Realizing What You're Made Of - An HBR article, March 2007

As I was sitting in the new Terminal One waiting for my delayed flight, I the tile of an article caught my eye "Realizing What You're Made Of." it was a finger of God moment considering this topic has been running around in my mind recently. I mused about overcoming adversity in an earlier post this month. However, it was one of those moments... just when you think you've got it bad, you'll see someone's always got it worse.

The writer is the co-founder of management-consulting firm FrontierWorks. He tells his story of overcoming adversity. He suffered a sudden injury to his spinal cord which left him paralyzed from the waist down. Through perserverance, guidance, effort and elation that he turned a handicap into a new life.

And while Montreal was shrouded in airport closing fog I read a sidebar summarizing what he'd learned from this experience. It rang clear as a bell.

• Adversity distorts reality, but crystallizes the truth
• Loss amplifies the value of what remains
• It's easier to create new dreams than cling to broken ones
• You can't know what will happen tomorrow-and it's better that way
• Your happiness is more important than righting injustices
• You can't control what happens, just how you respond

The article is worth a read if you can find the time, order it here."Realizing What You're Made Of" by Glenn Mangurian