This week 60 Minutes featured an architect who went blind mid-career. Instead of finding a new career that wasn’t visually demanding, he adjusted the way he architected. And 10 years later he is just as successful, and he says probably a better architect for it.
My best friend was in a snowboarding accident 9 years ago. One bad jump and he was paralyzed from the waist down. Instead of feeling sorry for himself and excusing himself into a life of timidity, he continued to travel the world – New Zealand and Japan most recently…on his own…in his wheelchair.
Steve was a senior in college when he started losing his coordination and slurring his speech. Soon after he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Instead of taking the backseat, Steven Hawking went on to become the most well-known physicist in history, writing A Brief History of Time and proving the existence of black holes.
I stand in awe of these three and people like them. You can’t help but wonder “Do I have what it takes to keep moving forward if that happened to me?”.
Here’s the thing: you do. And that’s not taking away anything from Chris, Keith or Steve. But what they tapped into is something that we all have within us.
For all our flaws, we humans have an astonishing ability to face and conquer challenges – both small and life-changing – head on.
The question is not if we have what it takes. We do.
The question is – will we use it?
