(1) SUMMARY—BACKGROUND
While Rico Racosky’s life today is a fiery blend of fighter pilot, airline pilot, international best-selling author, speaker, graphic designer, inventor, and Just 2 Choices Radio Show co-host, his early life began as a genuinely unique combination of his love of all things aeronautic and his passion for art. So today it might not come as a surprise that both of these “visual careers” are still playing out in his life in a major way—in his dual careers as a former F16 fighter pilot now-turned airline pilot (Southwest Airlines) and as an author/publisher of multiple graphically-original books that quickly and clearly explain life through VISUALS rather than mere words.
(2) EDUCATION
Rico holds a BS in Management from the United States Air Force Academy and an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.
(3) BORN & RAISED IN A SMALL PENNSYLVANIA COAL MINING and steel town in western PA, Rico dreamed of staying “above ground”—waaaay above the ground with flight, although his family worked in the coal mines. Faced with a choice of whether to attend college to pursue graphic design and commercial art—or aviation—he applied to schools for each. Accepted to both, when a spot in aviation opened up, he jumped on it, relegating art to a hobby… for the time being. Working very hard in school for his grades was his “normal” and many times he felt as if he was in a dense fog about HOW he was actually achieving his dreams. In his pursuit to figure out this HOW, one day a friend asked him to speak to her high school students about aviation, dreams, and achieving goals. This turned out to be more of a Q & A than a talk, and while answering a student’s question about setting goals, the formula dreams + action = Reality flashed into mind and he immediately recognized that this formula answered his own question as to HOW he had made his dreams become Reality.
(4) HELPING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS—> ACHIEVE GOALS
Thinking that other kids might find the dreams + action = Reality formula useful—yet having never considered writing a book—Rico stepped right into it, wrote the book, self-published, and through word of mouth, found himself being invited to speak at schools on goals and dreams achievement. One children’s positive choice book led to the next—three in all—dreams + action = Reality, Go Vertical—Life Has No Ceiling, and d+a=R. These then led to the insights for writing and publishing Just 2 Choices… It Is Your Life in 2009 (first edition).
(5) RADIO SHOW HOST—“JUST 2 CHOICES CELEBRITY” Guests
In order to understand Just 2 Choices even more, in 2015, Rico, with the generous help of Neil Haley of the Total Education Network, created a Just 2 Choices Radio Show. The 30-minute show’s objective was to interview celebrities about their life choices—and—at the end of each show, to have the celebrities answer a “Choice Mapping” survey question: “What percentage of life is choice—and what percentage of life is circumstance? Several of the celebrity guests have included:
• Roger Staubach, former quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys;
• Dr John Gray (Mars-Venus); Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad);
• Dee Wallace (movies ET and Cujo and more);
• Dan “Rudy” Ruettiger (creator of the movie RUDY);
• Darra Torres (4x Olympic Gold Medalist, swimming);
• Tamika Catchings Smith (WNBA Indiana Fever, 4x Olympic Gold
Medalist);
• Dr Mike Dow (The Brain Fog Fix);
• Heather Dane (The Bone Broth Secret); Dr Mitchell Yass (The Pain
Cure Rx);
• Dana Liesegang (Falling Up);
• JB Glossinger (The Sacred 6);
• Jim Hanifan (NFL head coach, Washington Redskins); and more..
Every celebrity answered the Choice Mapping survey question—with a range from life is 100% choice… to life is 40% choice-60% circumstance (and 90/10, 80/20, 70/30 in between). In turn, the Choice Mapping data is being used to map peoples’ perceptions about how much of their lives they “own” or determine with their choices, as well as being used as a way of opening future conversations on making conscious choices in life. Rico calls this conscious choice making a Choice Revolution, where, as people learn to “revolutionize” their daily choices consciously, they can “revolutionize” their lives… conscious choice by choice by choice.
(6) On top of the Choice Mapping, Rico’s VISUAL connection between art and aviation led him to invent and patent graphics that precisely pinpoint the “performance” of every person’s choices with immediate feedback. As a result, he’s also known as the “New Story Guy” for his unique skill at showing people how to use their Just 2 Choices to instantly “Tell a New Story”—so they can quickly get on the path of positive choice and sustain that new positive direction for a lifetime. At Harvard University, he was a featured speaker on his pioneering, primal, and binary Just 2 Choices system of thought and the Choice Revolution.
(7) INSIGHTS INTO THE “VISUAL” BOOK DESIGN MODEL
Not surprisingly, Just 2 Choices… It Is Your Life is infused with Racosky’s vivid artistic sense of design and visual explanations, which tie in with aviation’s precise use of instruments—visuals in the cockpit—that instantlygive the pilot the immediate feedback to performance. Thus, Just 2 Choices is the perfect blend of Racosky’s analytical skills and logic that have been honed in aviation, and his intuitive insights brought forth through art and design. Using his VISUAL imagery, instead of just words, Racosky pioneers the true power of choice in a way that creates simple, instantaneous clarity.
Racosky holds a BS in Management from the United States Air Force Academy and an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. He also recently transitioned from flying full-time as a pilot for Southwest Airlines—FORTUNE’s “8th Most Admired Company in the World” in 2018—to committing his full-time efforts to his dream of going global with Just 2 Choices.
