Maya Angelou, an American author said, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it”. How often in life have we said “Why Me” when we are down?. How often have people used adversity as an excuse to not move forward in Life?. The next time when you are down, look up to these people. If it can’t lift you, nothing in this World can!
1. Nick Vujicic (Motivational speaker having born without limbs)
Nicholas James “Nick” Vujicic is an evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs. As a child, he struggled mentally and emotionally as well as physically, but eventually came to terms with his disability and, at the age of seventeen, started his own non-profit organisation, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic presents motivational speeches worldwide which focus on life with a disability, hope and finding meaning in life.
Confidence didn’t come naturally to Vujicic. Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, he struggled with depression and was bullied at school. When he was just 10 years old, he attempted suicide. Over time, Vujicic worked on adopting a positive attitude, and, at 17, an encounter with his high school janitor inspired him to go into public speaking. The charismatic Australian now travels the world addressing huge crowds, including business groups and schoolchildren. He has visited more than 50 countries and given thousands of talks.
2. Sean Swarner (completed 7 summits as a cancer survivor)
With only one functioning lung, a prognosis of fourteen days to live, and being in a medically-induced coma for a year, Sean Swarner is the first cancer survivor to stand on top of the world…Mt. Everest. Sean has broken through defined human limitation in order to redefine the way the world views success.
Sean was diagnosed with two deadly, different, and unrelated forms of cancer, once at the age of thirteen and again at the age of sixteen. After an incredibly poor prognosis, and being read his last rites, Sean astounded the medical community when he survived both these brutal diseases. He realized that after defeating cancer twice, no challenge would ever be too great, no peak too high.
Sean proved his theory when he crested the peak of Mt. Everest. As the first cancer survivor to do so, Sean decided to continue climbing and has since topped the highest peaks in Africa, Europe, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and North America, thus completing the “7-Summits”.
3. Stephen Hawking (one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein)
Stephen Hawking is the former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. Now the Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Founder of the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge, his other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universe and The Universe in a Nutshell.
In 1963, Hawking contracted motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. From 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Science. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.
4. Helen Keller (illness left her blind and deaf but she inspired Millions)
Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. and Kate Adams Keller of Tuscumbia. At the tender age of 19 months, she was stricken with a severe illness which left her blind and deaf.
At the age of six, the half-wild, deaf and blind girl was taken by her parents to see Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. Because of her visit, Helen was united with her teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan on March 3, 1887. After Helen’s miraculous break-through at the simple well-pump, she proved so gifted that she soon learned the fingertip alphabet and shortly afterward to write. By the end of August, in six short months, she knew 625 words.
Helen Keller, the little girl, became one of history’s remarkable women. She dedicated her life to improving the conditions of blind and the deaf-blind around the world, lecturing in more than 25 countries on the five major continents. Wherever she appeared, she brought new courage to millions of blind people.
5. Randy Pausch (Delivered the inspirational “Last Lecture” as cancer survivor)
Randolph Frederick Pausch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Columbia, Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1988. In 1997 Pausch became a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He co-founded Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center and became one of the developers of the software project called “Alice”.
In August 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The following year he received worldwide media coverage for his inspirational “Last Lecture,” titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” He delivered this lecture at Carnegie Mellon on 18 September 2007, a month after learning that his cancer was terminal and that he had only three to six months to live. His speech became a New York Times best-selling book, “The Last Lecture,” which he co-wrote with Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal.
A devoted “Star Trek” fan, another of Pausch’s childhood dreams was to be Captain Kirk. Hearing of this, director and producer J.J. Abrams sent a personal e-mail to Pausch, inviting him to the set of the film Star Trek (2009) in Los Angeles. Pausch happily accepted and was given a brief role in the film, complete with a customized Starfleet uniform (which he was allowed to keep) and a line of dialogue.
What do you do when you are down?. Do you lie there (or) do you have the courage to get up?. Who inspires you the most when adversity strikes?.
Image Credits: The Huffington Post, Getty Images
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