Zach Anner

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/if-at-birth-you-dont-succeed-zach-anner/1121861958?ean=9781627793643

Last week I moderated an online discussion of Zach Anner's book If at Birth You Don't Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny for a neuromuscular disorders Facebook group that I belong to. I had met Zach at his book signing in town, and asked him if he would be a part of the discussion. I was thrilled when he made it to event, and even more pleased that he stayed for the entire 90 minute conversation!

Zach was a co-winner of a reality show on the Oprah Winfrey network and won his own travel show called "Rollin' with Zach." He's also an Internet and youtube session, with several successful web series: "Workout Wednesdays," "Riding Shotgun," and "Have a Little Faith," the latter produced by Rainn Wilson's company Soul Pancake. Zach has never let cerebral palsy slow him down or stop him from being hilarious, resilient, and always looking on the bright side.

About twelve of us participated in the online book discussion, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to ask Zach questions about his book and his outlook on life, and for members of the Facebook group to share some of their travel stories with him. 

The book is fantastic - laugh out loud funny, poignant in parts, with a super great message of turning negatives into positives and failures into success. For example, in one chapter he talks about his struggle in school physical education classes. He was terrible at sports, and strongly disliked having an adaptive PE teacher assigned to him who basically allowed him to cheat, which caused resentment among his classmates. But he turned that negative part of his life into a positive later on, as his web series "Workout Wednesdays" became his most successful online endeavor so far. 

The term "inspiration" can have a negative connotation, but to me Zach Anner is inspirational. He didn't plan to be a spokesperson for the disabled community, but simply by being an entertaining, hardy, open person, he is breaking stereotypes, expanding mindsets, and showing all of us how to find the humor and the grace in unfortunate events.  

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