The Entrepreneur in the Wheelchair
Author: Hannah Pierce
Growing up, I never thought that I would amount to much I mean the shock on the friend's face when my parents would mention the fact that I go to mainstream school was enough, the response was always “Oh my goodness that’s so good, how did you pull that one off?” Of course I would be stood (or sat if we’re being literal) next to my parents in this conversation and not be acknowledged but that’s a topic for another day.
But those types of incidents alone made me feel like if someone praises me for going to school what happens when I actually do something substantial and worthwhile that isn’t just live my life. I was worried that my hard work would go unnoticed because my circumstances would undermine it.
So as a result I’ve never dealt very well with attention and sharing my passion because I didn’t want someone to remind me of my “limits”. I remember the day that Kieran came into school and gave my year a presentation on the orbit programme, one of the things he said was there will be ten of you in this room that will be entrepreneurs by the end of this year, but never in a million years did I think that I would be one of those ten.
Time passes the presentation ends he said if anyone’s interested to pick up a form and note down our contact details, so I did then there was an email that told me to submit my application by midnight that night, so I did then we’d hear back on Friday with the verdict of if we got in or not. Low and behold Friday afternoon at around 3pm I heard back and I had done it I got in. now when I tell you I screamed the house down when I read that e-mail I mean I SCREAMED the house down.
However my mother being the slight sceptic that she is thought this was all too good to be true and that there had to be a catch because these types of opportunities don’t just fall out of the sky, but this time she was wrong it had and my god was I going to throw 100 per cent of my energy at it to see where I could go if I really just grabbed the bull by the horns so to speak.
I’ll spare you the details but needless to say I’ve been grabbing the bull by the horns for the past couple of months. I am beyond pleased to report it’s paid off big time. I’ve came up with my first business idea, won £1,000 at a pitching contest in front of 100 people and a panel of judges. As I am writing this piece it is eight days before I go to London to compete in the national finals for £10,000.
I want to love you and leave you with this message my people never let your “limits” define you. Always take the risk because you never know where it may lead you. Now to answer the question we began with is it possible to be disabled and successful and I’m proud to say my answer is yes, yes I think it's possible.
We may have to adapt our paths to get there but we’ll get there.
This article was first published on Hannah's own website you can read more and connect with the community Hannah is building at:
The publisher is the Centre for Welfare Reform.
The Entrepreneur in the Wheelchair © Hannah Pierce 2020.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
