"Blind Ambition" Author, Chad E. Foster, is Thriving With Change Through Life's Blind Spots

This episode features IT business heavy hitter and international motivational speaker, Chad E. Foster, who just wrote his first book, "Blind Ambition." The book is set for release on February 16th. Shelly interviews Chad about his journey, going back to the time he was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa through the twists and turns leading to his success today, where he's found gratitude, resilience, and ambition. Chad shares that for many years he actually felt ashamed and embarrassed of his poor eyesight, but through life circumstances, he moved to a place of embracing the very thing he was trying to hide for so many years. During this journey to realization, "life got better" for him, and he no longer felt like he had to pretend to be someone he wasn't. Chad says that he learned to loved himself despite his "imperfection." Today, Chad is a father, husband, business genius, and writer. Chad reminds us that we are the stories we tell ourselves. He asks, so why not tell ourselves something great? Tune in to this episode to hear the rest of Chad's story.

Connect with Chad Foster:
 
Website: www.chadefoster.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedIn/in/chadfoster/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chadefoster?lang=en
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FindChadEFoster
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Ambition-How-Victim-Visionary/dp/1400222648

 
For more information about Abilities in Motion, visit our website at https://www.abilitiesinmotion.org/ or follow us on social media.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbilitiesinMotionPA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abilitiesinmotion/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEXzEkE_CK5WYmOhMAN4Aw

Transcript

Shelly: 0:03

Welcome to disability talks, a podcast produced by Abilities in Motion. I'm your host, Shelly Houser. Join us for real conversations and no nonsense. Talk from everyday people with disabilities. Living their most independent everyday lives tune in for the latest news surrounding disability, accessibility, and independence, where conversations aren't dissed and stories that need to be told aren't missed. So let's talk. Welcome back to disability talks. I'm your host Shelly Houser and today's guest is author motivational speaker and first blind graduate of the leadership program at Harvard business school. Mr. Chad E foster. Welcome Chad. Thanks for being here today in Chad's first book, blind ambition, Chad writes about his trials and tribulations of losing his eyesight at a young age and turning his life into something extraordinary. Chad's joining us today from Georgia to tell us more, Chad, thanks for giving me the opportunity to read your book blind ambition. This book is getting released in February, right?

Chad: 1:05

It is. Yeah, it's getting released on February 16th. It's going to be available right now. You can pre-order it on Amazon at that Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Target, it's sort of anywhere that you can get a book is where it's at right now.

Shelly: 1:19

And it not only talks about your ambition and your perseverance, but it actually is a little bit of a love story. So that's perfect for Valentine's right?

Chad: 1:27

It is. I want it to keep it real. I want her to keep it authentic. Obviously there's, there's some challenges in my life that have taught me lessons as my life has unfolded, but you know, part of that for many of us is, u h, is how I met my wife. And now we have two wonderful kids and that is in there as well.

Shelly: 1:47

You really took a dark moment in your life and successfully emerged from adversity, not taking no for an answer, which I really, really loved. And reading this book.For starters, please explain to our listeners what exactly your diagnosis is and what kind of sports you enjoyed when you were younger?

Chad: 2:03

Well, I was diagnosed at three years old with retinitis pigmentosa. So when I was younger, my parents noticed that I had difficulty seeing and very dimly lit rooms. And I started stumbling over things. And at first they kind of brushed it off, but eventually someone suggested that they take me to have me checked out. And so they took me to Duke university medical center in North Carolina. When I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. Now back then, they didn't have the means to test my DNA like they do nowadays, but they were reasonably certain that I could go blind at some point in my life. And despite that, you know, the doctors suggested that my parents put me in a special school for the blind, but instead my parents decided to sign me up for soccer, because it was the one sport that I can play organized and still be able to see, you know, c ause the lighting was very good, and the size of the b all w as, was good. And I could play competitively at a high level in soccer. I still enjoyed other sports like basketball. I c ould play outside. But indoors it was hard for me to play because of the artificial lighting and I enjoy football as well, but that was difficult because it was p laying at night under more artificial lighting. So those two sports, I enjoyed a lot, but I could not play organized just simply because of the way the games were playing. But I did enjoy a lot of, a lot of sports. I've also wrestled and ran track. And just anything that could, that could allow me to be active, I really e njoyed.

Shelly: 3:35

So it seems like you were competitive from a very young age.

Chad: 3:38

I was extremely competitive from a, from a very young age. Yeah. Part of that's, you know, my upbringing, you know, the way that my parents raised me, my mom and my dad, some of that is my situation. I figured out that I had to put in just a little bit more effort to be able to compete, uh, with, with folks. And some of that is just sort of the way that events unfolded. Um, you know, it's, it's a, it's, it's challenging, you know, when you're learning the limitations of your eyesight, you really have to develop a, a tough mind when you're faced with some adversity, like a disability. And you're learning the limitations of your eyesight, whether it's night blindness or what my acuity could or could not be in certain conditions.

Shelly: 4:18

Right? Yeah. Did you make your parents nervous a lot?

Chad: 4:23

Yeah. I don't know how they did it. To be honest with you. Now we have two children and I look back at what they allowed me to do and I marvel at their courage because I'm not sure I could do it to be honest with you. You know, we have two young ones and thankfully neither appear to have retinitis pigmentosa. My wife does not have the carrier gene for what I have, it's autosomal recessive. And so obviously I'm carrying two bad copies of that gene, but she is not carrying a copy and they appear to be okay, but I could not imagine putting myself in their situation and being faced with the reality of what it is that, uh, that they were forced to choose between. You know, do we let our son live as active of a lifestyle as he can while he can, or do we try and keep him out of harm's way so that he doesn't face unintended consequences of living that active lifestyle?

Shelly: 5:17

Yeah. I've been disabled my whole life. And I honestly think my parents letting me pick myself up after I fallen or figure some things out for myself was really the best thing that they could have done for me. I think it takes courage for them to be able to watch their child struggled to some degree. Do you agree with that?

Chad: 5:39

It takes an amazing amount of courage. I think we all want the best for our kids. You see now there's a trend of hella parenting where parents want to rush in and hold their child out of harm's way and give him the best thing in life. And we all want our children to have the best things in life. But I think people lose track of the fact that they're not raising children. A lot of parents think they're raising children. They're not, they're actually raising adults. In order to prepare a child, to become an adult, you have to let them learn how to fall on their own. And I joked with my wife with our first daughter. I said, you know, she doesn't fall. I'm going to trip her just being playful because if they're not, if they fall for the first time and we're not around, then who's going to help them get up. They have to learn how to fall while we're around as parents so that they can get back up. But I say that through the context of what my daughter faces, which is not like what you face, which is not like what I think growing up it's, it's different. And it's all relative to each of us. I'm sure if my daughter had been in one of our situations, you know, she would have had the same opportunities to make those decisions, but our journeys are all relative to where we stored it. And I just Marvel at the amount of courage that my parents had, because I think I'm, I'm pretty courageous, but it's with me, it's with my situation and putting them outside of my own body, into my child's body. It's a completely different story.

Shelly: 7:07

Yeah. I think you set your own standards and your own limitations as a person with a disability. So tell us about the time you actually lost your vision. What was going on in your life and how did you begin to rearrange the pieces of your life?

Chad: 7:21

Yes, obviously I was studying, I wanted to go into the medical field and it occurred to me that I would no longer be able to see it. It was a gradual process. It wasn't like switch went out, but I could still remember the day that I realized that the looming blindness that I'd been warned about was, was arriving. And that was a really, really challenging period for me personally, at first, it was coming to grips with the fact that everything I'd identified with and associated with was visual. I thought of myself as a visual person, I was a visual person. I was a visual learner, but, but now, you know, that was obviously no use. I lost my ability to see, I can no longer see to read my textbooks. And so there was the obvious logistical challenges associated with that relearning, how to learn. I had to relearn how to learn and figure out what sort of system would I use to consume information. I was in college and that's kind of an important skill to have in college, being able to read and learn. And that was, that was a challenge, but that was more of a practical challenge. If you will. The bigger challenge was the emotional challenge planning. That I'd come to a point in my life where my self identity had to be reinvented. I had to reinvent myself identity. We ask kids what they want to be all the time and not many of them say they want to grow up to be a blind person, but that's exactly what happened to me. I went from being someone who could see to being forced in this new situation. And that was the emotional struggle t han I, t hat I dealt with for a couple of years and having to reinvent myself. And then obviously there were practical things as well, like getting a guide dog, which was fantastic for me. It absolutely changed my life. And that's also where I rediscovered my sense of gratitude and r elearn resilience and ultimately m y, my new self identity.

Shelly: 9:21

Yeah. So you went through the leader dogs program. Uh, what state was that in Tennessee?

Chad: 9:26

Leader Dogs is in Rochester Hills, Michigan, It's outside Detroit. Yeah.

Shelly: 9:33

And they, they kind of helped you to learn, to help yourself and learn that independent living movement that we all talk about here at Abilities, in Motion. And that's, that's what it's all about.

Chad: 9:43

It was really crucial. I was there, you know, and I, I had arrived on, on campus there in Michigan and I had this sort of what was me kind of mentality. And I was bitter. I just realized that everything that I had hoped and dreamt of my life, you know, going into the medical field was no longer an option or didn't appear to be an option. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do because I wasn't even sure what I could do. I wasn't sure about what technology was out there. Wasn't even sure about how a guide dog would work. And so when I arrived on campus, I was in a pretty bad mindspace living with the people there, at leader dogs. They completely inspired me to think differently about my situations. There were people there who had mental impairments and they were also blind people on dialysis because of the diabetes that robbed them of their eyesight was also destroying their kidneys. And then there were these girls there who were deaf and blind. They were getting a guide dog to be independent. And we could only communicate with these girls by talking with an interpreter who would then sign into their hands yet they were getting a dog to travel independently. It's one thing when you meet someone on the street and you hear how rough they have it, but it's completely different when you live with someone and you've experienced their challenges firsthand. That was my tipping point. That's when I realized that happiness is not a feeling and it's not an emotion, it's a decision. It's a decision that we can all choose to make or not every single day. That was the moment that reframed my outlook on life. And r e-a nchored me to a really strong sense of gratitude.

Shelly: 11:18

Everybody comes to that point in their journey at a different time. And we all hope that everybody gets to that point, but not everybody does. Did you feel humbled when you were at the Leader Dogs school with these ladies that were deaf and blind?

Chad: 11:36

Yeah, I was blown away by their, their living courage, the amount of courage that they displayed every day left me in awe. And how dare was I to have one sense of one, one small, tiny fragment, um, self-loathing or, pity or despair, whatever you want to call it bitterness towards my life. When I'd been given 23 years of eyesight, all of my hearing and all of my kidney function. And it forced me to reevaluate how I looked at my life. And that's when I did start to look at not, not just the things that are right in front of me, the obvious things like, like I just said, I could see for 23 years and I had a good hearing, and I had all my faculties. But I started to really evaluate things that a lot of people don't think about. Like how many of us get, um, whether or not we want to be born in the United States of America, the greatest country on earth at a time where technology can improve our quality of life? Whereas if we'd been born in say the 15 hundreds or a country that doesn't have access to such technology or so many resources? We didn't ask to be born in this time, but we have been born in this time and I think taking stock of all the things that have been given to us. It's a really important thing is based on gratitude.

Shelly: 13:00

Absolutely. I completely agree with that. You wrote in your book about living on your own terms. I want you to describe to our listeners what that means to you.

Chad: 13:10

Well, you know, my parents correct to empower me so that I could be in control of my own future. My mom was telling me we didn't have a book and this was back in 1998, 1999. We didn't have Audible. Audible wasn't as prevalent as it is today. Obviously we had different different systems for academic books as well. So she read all of my books in succession, and that was my new learning system. When I had to relearn how to learn I was in college. And so I ended up reading my books twice. And then recording the lectures as well, listen to those twice. I ended up making training in the Dean's because of that. So I ended up having to relearn a new system for learning and it turns out that I was a better blind student, sighted. But on this journey, It also taught me, y ou k now, initially when you go blind and t o come to terms with,"This i s my new reality", I t's initially it's a jarring experience. You know, when I was in college. And you may remember reading about this in the book I would, when I was, a s I was losing my s on, I would bump into people that I couldn't see that well, when my eyes would adjust, when I'm stepping inside of a building, when it's really b right outside. And those were moments that it was hard because I was embarrassed that my eyesight wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. It wasn't as good as what other people's eyesight was at the time. And I was even ashamed of it. And even though it wasn't my fault, I was ashamed of m y, my poor eyesight. And until I got my first guide dog Miles, big German Shepherd, 110 pounds, German shepherd, remarkable, remarkable dog. When I started walking around with Miles on campus, that forced me to embrace the very thing that I' d b een trying to hide for so many years. Because I didn't want to admit to myself and to others that I had an eyesight problem. But walking around with this gorgeous German Shepherd was a s y mbol. And it forced me to acknowledge that I had a vision problem. And after I did that, li fe g ot so much easier for me, all of the burden, all of the anxiety of trying to pretend that I could see, okay, was lifted. I didn't have to try and pretend to be someone th at I was not. I could be myself and yes, I had a vision problem and No did not ask for it, but it was part of my everyday reality. But having that guide dog, having Miles at my side, lifted the weight of trying to be someone who I was not. And that really it, it underscored for me how important it is for each of us to love ourselves. And I started doing that despite my imperfections, you know? And I think we all have to love ourselves despite our imperfections, but eventually we would like to learn to love ourselves because of our im perfect. My blindness has given me a lot of gifts that I otherwise would not have had. It i t's forced me to reevaluate. My perspective is th at t alked about it. Leader Dogs, it forced me to re-examine my effort, my focus and my determination. None of those things had I not faced the loss of my e yesight in my early twenties.

Shelly: 16:24

One of the biggest themes you wrote in the book, that you talk about often as gratitude. And you bring in your father and your cousin Mark. But what in particular, did your father tell you that changed your perspective on it?

Chad: 16:38

Told me from a very early age that the world really doesn't care whether or not you're blind. And that was hard to hear at the time. And I didn't always receive it that well. Now, I was a young man, 16, 17, 20 years old, and as you're growing up, it's hard for all of us to hear the messages our parents are giving u s. And I didn't really hear it as well as I would like to have, but it really is true. And you mentioned my cousin, Mark tried to t ry to g ive me that message. And that was a moment in my life that was really impactful for me when, when he stepped in, when I was in college and not doing things that were as productive as they could be, My brother tried to give me the same message, but you know, again, the people closest to us, unfortunately f ind it more challenging to affect us in a, in a more meaningful way. I think those around us, the loved ones around us for granted and the m essages, messages that they bring. But I've seen from my life that the world really, you know, you get a person one-on-one and people care, right? People do care. People are genuine. People are real crowds that e xist in life, whether business or society or whatever, it tends to get lost in the noise, whether or not a person is dealing with a significant disability or not. And he was right. A nd t hat, that forced me to think about, am I going to sit around and making excuses for under performance? Or am I going to demand greatness from myself and the people around me? Because at the end of the day, I can have a bunch of legitimate reasons to fail, but the only person who's going to suffer if I do that is me. It's my life. I'm not responsible for my circumstances, but I have to be accountable for my life and i ts outcomes. If I'm not, who is? It's my life, so I've got to own it. It's your life,so you've got to own it. Who else can own our outcomes in life but us?

Shelly: 18:35

You're absolutely right. Cause nobody else is gonna pick up your life and dust it off and make it what you want to be. You have to set your limits, you have to set your goals and you have to go for it!

Chad: 18:47

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that for me, it's really thrilling and exhilarating because it tells me that my effort is linked to my outcomes. So if I don't like the outcomes I'm getting, I need to work a little bit harder. And so I spend my energy rather focused on the things that I can control instead of, you know, sitting around and, and making lots of possibly legitimate excuses as to why I'm not getting to where I want to be. If I pour all of that energy into my effort and the things that I can control, well, maybe I can move the needle.

Shelly: 19:22

I loved how you wrote in the book. When you were done with college, you got into the workforce and during 9/11, when the terrorist attacks happened in New York, you were actually employed full time. And you mentioned a disappointing statistic that 70%, of persons with disabilities are unemployed. And they were at after 9/11, but with 2020 now behind us and being the year of COVID, it seems like we're once again, faced with that same challenge, do you agree on this? And how do we change the stigma that we hold less value in the workplace?

Chad: 19:56

I think a lot of it boils down to finding roles that allow us to showcase our strengths. And so I believe that we should all spend time in roles that allow us to improve our strengths. The things that we're great at, and a lot of people will say, well, what are your weaknesses? And, you know, you want to try and improve your, your ability to perform in areas where you're, um, you're, you're a little soft, right? I tend to think that, you know what, rather than spend my time on something that I'm not really good at inherently, why don't I surround myself with team members who are really good at those things and are really passionate about those things, because who is passionate about things that they're not really great at? You know, it would be impossible for me to be passionate about beautifully formatting, a presentation. I would never successful with that. But I could get passionate about something wh ere I've got some ta lent. And so rather than spending time trying to improve our weaknesses, let's surround ourselves with people who augment the things that we're not great at. They can improve areas where we've got gaps, but we can spend time on improving our strengths. And I do think now, yo u k n ow, given the time that we're in, I think technology has helped to level the playing field to an extent, but there's certainly acknowledgement in the marketplace that diversity of thought can help to drive innovation. We see this at Red Hat an d w here I work. We're an open source software company, which means we have an open source software development model. Where software is developed freely in the open source community. And so it doesn't matter the job title of the people developing the software. It doesn't matter the gender, it doesn't matter the ethnicity, the age, the ability, the disability. It just matters whether or not it's a good piece of software. And so we've got this diversity of thought that underpins our business model. And it turns out that Red Hat is one of the most innovative companies in the world and has been for quite some time. So people I think are starting to recognize that diversity of thought is where innovation lies. And I think there's an opportunity right now, particularly in the marketplace with things that are going on with COVID where people are doing a lot more work from home, which is friendlier for people with disabilities. The technology helps to make more things possible. I think there's opportunity for people with disabilities to play a more significant role in business. And I think businesses and the market is now recognizing that different points of view can actually drive real business value. So I think there's real opportunity for us to step in and help fill that void.

Shelly: 22:41

I'm excited with this past year, it's shown employers that you can work from home. You can thrive, you can learn and be a productive part of society without having to be physically in the office. I'm hoping that's one thing that really sticks and starts to really open the doors for more diversity and inclusive employment moving forward.

Chad: 23:03

We're finding that it can be done. And in fact, it can be done in some cases more efficiently. Now I do think the trade-off with that is going to be, it's going to be harder for us. If we're not around our colleagues, it's going to take a little bit more time to build trust. And we're going to have to try and build relationships, be more intentional about building relationships, but think about how much travel costs people have saved this year. I traveled last year, 90% of the time I traveled almost every week. And now all of a sudden I traveled none for work on one or two trips this year, right? So companies have saved a lot of money on travel. And I think they're going to look at it just from the economics of that and say, you know what? I don't think we need to go back to the things were, I think we need to, to accept more of a work from home model, but I do think we're still going to see a little bit of, you know, getting face to face time. It's hard to replace that face-to-face time altogether, just simply from the aspect of people are working more collaboratively now. And it's good to really build those trust and build that trust and those relationships.

Shelly: 24:04

And I'm so grateful for it because otherwise I wouldn't have guests like you on my show without having this kind of a virtual opportunity. We're connecting, and I think we're closer, but in a much different way. Well, with that, we're going to be back on the other side with Chad Foster.

AD: 24:22

Abilities in Motion is a Pennsylvania based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities live their lives on their own terms, abilities, emotions, strides to eliminate psychological stereotypes, physical barriers, and outdated attitudes that prevent social and civic inclusion as well as promote the independent living movement to empower, educate, and advocate for individuals with disabilities. For more information about programs and services, Abilities in Motion provides call(610) 376-0010, or visit our website@ www.abilitiesinmotion.org

Shelly: 25:01

And welcome back listeners. This is Shelly Houser, and we're talking to Chad E. Foster and his new book that's coming out Blind Ambition. Chad, in this book, you write about all your drive and passion for the work that you do. What pushes you out of your comfort zone and how do you know the time is right for your next big challenge?

Chad: 25:22

I feel like my life had been an experiment of living outside of my comfort zone. Growing up when I was younger, not being able to see, well at night as I've discussed both here and in the book, that was uncomfortable. And then learning the limitations of my eyesight that was uncomfortable. And then getting a guide dog and walking around with my guide dog Miles and then Romeo,and now Sarge, you know, when I first walked into a university classroom with a guide dog that was uncomfortable and then a job interview and then traveling all over the United States and then traveling to Asia and Europe and all over the world by myself, not being able to see, not being able to speak the languages yet, forcing myself to stick to my routine and getting up at 5:00 AM and finding my way to the hotel gym and around the gym to the equipment that I wanted to use. All of those things were outside of my comfort zone. But I've found that by doing those things by incrementally pushing the edges of my comfort zone, it's began to expand. And I think it allows all of us by pushing our comfort zones. That's where growth takes place. Life begins outside of our comfort zone.

Shelly: 26:42

Definitely. I loved how you wrote another theme in your book about resilience. And I think one of the best examples I can think of in the book was when you traveled with Evie to see her parents.

Chad: 26:57

Oh in Brazil.

Shelly: 26:57

Yeah, In Brazil and that they wouldn't take the dog in restaurants, they wouldn't take the dog in hotels and you were resilient. And so was she to adapt. So how have you and your wife learned to adapt to all these changes in life?

Chad: 27:15

Yeah. I believe fundamentally we all become the stories that we tell ourselves. So if we tell ourselves a story of poor me, then that's what we're going to be. We tell ourselves a story of I've got this, I'm going to own this, and I'm going to make this look good? Then that's what we're going to be. Fundamentally resilience boils it's down to how we show u p in a given set of circumstances. Really looking at it, we look at what our sphere of influence is in a given situation. When I say sphere of influence, I'm talking about things that we can affect and things that we c annot affect. And so for me, what's inside my sphere of influence or things like, y ou k now, learning, relearning, how to learn. I c ould control that learning how to write code, to write software, to program a computer, learning how to conduct business in the business world. Those are all things within my sphere of influence. The things that are not inside, my sphere of influence a re things like my blindness. I can never change my blindness no matter how much I've wanted to. So in order to thrive in adverse conditions, we have to figure out what vision of greatness d o we have for ourselves? That includes the unchangeable circumstances like blindness. And is inspiring enough to motivate us to action so that we can a ffect the things inside our sphere of influence. And so for me, that started with relearning, how to learn and going to school, making good grades, getting a good job, climbing the corporate ladder. And now with speaking and writing the book and eventually to things that are more fun t o like skiing. I never thought I'd b e skiing after I lost my eyesight, but incredibly it's one of the most exhilarating things that I've done. And so it's really important for all of us, a little more attention to the stories that we have playing i n our minds so that we make sure that we're telling o urselves the right stories. We all have those voices that aren't so positive. We all have the key figuring out when to turn the volume on those voices down and turning the volume on the positive voices up.

Shelly: 29:32

Absolutely. Did you ever have a moment where you were standing on the ledge of a ski slope and think, what the hell am I doing here?( laughter)

Chad: 29:43

( Laughter) I have, you know, my, my ski guide continues to tell me that I have a real advantage because she says there's no way anybody, any one of her students with the level of experience that I have, whatever ski, the slopes that I'm on. Once they see the slopes, there's no way they would, they would go down this hill. So I have a bit of an advantage in the fact that I can see we were on Snowmass last year, and my buddy and ski guide Paul, were on Cirque Headwall, which is a double black. And he looks at me and he's like, you should be really thankful that you can't see around us right now. It's pretty intimidating. So I've definitely had those moments. Certainly when I, when I took my first tumble that required the ski patrol, you read about that in the book. And I went off of a black and in Snowmass coming out of that and actually when I was sunk down in that, when I was in some really loose powder at the bottom of a tree well, that's what I, one time that I really started to panic a little bit, because I realized that I had to be very careful how I got out of that tree well. So I have questioned my decisions a little bit, but you know, we can get hurt doing anything. My dad took me to the gym one time and probably, about five years ago, he said, you know what? You can leave the dog at home. I'll, I'll take you. We'll we'll work out together and I'll just guide you around. That's fine. It's early in the morning. We'll go get it knocked down. So we're leaving and he's not paying close attention as he probably should. And it's been a while. He's a little out of practice guide him, turning a blind guy around, walk me into the side of a wall and splits my head wide open. So we ended up leaving and he turns around and says, who was that noise? I think we need to go t o t he, to the hospital. We were right next to the ER. So I go there and I get stitched up. But the n et of it is we can get hurt doing anything in life. Something can find us no matter what we're doing. So we may as well do the things that w e'd love to do in life. And for me, t hat one of those is skiing, even though my family and my friends and even myself, every now and then questions, the logic, and I'm in a blind guy, strapping on a pair of skis and going down a very steep mountain.

Shelly: 31:50

What has becoming blind taught you? And what are you most grateful for?

Chad: 31:56

Becoming blind has taught me that none of us are, are in control of everything. Life happens, to all of us. None of us can choose how we want life to unfold. We think that a lot of people maybe who aren't faced with a condition like mine may have the illusion that they're in control of their life and the world around them. I think eventually everybody learns over time that they're not. If something will happen to them or a loved one. And they'll, they'll learn that they're not in control of everything that happens, happens to them. So for me, it's, it's taught me that, you know what, I'm not in the driver's seat and this thing called life, but I can control certain aspects of it. I can control how I show up, I can control my attitude, I can control my perspective, my focus, my effort, and my determination.

Shelly: 32:51

Absolutely. And that's a great mental perspective to have, because if you have, and you continue to have that, woah-ez me, I'm the victim here, kind of thing. You're never going to get anywhere in life. And that's what this podcast is all about to talk about the things we can do, the things we want to do, and the things that we achieve because of our tenacity and our resilience and our ambition and our passion, u h, in life. You work with Red Hat and you wrote about it in the book and they develop, you mentioned earlier, they develop an open source IT solutions. Throughout your career, you have produced$45 billion in contracts for the IT industry alone. How are you making a positive impact for the disability community through y our w ork?

Chad: 33:34

Yeah, I used to lead by example, I still do. But that used to be my focal point was leading by example at work, through the teams that I partnered with and bringing visibility and awareness to that and at the corporate level. And now though, I'm being more intentional about helping others honored to have the endorsement and supportive Tony Coelho, you may know, wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act. He was the chief sponsor, former Congressman from California, who wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act and made so many things possible without the work that he has done over his lifetime. You know, I wouldn't be able to take my guide dog into public places. There are so many things that I owe a debt of gratitude to what Mr. Coelho has done instead of have his support is, uh, is phenomenal. And, and I hope that with this book and with the platform that I can, I can have through this, I can do more good and bring more awareness and be more intentional about leveling that playing field for people with disabilities.

Shelly: 34:39

The last big theme that I took away from your book was ambition. Is this book, your big ambition for 2021?

Chad: 34:49

Well, it is. My ambition for 2021 is taking the lessons that I've learned throughout my journey and packaging those up. And right now it's definitely the book. I can help people, as I mentioned at work, by leading a team can help a couple of hundred people. By getting on stage, I can help a couple of thousand people. But with the book, I think I can help millions of people with the lessons that I've learned throughout my life. And so my ambition for 2021 is to help as many people as possible with the lessons that I've learned throughout my life so that they can benefit from those lessons without having to go through the same journey. The journey was difficult. And the funny is when I help somebody with these lessons, whether it's meeting an individual one-on-one or someone coming up to me after I've given a presentation, or, you know, soon someone reading my book, a really remarkable thing happens. I start to realize that the benefits of helping other people with my struggle and my story actually makes going blind worth it. And so it takes the journey that I've been on, a difficult journey and assigns new value to it because now I'm helping all of these other people who don't have to undergo the same experience.

Shelly: 36:15

What was the favorite part about writing the book? Was it the process, or just getting your story out there?

Chad: 36:22

My most favorite part about writing the book was, was really trying to zoom in on the things that I had, frankly, forgotten. You know, life goes by so quickly that we often get caught up in sort of, you know, getting on the treadmill and chasing things. And for me, at least rarely stopped to reflect. And so really pausing to reflect and having some very deep conversations with the editors and the team about things that happened in my life. And what did I learn from those? And what's the best way to tell that story so that we can, we can really capture the hearts and minds of people, but really pausing to reflect on the last 15, 20 years of my life in particular, obviously we went back much further than that, but, you know, just taking that opportunity to pause and capture and document a lot of the things that are easy to kind of go unnoticed. If we're not really mindful about it.

Shelly: 37:20

The one thing I wanted to ask you in going through and reliving that journey of your life and all of the challenges and twists and turns that it's taken, and now the book is done. And it's just about ready to come out, looking forward. I mean, has it changed your perspective on your ambitions moving forward and maybe looking to write another book in the future?

Chad: 37:42

Yeah, I have started to think about what the next book could look like. I have thought about that. And so probably not ready to jump right into it yet. I would say maybe by the end of this year or the middle of next year. I might start, I've got some ideas, but I would like to, to see which particular themes are resonating with people. I've got some, some thoughts on the next book. I'm thinking about another book and the blind ambition series. But I'm also working with friend of mine who runs the Atlanta Opera. He's commissioning an opera inspired by my story. And so I want to work with him. He's bringing more awareness to causes that we're both passionate about, and that are things that underlie my book and my story. And then the other thing that I'd really like to do is I'm also working with, um, some folks on expeditions. I love being an adventurer. I love getting outside of my comfort zone and doing things that I've, that I've never done. So we've got some ski trips planned. I'd like to do some mountain expeditions, definitely some, some things that I haven't done before are on the agenda, but let's say the book that I'm not definitely not ruling out the book, but I'm not sure if it will be in 2021. I might start them because I know it takes 12 to 18 months to get it to market.

Shelly: 38:58

So you've been featured on NBC, Forbes, USA Today, Thrive Global and many other platforms in just a few years. Can you tell our listeners where to find you and how to pre-order the book?

Chad: 39:14

So they can find me on Facebook and Instagram. My handle there is find Chad E Foster. I'm on Twitter at Chad E Foster. And then the book is@ BlindAmbitionbook.com. My website is Chad E Foster.com, which can take you to all those other places. And then the book is on all major retailers. So Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Target. Book Shop.

Shelly: 39:43

Well with that, I thank you or talking to us about your book blind ambition, and we're looking forward to it coming out very soon. Chad, thanks so much for being on the show. It's been really a great opportunity to talk to you about this book and your extraordinary life.

Chad: 39:59

It's been a pleasure, thanks for having me!

Shelly: 40:00

And to our listeners, Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to hit that Like and Subscribe button so you get notices every time there's a new episode. Join us again. Next time on Disability Talks.

Outro Music: 40:30

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Outro : 40:33

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