I recently attended the annual conference of an organization I belong to called Association of Career Management Professionals International. This year's meeting was in Chicago (great town). The keynote speaker was comedienne Kathy Buckley. For those who may not be familiar with her background, here's the short version:
Since birth she's been hearing-impaired. As a child, she was misdiagnosed and labeled as retarded. She was sexually abused and seriously contemplated suicide throughout her teens. Then she was run over by a Jeep while sunbathing on a beach, which resulted in broken bones and intermittent paralysis in her legs (not to mention being pronounced dead by the attending paramedics). And after five years of recovery, once she could walk again, she discovered she had ovarian cancer.
She has turned all this adversity and more into becoming a highly sought after stand-up comic and, as I and my colleagues discovered, an incredibly powerful motivational speaker.
I am sure that all of us have marveled and been motivated by individuals who have overcome barriers in life that are so far beyond anything that any of us have ever faced and that once having heard their stories our own "troubles" pale so much by comparison that it's embarrassing.
That being said, Kathy has such a powerful way of putting this sort of thing in the right perspective that unlike most of the motivational speakers I have heard over the years, this is one I won't forget. If you are having an event where those attending need to gain that perspective, I would recommend you check to see if
Kathy is available.
1 comment:
Dave,
I am so touched and inspired by your blog entry about Kathy Buckley. So often individuals we work with are overcome by life's adversities that to learn of the resilience of the human soul through stories like this gives us all hope. Thank you so much for sharing this experience.
Sheryl
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