While there are tons of people out there who talk about doing great things only to give up when it’s time to execute because it’s “too hard,” there are also people like this extraordinary 21-year-old woman in China.
Hu Huiyuan is a woman living in the Anhui province of mainland China. She has never received a formal education and she suffers from cerebral palsy, a condition that causes impairment in areas of body movement. But despite her disability and lack of formal education, Hu has began writing a fiction novel — now over 60,000 words in length — using only her foot!
According to
China Youth, Hu was born prematurely and doctors initially predicted she wouldn’t survive. Fortunately, she did survive, but was diagnosed with cerebral palsy 10 months later.
Although she is only able to move her head and feet, Hu was able to learn to perform everyday tasks using just her foot.
Hu told reporters:
“I teach myself. I’m not a genius but I’m very focused. When I watched TV in my childhood, I often learned words with subtitles.”
Hu’s mother recounts her patience when teaching her daughter how to speak:
“When I was trying to teach her how to speak, I needed to be very patient as every single word might take a thousand times of repeating. But once she mastered the word, I felt fairly satisfied.”
Typing with just your foot doesn’t come easy for anyone. While she’s typing, Hu needs to be fastened to her wheelchair with a belt to stabilize her. Hu told reporters she currently types around 20 to 30 words per minute.
Hu plans on writing eight chapters and has already finished chapter six.
Hu’s story is a great example of not giving up and letting your circumstances get in the way of your success.
In the words of the “$50 billion man” and high-performance coach
Dan Pena:
“What I see is most people — not just kids, but middle-aged and even older people — they cop out, they blame it on somebody else. They blame their lack of success and/or their failures on circumstances. They blame it on interest rates. They blame it on they didn’t go to a good enough school. They blame it on they’re too fat. They blame it on my tits are too big, my ass is too big, my nose is too big, I’m Chinese, I’m Mexican, I’m Japanese — whatever the f*cking reason is, they always got an excuse why they don’t fulfill their potential. Man’s greatest burden is unfulfilled potential.”
