Are You Unstoppable?

The B5 Media Business Channel Apprentice Challenge is winding down. We have 11 blogs still competing this week for the coveted prize of being named the “The Apprentice”! If you have not had an opportunity to check out the some of the previous post submissions, take a moment here is my most recent post – Don’t Quit Your Day Job!

This week’s challenge:  

Everybody loves a success story.  New business owners find them inspiring.  Tell Kay a success story that inspired you – it could be a famous person, a company, a family member. Below is a re-post from August. I found this story about Sarah Morris very inspiring. For Kay as a new entrepreneur, this story will help you to rise to the challenges you face and like Sarah, you will be able to accomplish anything you want for you business through, persistence, and focus! After reading Sarah’s story, you will know that there is nothing that can stop you – You are Unstoppable!

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Unstoppable means incapable of being stopped accordig to Merriam-Webster. Cynthia Kersey of Unstoppable Enterprises, Inc. has a great quote:

“The greatest natural resource in the world is not in the earth’s waters or minerals, nor in the forests or grasslands. It is the spirit that resides in every unstoppable person. And the spirit of the individual benefits us all.” Cynthia Kersey

Are you Unstoppable? Before you answer the question, I want you to read this story that Cynthia Kersey sent out about a young woman who truly defines unstoppable. When you are done, I want you to ask yourself, “what’s stopping me from doing what is in my heart to do?”

Here is Sarah Morris’ Story:

Excerpted from the best-selling audio program, Unstoppable Challenge.

Sarah Morris loved the Los Angeles Dodgers. Lived them, breathed them, hung on every inning of every game like it was life or death. The team was her passion, and she had one dream: to cover the Dodgers for a newspaper. Forget that she never took a course in journalism, hadn’t attended a live game since age eight, or, for that matter, never had a paying job. To add to the list of strikes against her, she had an even greater limitation—cerebral palsy, which made it impossible for her to use her hands to write.

Sarah ignored it all. She knew that if she were to achieve her dream, she would have to do things differently than most.

Growing Up with Baseball

Baseball had always been a part of Sarah’s life. Her grandfather was a big Dodgers fan, and her favorite activity at her high school in Pasadena, California, was as the baseball team’s statistician. The work kept her involved in school activities and with the game she loved. But she wanted more.

Dependent on disability income, with no money for special computers or training, Sarah knew she had few prospects. But despite the limitations of her body, there was nothing wrong with her mind. She wanted to write about the one thing she loved: the Dodgers, a team she loved for
its tradition and its courage in breaking the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. But how to get such a job?

Creating Her Own Opportunity

Rather than accept her limitations, Sarah decided she would create her writing opportunities by designing and publishing her own Web site. And so Sarah’s Dodger Place was born, a fan site where Sarah would publish her own insightful comments and critiques of the Dodgers’ performance, good and bad. Here she could be a sportswriter—without pay, but doing what she loved.

She spent endless tedious hours typing her stories by pecking away one key at a time with a stick attached to a headpiece—the same way she entered the code for her Web site. She put in at least five to six hours per day writing her stories that virually no one but her mother would read.

Yet she was delighted. She was published. Because her cerebral palsy made it difficult for her to speak, she had honed a unique writing voice backed by her vast knowledge of the team and the game. And those words were finally out there for others to read.

Two Writers Meet

One of the nation’s best, most outspoken sports columnists, Bill Plaschke gets a ton of e-mail. But Sarah’s stood out. In it, she blasted him for a recent column on the Dodgers, vehemently disagreeing with some of his points. “This person was extremely passionate, yet very informed about the Dodgers and I rarely get both. It was one of the best e-mails I’d ever received. She knew what she was talking about.”

That began a correspondence that included dozens of e-mails. Bill learned that Sarah was 31, lived in Texas with her mother, and was a passionate Dodgers fan. Eventually, he told her she should take her knowledge and writing skill and work for her local newspaper. Sarah e-mailed

back saying she couldn’t because she was handicapped and had to type with her head. Bill was suspicious. He sent her another e-mail saying that shouldn’t stop her and asked if he could call her so they could talk about it. Sarah e-mailed back, “You can’t call me. I can’t talk.”

Now Bill was sure something was up. “I found it very hard to believe that this terrific writer was tapping away one key at a time, unable to use her hands or her voice. I thought she was just hassling me.” He had no way of knowing that she had to use a head pointer to type on a computer that would read back her work to her.What would take an average person one hour to type, took Sarah five. But Bill was intrigued and willing to investigate further.

So when he was in Texas to cover the Lakers, the cynical journalist went to see Sarah Morris for himself. “Sarah sent me directions to her house that were two pages long listing every little farmhouse and dirt road along the way. As I turned down her driveway, I saw through the weeds four or five wheelchairs sitting outside the house. I knew this must be the place. Her mom met me at the door and welcomed me in. There was Sarah, this frail little body sitting in a wheelchair with this huge giant smile. I thought, she really does exist.”

For the final proof of her situation, Bill asked Sarah to show him how she typed with her head. “When I saw her type the words that appeared on the screen, I felt sick and ashamed of myself. All this time I didn’t believe her.”

Blue Days

Astounded by Sarah’s talent, knowledge, and sheer determination, Bill wrote a candid, heartfelt column about her in the Times. It not only attracted attention from readers who besieged the Times to hire Sarah, but also caught the eye and heart of Ben Platt, manager of the Dodgers.com Web site. Further encouragement came when Dinn Mann, editor-in-chief for the parent site MLB.com, called Platt and suggested that they hire her. Platt made an offer, and Sarah accepted her first paid writing position.

Today, the woman who bleeds Dodger blue is a leading columnist for Dodgers.com. Her mother, Lois, says that the opportunity to write and learn has changed Sarah. “She’s becoming more independent every day,” she says.

Sarah, speaking through her mother, says, “It’s hard work, but I love it.”

Bill, for one, remains inspired by the young woman who first called him on the carpet for his column. “Sarah Morris symbolizes that part of us all that dares to dream—to embrace life without limitations and to realize everything that’s possible if we have the courage to try.”

That’s success, one letter at a time.

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