Stories
Stories
Happy Because He’s Blind
Photo by Phil Skinner
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.”
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 08 Apr 2021
- HBS Alumni News
Real Talk
Re: Susan Harmeling (MBA 1991); Charles Henderson (MBA 1991) -
- 07 Apr 2021
- Skydeck
Road Work
Re: Ken Friedman (MBA 1983) -
- 11 Mar 2021
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Leading with Heart
Re: Niren Chaudhary (AMP 191); Ranjay Gulati (Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration) -
- 02 Dec 2020
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Nine Ways to Have a Better 2021
Stories Featuring Chad Foster
-
- 18 Mar 2021
- HBS Clubs
Authentically Leading with Blind Ambition
Re: Chad Foster (PLDA 21)
