and treatment spawned another radio show. People from all over the U.S. would speak on during his segment, and he began doing consulting work. It was around that time, in 2011, that Mike went to the gym and decided to squat 500 pounds for old times’ sake. Though he hadn’t squatted in years, he was feeling good—until he lowered the weight on his second repetition and heard a sound like the snapping of a dry twig. A horrible, cold sensation shot through his body, and it wasn’t until several hours later, in the emergency room, that his spine cracked again and his senses returned. “I realized I was okay, but I was terrified,” he remembers. “It was my sign from God that my days of loading it up and just doing it in the gym were officially over. He made it clear, so I never look back. I just moved forward and was incredibly thankful I could walk.”

In moving forward, however, Mike was shocked by the confusing and often arbitrary stipulations that determined the quality of care he could receive and how difficult it was to access that care through the VA system. Expressing this concern to Maria, she challenged, “What are you going to do about it?” Thanks to the example set by his father’s stern commitment to follow-through, and by Maria’s unwavering insistence on the importance of finishing what you start, he knew he had to be sure before committing to action. “I saw the journey ahead of me that would become Operation Backbone, and I thought, Oh God,” he remembers. “It would be a career- and family-altering tour for the rest of my life, but I decided to do it.” With that, Mike quit his job and embarked on a journey to change the way medicine is delivered to wounded soldiers around the world.

Mike had no paperwork, no business plan, and no large amounts of money, but when he began asking people to get involved, they agreed without hesitation. From Johns Hopkins physicians to Pentagon officials, everyone wanted to help, and many of the people he had interviewed on his radio show have since reappeared to help the Operation Backbone mission in some way. “I’m proud to say that, two years later, it’s been an incredible journey for me mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially,” Mike affirms. “I wouldn’t change it for anything because, to me, this is what it’s like to really live. This is going out there, knocking on doors, introducing yourself, and communicating to people how important it is that they’re a part of this vision and that they have a role to play. It’s been a lot to spearhead, but it’s like taking a chunk of clay. You have all the tools and ingredients, so you just have to keep shaping and molding it.”

The success of the venture thus far rests on the solid foundation of the leadership skills Mike has cultivated throughout his life, which hold steadfast to a philosophy of candor, passion, faith, and persistence. “Candor is the number one thing people lack today,” he remarks. “It’s important to have a clear vision of what you’re trying to do, and to be able to communicate with others in a direct and honest way. You also have to have passion, because people don’t want to invest in someone who’s only pursuing a hobby. And for those who aren’t won over to the cause initially, it takes true tenacity. You just have to keep pressing forward and pressing forward, no matter the obstacles.”

Despite the strong character traits that have guided Operation Backbone’s development to date, Mike readily admits that the organization would not exist today if it wasn’t for Maria. “It’s been a miracle to have her around,” he avows. “On my own, I would have accepted an easy way out, but she was insistent. Because of her, all of these troops and their families will benefit. The soldiers and their families are the heroes, and the Operation Backbone team is the true driving force.”

In advising young people entering the working world today, Mike likens the experience to looking into a forest packed full of trees and obstacles. “Pick the tree you want, block out everything else, and aim,” he instructs. “Once you take your eye off that target, you’re done. To this day, I still have to redirect my gaze when I realize I’m eyeing too many targets. Just focus on the mission at hand and don’t get distracted.” More than anything else, however, he stresses the importance of reaching beyond one’s self in one’s life goals. “I believe we’re put on this earth to provide a view, or an option, or even a roadblock for others,” Mike affirms. “I think that’s the true secret to success—something that’s often lost when we look in the mirror and say, ‘What about me?’ That kind of mindset only magnifies our problems. But when we focus on helping other people, our own problems seem so irrelevant, and life takes on new meaning.”

Integral to this effort is an element of faith—faith in something beyond your immediate perception, faith that your efforts will pay off, and faith in your vision. “I remember being in the Navy and going out on deck one night, where it was pitch black,” he recounts. “You couldn’t even see your own hand in front of your face, but after five minutes, your eyes would adjust and you could finally see the world around you. Faith is trying to see in the dark like that. People are terrified of the dark, and terrified of looking at their own shortcomings. The really successful people are those who try to see—those who get up every day and say, how can I change to be faster, stronger, or better? It’s those who say, what’s one more thing I can do to make this happen? Just one more?”

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