Let’s be real honest for a second: I use having cerebral palsy and being in a wheelchair to make money, whenever possible.
I try to exploit my disability for profit.
I do not feel bad about this.
In fact, I use everything useful, interesting, and unique about me for my gain. (Thank God I don’t have boobs.)
When you talk on the radio, there is a volume sweet spot they tell you to maintain. Not too quiet, not too loud. Just right. Dan Carlin, host of the ridiculously popular and amazing podcast Hardcore History, was terrible at this as a radio host. He was either really quiet or REALLY LOUD. Never in the sweet spot. His producers thought this was a problem. He has gone on to make these “mistakes“ part of his trademark, style, and brand. He owned it. In fact, if you do it now, you are copying him.
Most of us try to downplay our flaws — keep them out of the spotlight. But the only thing that happens when you do that is you give that thing power. Every time it is exposed, it is raw and sensitive like a fresh wound under a bandage.
But if you own it, and even try to use it for your benefit, it can’t hurt you anymore. There’s no way I’m going to be insulted by someone mocking my disability when I call my blog Crippled CEO. With just that one thing, I have sucked all of the power out of what is arguably a massive deficiency, and I’m now using it to promote and brand myself — to stand out in a crowd. Or, in my case, sit out, you know, because I can’t stand.
There is something about you that society thinks you should be embarrassed about. You are fat. You have messed up teeth. You stutter. You murdered your husband while raising big cats. 👀
You can either shy away from this thing, hide it, and continue to feel shame about it, or you can own it, and try to use it to your benefit. As always, you get to choose the story you tell yourself about yourself. You should make it a good one.
(If you know somebody that can use this, please send it to them. Also, if you share this, I will love you forever. If you want to make sure you never miss a blog post from me, you can make me your servant and retain me to send you a link to the new blog post every single week by texting the word CRIP to the phone number 484848.)
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