Review
51 stories about how a disabled person views life by Rosemary E. Musachio, Editor
In 1965 James R. Hasse graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsins School of Journalism with a B.S. degree in journalism and advertising. After graduation, Hasse joined Wisconsin Dairies Cooperative where he climbed the ladder to communication director and then vice president of communication.
After serving for twenty-eight years with Dairies Cooperative, he decided to form his own consulting business, Hasse Communication Consulting.
Pretty impressive, especially when you consider he has cerebral palsy--like yours truly. Although Hasses disability isnt quite as severe as mine (he uses crutches and has slurred speech while Im in a wheelchair and cant talk at all), it still has affected his life quite a bit. In fact, he has written a book called Break Out: When You Dont Quite The Mold where he gives insights about how he and others perceive his cerebral palsy. Unlike other books written by and about individuals with disabilities, Hasses doesnt amplify his struggles. Instead, he undertakes a retrospective tone throughout the book, making us aware of all our strengths and weaknesses.
For readers with and without disabilities, Break Out makes us look within ourselves to discover our potential and our room for improvement. Although it may not wow you, each of the fifty-one stories will give you different perspectives on how a disabled person looks upon life. After you read it, you will be either amused, enlightened, inspired, or all three. But most of all, youll discover that people with disabilities are just ordinary folks who want to succeed in life. -- Sun Newspapers
I was hooked
I ordered Jim's book and am just now finishing it. I can't say that I would describe it as 'inspirational' per se, (but then I'm not all that enthused about 'inspirational' literature), but I did find it very enlightening, entertaining, and thought provoking. There are a series of questions at the end of some of the chapters which invite the reader to be introspective in regard to serious issues which face not only the disabled, but all people.
The book is extremely well written and the author's writing style is very engaging. I found myself identifying with some of the humorous predicaments he found himself in, as well as those uncomfortable moments when a disability can tend to make one's approach to inter-personal relationships more difficult than might otherwise be the case. The stories reflect the author's life in a sensible manner without that distasteful, sappy, 'victim' tonality which some literature contains.
I was intrigued by what I read at (Jims) web site - there are sample chapters there. Those were enough to get me to purchase the book. I was not disappointed, although, if I had to make one suggestion, I found that some of the chapters seemed unfinished. That is not to say they were not well written, but when I turned the page, looking for more, I found there was no more! I wanted to know more, and perhaps that's a good recommendation because I was hooked.
Good writing! -- SusanG, 8/19/97
Reaches many by Donna Woodward
... In ("Break Out"), Jim balances poignancy with humor and captures the reader with his honesty. He speaks of his successes without boasting, his pain without indulgence, his relationships without pretense. By telling his own story, Jim reaches many. All of us at one time or another, "dont quite fit the mold ..." -- The Wrting Academy News, Winter, 1997
About the Author
As owner of Hasse Communication Counseling, James R. Hasse specializes in developing, marketing and facilitating Web-based communities for disability audiences.
He is developer, facilitator and marketer of his own extensive discussion-forum web site, tell-us-your-story.com, which gives people with disabilities the opportunity to share and showcase their personal-experience stories.
Hes accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators.
In 1965, Jim graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madisons School of Journalism, where he earned a B.S. degree in journalism and advertising with honors, and joined Wisconsin Dairies Cooperative (now Foremost Farms USA), Baraboo, WI, two years after it was formed as a $30 million-a-year company.
As the head of corporate communications for the company, he counseled senior management through 15 mergers and acquisitions and saw the business become a Fortune 500 company.
Jim established his own business in 1994, after completing 28 years of service at Foremost Farms. During 16 of those 28 years, he reported to the CEO (first as communication director and then as vice president - communication). He also served as the company's organizational development officer (in charge of developing the organization's strategic planning function and a management system to go with it).
In 1994, Jim received the Cooperative Spirit Award from the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA), a national organization for professional communications employed by cooperatives, and the Cooperative Builder Award from the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives, a state-wide trade association.
In 1995, he received CCAs most prestigious honor, the H.E. Klinefelter Award for distinguished service in cooperative communications.
He's the author of Break Out: Finding Freedom When You Don't Quite Fit The Mold (Quixote Publications, 1996) and has had articles published in numerous regional and national publications, including Careers & disABLD, The Source, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin).
Jim also currently serves as secretary of the board of directors for the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy.
