From “Determined” by Sapolsky – some interesting facts about overcoming adversity
1) When Oprah Winfrey was a child, her family was so poor that she often wore potato sacks because buying clothes from the store was too expensive.
2) Harland Sanders, the founder of KFC, received 1009 rejections before someone agreed to accept his recipe.
3) In December 2018, Eliud Kibet was second in the Malaga Marathon, but his legs gave out just a few meters from the finish line (literally a few) and he lost the silver medal. He crawled those few meters, finishing in 2:11:25.
4) Hyvon Ngetich crawled the last 300 meters at the Austin Marathon 2015. Check the YouTube video “Austin Marathon Hyvon Ngetich Crawling to Finish.” She ultimately finished (crawled) third in her group (3:04:02).
5) An interesting story about Mario Renato Capecchi, a molecular geneticist and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. At four and a half years old, during World War II, his mother was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, which eventually led to Mario spending nearly four years living on the streets as a child, periodically ending up in orphanages and almost dying from malnutrition.
6) There is also a reference to an interesting story about Helen Keller, marked as w-a-t-e-r. Apparently, Sapolsky assumes that all American readers are aware of it and no explanations are needed. Of course, I’ve heard about Helen Keller, but not about the w-a-t-e-r story. Helen was blind and deaf from childhood, and Anne Sullivan was her teacher and mentor. Understandably, when you cannot see or hear from childhood, it is not entirely clear how you are to be taught at all. The moment hinted at in this phrase occurred when Anne Sullivan helped Helen Keller realize the connection between words and objects in her world. This story is famously known as the “w-a-t-e-r” moment. When Helen Keller was at a water pump at her family home, Anne Sullivan made her feel the water while simultaneously spelling out the letters “w-a-t-e-r” on her palm. This moment was crucial for Helen Keller as it helped her understand that words are connected to the world around her. This moment was an important step in her education and conscious understanding of communication, and it is often cited in her life story. Eventually, Helen Keller learned to communicate with the surrounding world using sign language, Braille, and even verbal speech. She received an education and became a famed author, an advocate for disability rights, and a public figure.
7) Madeleine Albright sold bras in a supermarket in Denver.
8) Jorge Mario Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis. Born in Argentina, he worked as a janitor and a bouncer before becoming Pope in March 2013.
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