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"Live Simply, So Others Can Simply Live" |
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2006-11 - by Susan McIver -
Jon-Lee Kootnekoff of Penticton is leading a fulfilling life helping others to recognize their inherent potential. He conducts personal growth seminars, workshops and talks for schools, First Nations' communities, corporations and government agencies.
"I'm an inspirational and motivation speaker," said Jon-Lee, a 40-year veteran of the speaking and seminar circuit. "My approach is to help people increase personal effectiveness, efficiency and productivity by looking behind and beyond the dense jungle of habit-forming stale thought patterns," he said. Topics addressed by Jon-Lee include goal setting, communications, awareness, stress management and creative thinking and problem solving. He uses humour, compassion, modern self-image psychology and his own extensive life experiences to help young people and adults break down limiting thought patterns. At the heart of Jon-Lee's own experiences is the struggle between his simple pacifist Doukhobor background and the materialistic warring world at large.
The grandson of a Doukhobor couple who fled Russia in 1899, Jon-Lee was born 36-years later in Canora, Saskatchewan. In 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, Jon-Lee's parents moved the family to a mixed farm in the Fraser Valley. "We stood out like a sore thumb," he said, recalling the clash between his family's 'keepers of Mother Earth' philosophy which compelled them to dry and return weeds to the soil and the human slaughter reported daily from the battlefront.
Eventually, he drifted away from his Doukhobor heritage. Jon-Lee combined brain and brawn to achieve considerable worldly success. He received a basketball scholarship to attend Seattle University and played on the 1960 Canadian Olympic basketball team. Subsequently, he earned a Master's degree, taught school in the United States and was eventually voted to the American College and University's 'Who's Who' for achievement in academics and athletics.
Jon-Lee returned to Canada in 1965 as coach of Simon Fraser University's basketball team, which he led to successive championships. These achievements, however, failed to bring him lasting personal happiness and contentment. In 1971 he suffered a self-described collapse due to his doubts about his path in life.
"I questioned the Viet Nam War and the U.S. military machine that spends so much on killing," he said. He began to see parallels between war and intensely competitive sports. The teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi influenced his thinking.
"I realized I needed a paradigm shift in my life that included my Doukhobor heritage," said Jon-Lee. He began to spend considerable time with a number of different First Nation peoples and to follow his family's teaching of 'live simply so others can simply live." "I realized I am meant to be an agent for change, a gently assertive provocateur," he said.
In that capacity, he has worked with everyone from leaders of such corporations as Coca Cola, Sun Life Insurance and ReMax Realty to imprisoned rapists and pedophiles to children in classrooms and on sports teams. For the past 22 consecutive summers, he has worked with students at the Okanagan Hockey School based in Penticton on developing self-esteem.
"If you love yourself and have confidence, you have no desire to harm others," he tells the aspiring NHL players.
Jon-Lee is the author of several books including "from Kooty with Love-a journey of self-discovering through the games of life" and "Papa, Please Tell Johnny You Love Him-The Journey & Adventures of Douk-A-Bor Dan-Dee".
For more information visit the website www.jlkootnekoff.com or call Jon-Lee at (250) 493-7309. |
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