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01 Apr 2020

Happy Because He’s Blind

It’s a decision, not an emotion

Re: Chad Foster (PLDA 21)

Topics: Personal Development-General Psychology-Identity Health-Health Disorders

Photo by Phil Skinner

Chad Foster (PLDA 21, 2016) was just three years old when his vision began to fail; diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, he was legally blind by his early 20s. “It was really a difficult period for me trying to figure out what I was going to do and what my life was going to look like moving forward,” he recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. At a month-long training program with a seeing-eye dog, Foster met others with multiple challenges: in addition to being blind, some had mental impairments, kidney failure, and deafness. “Being exposed to these courageous people taught me life’s most valuable lesson: Life without obstacles removes opportunities for growth,” he said. “We have to choose to deliberately frame our perception, or we allow the circumstances of life to determine our happiness.”

Now a finance executive at Red Hat, Foster was the class speaker for his PLDA class at HBS and continues to share his experiences with others; next year, he’ll publish a book. Asked what has been his biggest challenge, Foster responded, “The key to resilience is visualizing what greatness looks like, and I don’t know of any child who wanted to grow up to be a blind guy. So, the hardest part about being blind was figuring out how I could make it look good.”

Featured Alumni

PLDA 21

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Featured Alumni

PLDA 21

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