The United States has the intrepid leader, Abraham Lincoln, the United Kingdom has the bold Winston Churchill, and India has the freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi. For Canada, the nation's hero is unknown to many outside of the Canadian border. He was not a eminent hockey player, a dignified spiritual or political leader, but a cancer-battling, one- legged runner by the name of Terry Fox.
In the outstanding ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Into the Wind, the film highlights the tenacious goal of the 21-year old bone cancer survivor, Terry Fox, after his right leg is amputated six inches above the knee. After the removal of Fox's cancerous leg, he recovered in a local children's hospital where many of the young patients did not survive. This dramatic experience had a profound affect on Fox. As an experienced athlete, he decided to shift his new weakness into a strength by fostering a goal to be the first person to run across Canada with only one leg. Here, Fox looked to promote cancer awareness and raise funding for cancer research. It is impossible not to shed a tear while watching the 30 for 30 film. Fox was and continues to be a champion among athletes.
Sadly, Fox was never able to complete his goal. After experiencing brutal weather conditions, constant fatigue (dude was running on one leg!), and self-doubt, he was only able to halfway complete his goal before discovering the cancer had travelled to his lungs, thus ending his courageous journey. Despite not finishing his goal, Fox had a more everlasting effect on his country. Not only has his foundation raised millions of dollars for cancer research, but his tenacity to not give up until he was physically unable to do so had Canadian citizens everywhere finding their own new strengths. Indeed, the country lost a hero, but gained national camaraderie.
Another less known, but not as heroic, individual that has turned his weakness into a strength is David Boies. In Malcolm Gladwell's newest outstanding book, David and Goliath, Gladwell depicts the story of Boies' unlikely success. Readers will first learn that Boies did not begin to read until the third grade! Boies battled with dyslexia and had incredible difficulty finishing his reading assignments. However, Boies lived in a small rural Illinois town where reading was not garnered with utmost importance. In his local community, it was common for classmates to quit school and go to work on the farm.
But in the Boies' household, his mother would often read to him while he laid in his bed. Although he could not read along with her word-for-word, he did establish an uncanny ability to listen very intently. It was not uncommon for Boies to regurgitate every word of a passage directly back to his mother. At this time, Boies did not think too much of his hidden talent, but later it would become a major strength to his profession. In fact, what happens to be a weakness (dyslexia), actually helped create an astounding strength (listening).
During high school, Boies' family moved to Southern California. His grades were unsurprisingly dismal and after graduation, he did not have much ambition. Boies later married, got a job in construction, and was living a modest life. Later he got a job as a bookkeeper, played bridge in the evenings with friends, and could have carried on with this lifestyle, but then his wife became pregnant. After their child was born, his wife pleaded her husband to make a career change. The family would need him to have a more serious-minded career. So Boies did the absolute unthinkable for someone with his weakness, he decided to go to law school.
Law school reading is immensely rigorous and demanding. However, Boies discovered that there were summaries of the major cases that provided the cases' key points. He was so good at finding the key points that he was able to generate outstanding grades and later transfer to Yale Law School. Yes, the same guy that barely survived high school! But analyzing and finding key points in cases were not going to create success for Boies as a corporate attorney. Corporate attorneys analyze thousands of cases. Boies' dyslexia would not allow him to succeed in this field so he decided to take a different, more suitable route, become a trial attorney.
Later, Boies' strong ability to listen meticulously allowed him to become one of the most prominent trial attorneys in the country. Here, Boies is known for his intense and lethal cross examinations. He is known to simplify complex cases to the jury while also causing the person he is cross examining to reveal information that is beneficial for Boies' case. Boies is now a named partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. He has argued one of the most important cases in past decade- Hollingsworth v. Schwarzenegger- which involved the California law limiting marriage to a man and woman.
Today is New Year's Eve. Many people will be creating resolutions to accomplish next year. Most popular resolutions are losing weight, saving money, and knocking a bad habit. But maybe a different goal should be created this year. Instead of focusing on the same monotonous goal, we should try to transform our more personal weaknesses into strengths. If you battle with anxiety or depression, embrace Yoga and meditation. If you have bad eating habits, learn to become a great cook. Essentially, you are creating a better you than simply creating a check list. Everyone has weaknesses, but it is those that embrace their weaknesses, exploit them, and turn those weaknesses into strengths that truly gain confidence and maybe change the world- just like Terry Fox.
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