'Apprentice' TV Show Participant Troy McClain Learns his Business Skills from an Unusual Source

By Daniel J. Vance
Special to ASSIST News Service

Troy McClain

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (ANS) -- Perhaps you remember Troy McClain appearing on Donald Trump's highly rated "The Apprentice" television show in 2004.

Since then, besides starting numerous business ventures, McClain ultimately became a passionate worldwide advocate for people with disabilities, including being an official spokesperson for the week-long 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games that begin February 7 in Boise, Idaho. In addition, he's a real estate developer, sought-after speaker, and Participant Centered Results facilitator.

"I'm originally from Anchorage, Alaska," said 38-year-old McClain in a telephone interview from his Boise, Idaho, home.

"And when I was 14, my parents decided they would divorce. So my father took me hunting one last time before the split. From that hunting trip, I got pneumonia and was put in a Native-run hospital," McClain said.

While visiting him in the hospital, McClain's mother bonded with a 4-year-old Eskimo girl residing there as a ward of the state. DoraLynn Kignack had been institutionalized her entire life, was profoundly deaf, didn't know sign language, and had an intellectual disability. Unexpectedly, Troy's mother decided on-the-spot to adopt DoraLynn.

McClain resisted. He felt DoraLynn would negatively affect his popularity with school-age peers due to the social stigma of her having multiple disabilities and being Eskimo.

"Having my mom make her part of my life was a big change for me," he said. "I resisted DoraLynn at first. But it was (DoraLynn's) persistent love for me, without question, that eventually won me over."

Though DoraLynn had "zero communication skills" at first, McClain sensed something very special about his newly adopted sister. Eventually, they became best friends, and her influence has been a major factor in his becoming a successful real estate developer, speaker through The McClain Company, and a facilitator for Participant Centered Results, a business helping companies change employee thoughts and actions to improve relationships and results.

"This little girl was a warrior who taught us how to live," he said.

"Today, everybody wants to know where I learned my business principles. They think Trump, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett taught me. (McClain has met all three.) But I learned it from leaders like DoraLynn. I learned from her ability to listen. She is the most proficient person I've ever met in terms of nonverbal listening skills. For instance, she taught me how to read people in business settings in which they were telling me one thing verbally and their body language was saying something different."

McClain's life changed dramatically 24 years ago, when his recently divorced mother adopted DoraLynn, a 4-year-old deaf Eskimo girl with an intellectual disability.

"My mom and I had a big argument when we first got DoraLynn," said McClain in a telephone interview, who wasn't thrilled about the adoption then.

"The doctors described all her conditions, and kept describing her in language that was uninviting to someone wanting to adopt a child. They said DoraLynn was going to be a cost, would be time-consuming, and eventually, they described her as a liability."

His mother had been a truck driver and bar bouncer, and herself described as a liability at one time. "And her power of persuasion quickly turned these doctors' heads," he said.

"She said, 'Let me tell you what a liability is. It is someone who lies about their abilities. And you (the doctors) haven't even given her a chance to talk.'"

In time, DoraLynn and McClain became best friends. Eventually, she taught him the nonverbal listening skills he would use to build a multi-million dollar business. Through it, he has met business leaders Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Warren Buffett.

McClain believes society should rethink the way it describes people with disabilities.

"Here you have a community of people that we are putting down by giving them labels such as handicapped, retarded, deaf and dumb," he said.

"We need to start using words that don't define or limit them. The more we believe people with disabilities are limited, the more we continue to miss out on what they have to offer."

As for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games: McClain said not many people realize Special Olympics has summer and winter world events every four years. (The Special Olympics are for people with intellectual disabilities.)

"In size, these games are second only to the (traditional) Olympics," he said.

"It is bigger than the Paralympics (for people with physical disabilities) and the X Games. Athletes from about 110 countries will participate and the Games will create an estimated $50 million cash infusion into Boise." 

Daniel J. Vance's weekly newspaper column Disabilities has been published in about 250 newspapers. Disabilities is the nation's best-read weekly column featuring people with disabilities. It's sent free to newspapers because of grants from Palmer Bus Service, and All American Foods. Mr. Vance is the editor of Connect Business Magazine and the author/co-author of ten books, including his newest 172-page history collection called Unique Mankato! Unique Mankato! relives eight great forgotten stories of Mankato, Minnesota, including ones involving U.S. Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Julia A. Sears, Harry Truman, Moses Wickersham, Sinclair Lewis and Maud Hart Lovelace. Vance and his wife homeschool a 12-year-old daughter with spina bifida and an 11-year-old son. A Cincinnati native, he moved in 1995 from Baltimore to Minnesota, where the weather gets plenty cold. Contact Vance at www.danieljvance.com