3Oct2017
Australian born Nick Vujicic is a best selling author and has done over 3000 talks all over the world in a number of prestigious events. His life account of being born without limbs (and the journey he has gone on in the lead up to now) resulted in a standing ovation.
He had his fair share of trouble when he was growing up, with constant bullying and teasing at school leaving him feeling depressed but right from the beginning, his parents always instilled the value of being thankful for what you have. This is a value that he always held onto even when he was grappling with who he was and what his purpose could be.
In reaching his conclusion that he was born to be a speaker, he learned that it was ok to fail and that failures can actually be valuable opportunities. “Fear will cripple you more than lack of arms and legs” he said and he equates failure with education.
He recounted how his journey to public speaking was actually sparked off by his school’s janitor who obviously saw something in him in the early years “One day, you are going to be a speaker” the janitor said to the young and perplexed Vujicic.
Vujicic decided to give it a try and his first gig was at a small school and only after refusals from the previous fifty-two schools. He used those fifty two times (and fifty two failures) to hone his selling pitch from “ Hello, I’m Nick Vujicic and I have no arms and legs, can I come to your school and do a talk?” to “ Hello I’m Nick Vujicic, I’m a motivational speaker and I was wondering if I could come to your school and talk about bullying, self-esteem, dreaming big and never giving up”, he got the gig on the fifty-third time.
That first talk he did was a two-hour drive away, and he had to give his $50 speech fee to his brother to be driven there. It was in front of ten people and for only five minutes so Vujicic went home crushed feeling that his speaking career was a fizzle out.
The next morning he was called from another school and this time it was for $150, for five hundred people and for twenty minutes, word had spread fast!
Vujicic has since been all over the world and met with world leaders who he has influenced to make positive legislative changes for special needs children and their education. He is clearly humbled by the impact he has made and that he has a very clear purpose.
He says “If a man without arms and legs can reach out to the world, so can you”
