Overcoming Handicaps

Over the last few generations, the problems faced by handicapped individuals have received a good deal of long-overdue attention. Overcoming handicaps may in fact be one of the most effective ways of developing extraordinary skills, and we seldom recognize the fact that many of history’s greatest leaders suffered from one handicap or another.

Contemporary psychology has learned that one of the most important developmental events of anyone’s life, particularly in youth, is the experience of overcoming adversity, bad luck, or handicap and prevailing over circumstances. When the handicap is not too severe, the strength and courage it helps generate can produce the potential for leadership. Alexander the Great, an epileptic who dominated much of the world by the age of 21, may be the most dramatic ancient example, and Franklin Roosevelt directing the course of our nation from his wheelchair may be the best modern example.

Until recently, of course, visible handicaps were mostly kept out of the limelight, and FDR went to great lengths to disguise his polio. Nowadays we are learning to deal with the idea of handicaps and to take advantage of whatever human talent may be hidden behind them, or even driven by them – including leadership talent.