Isaac Lidsky, the man without sight but sees better than most
I came across Isaac Lidsky while researching for a coaching session.
Isaac Lidsky,
A man who lost his sight at age 25
Despite of his disability, he went on to become a successful lawyer and served as a law clerk under two justices in the Supreme Court
The CEO of ODC Construction, a construction company worth USD$70 million
The writer for the book "Eyes Wide Open"
Most importantly, a father of four kids who insist on changing his children's diapers even though he could not see. And he did a good job of that.
Sight without Vision
How many of us are guilty of that? Seeing an open door which leads out of our predicament but refusing it as it is unknown, foreign and fearful. Choosing instead to remain where we are and continuing with deal with the problems and constraints we are familiar with. In other words, choosing to remain stuck.
In my early adulthood, I was convinced that holding a stable job would allow me to have a comfortable life and pay all my bills. Not a luxurious, but a comfortable life. I was wrong.
I rejected any suggestion of teaching part time, after all I was a trained teacher with the Ministry of Education. To me, it was too tiring, too difficult. Who holds two jobs nowadays, I thought.
I struggled to pay my bills for a number of years. In the end, a chance referral by a friend restarted my teaching career. Yes, it was tiring, and difficult. But I enjoyed it and made me aware that I was being short changed in my day job. I was worth a lot more.
A few years later, my little start-up company TakeFlight was formed, established and bringing in decent profits. It was a long, exhausting process. It was a fulfilling process. Still, it took a long while for me to say farewell to my day job.
I eventually did and to be honest, it is still scary and uncertain but I definitely feel happier.
We decide our own reality
If you are carrying a heavy load, a hill will look steeper that it really is. If we are rushing for time, the bus will seem slower than it really it. We see what we want to see, and more often than not, we choose not to see what we do not want to see.
What we see is only as real as how we decide for it to be.
For Lidsky, his eyes were failing and worse still, it was giving him false messages. The world that he sees through his eyes before he went blind were strange images and false realities. He can't trust his sight even when he had it. Hence, he started to make sense of his world in his own way. And it also began his journey on believing in his vision rather than his sight.
Knowing that he was going blind, he knew that he was destined for a simple life with limited opportunities. A life of pity and possibly alone,
He rejected that destiny and built for himself a life which may seem even impossible for a fully able person.
We decide our own destiny
Recently, I watched a Korean drama titled "Goblin" who mentioned that even God cannot predict and defy the will of the human spirit. I subscribed to that notion.
Like Lidsky, I was once diagnosed with a disabling illness that made me questioned if I will ever be an independent person again, Life was so uncertain that it is far easier to give up then to fight the reality. However, I choose to fight. And the destiny, that I thought would be my life, was in fact untrue.
Now, if you think you are stuck, you are not. if you think you are a failure, you are not. That is not the reality. The open doors are just around you. Try to see them.
The impossible is simply not impossible.
Lidsky, in his own words is over here.
Isaac Lidsky,
A man who lost his sight at age 25
Despite of his disability, he went on to become a successful lawyer and served as a law clerk under two justices in the Supreme Court
The CEO of ODC Construction, a construction company worth USD$70 million
The writer for the book "Eyes Wide Open"
Most importantly, a father of four kids who insist on changing his children's diapers even though he could not see. And he did a good job of that.
Sight without Vision
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision - Helen Keller
How many of us are guilty of that? Seeing an open door which leads out of our predicament but refusing it as it is unknown, foreign and fearful. Choosing instead to remain where we are and continuing with deal with the problems and constraints we are familiar with. In other words, choosing to remain stuck.
In my early adulthood, I was convinced that holding a stable job would allow me to have a comfortable life and pay all my bills. Not a luxurious, but a comfortable life. I was wrong.
I rejected any suggestion of teaching part time, after all I was a trained teacher with the Ministry of Education. To me, it was too tiring, too difficult. Who holds two jobs nowadays, I thought.
I struggled to pay my bills for a number of years. In the end, a chance referral by a friend restarted my teaching career. Yes, it was tiring, and difficult. But I enjoyed it and made me aware that I was being short changed in my day job. I was worth a lot more.
A few years later, my little start-up company TakeFlight was formed, established and bringing in decent profits. It was a long, exhausting process. It was a fulfilling process. Still, it took a long while for me to say farewell to my day job.
I eventually did and to be honest, it is still scary and uncertain but I definitely feel happier.
We decide our own reality
If you are carrying a heavy load, a hill will look steeper that it really is. If we are rushing for time, the bus will seem slower than it really it. We see what we want to see, and more often than not, we choose not to see what we do not want to see.
What we see is only as real as how we decide for it to be.
For Lidsky, his eyes were failing and worse still, it was giving him false messages. The world that he sees through his eyes before he went blind were strange images and false realities. He can't trust his sight even when he had it. Hence, he started to make sense of his world in his own way. And it also began his journey on believing in his vision rather than his sight.
Knowing that he was going blind, he knew that he was destined for a simple life with limited opportunities. A life of pity and possibly alone,
He rejected that destiny and built for himself a life which may seem even impossible for a fully able person.
We decide our own destiny
Recently, I watched a Korean drama titled "Goblin" who mentioned that even God cannot predict and defy the will of the human spirit. I subscribed to that notion.
Like Lidsky, I was once diagnosed with a disabling illness that made me questioned if I will ever be an independent person again, Life was so uncertain that it is far easier to give up then to fight the reality. However, I choose to fight. And the destiny, that I thought would be my life, was in fact untrue.
Now, if you think you are stuck, you are not. if you think you are a failure, you are not. That is not the reality. The open doors are just around you. Try to see them.
The impossible is simply not impossible.
Lidsky, in his own words is over here.
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