Thriving Blind: Stories of Real People Succeeding Without Sight - Paperback

When Kristin Smedley's two sons were each diagnosed as blind at four months old, she was told the same grim statistics: only 15% of blind children graduate college. Nearly 80% of blind adults are unemployed. The doctors offered no hope - just a list of things her sons would never do.

Both of her sons graduated college. One summa cum laude, one cum laude. Both are employed. Kristin credits almost none of that to luck - and almost all of it to the people in this book.

Thriving Blind introduces you to 13 extraordinary individuals succeeding without sight - a CEO, a Grand Canyon kayaker, a Grammy-nominated musician, an American Idol finalist, a YouTube sensation, a Teacher of the Year, and more. Their stories aren't just about blindness. They're about what happens when you find role models who have faced the same obstacles you have - and turned them into fuel.

Because here's what nobody tells you about adversity: the people who have lived it longest have figured out something the rest of us haven't. Every chapter in this book ends with a section called "The Bright Side" - where each person reveals not just how they overcame blindness, but the specific advantages it gave them. A CEO who credits managing his readers in college with making him a better leader. A Navy veteran whose submarine training in total darkness prepared him to kayak 226 miles of the Grand Canyon. A Teacher of the Year who says blindness made her a more empathetic educator than any sighted teacher she knows. Again and again, independently, these 13 people name the same edges: reading people without visual bias, listening at a deeper level, building resilience that sighted peers never had to develop.

This is a book about blindness the same way The Talent Code is a book about sports. The real subject is how adversity, in the right hands, becomes a competitive advantage - and how role models who have walked that road are the single greatest catalyst for achievement, for any child, in any challenge.

Foreword by Erik Weihenmayer - the first blind per

son to summit Mt. Everest - who writes: "With the right support, encouragement, and belief, they'll do better than survive. They will thrive."

Whether you're a parent, educator, employer, coach, or anyone staring down a challenge that feels impossible - this book will change what you believe is possible. Not by inspiring you. By proving it.

Set Extraordinary Expectations. See what happens.