[nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successfulblind people

Lillie Pennington lilliepennington at fuse.net
Thu Mar 27 22:08:23 UTC 2014


Another thing that has sort of mentioned is being a go getter. Seeing something that you want to do and then doing it. 
If you are able to have this strength other things such as ambition and confidence go hand in hand.
So basically if you have a specific goal in mind and you apply these strengths and get what you want that is success to me.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 27, 2014, at 5:29 PM, Darian <dsmithnfb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Yes, part of success is to be comfortable in one's skin. 
> However you choose to identify yourself is secondary to you being comfortable in your own skin. You can be comfortable in your blindness yet not call yourself blind nor would you prefer others to call you blind.
> Someone who is of Japanese dissent my call themselves American or Asian American or Japanese-American or Japanese. 
> If they're doing what they want to do, living the life they want to live, comfortable where they are then they can be called successful. Since this is very much a relative term, who can argue against it?
> 
> This electronic message has been brought to you by my mobile device.
> 
>> On Mar 27, 2014, at 2:19 PM, Sophie Trist <sweetpeareader at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Brice, you make a good point. Successful is an abstract word with no true definition. But in my opinion, being successful is doing what you want to do and being good at it, whether you're a successful novelist, doctor, or garbage collector. It's knowing that you are good at something, knowing that you have the skills and ability necessary to further your personal ambitions, whatever they may be. As to traits of successful blind people, one important one that no one has mentioned (and I agree with everything that has already been mentioned) is acceptance of blindness. I've known people who have denied their blindness. I was talking to a guy I'd just met on a school trip, and I made some casual reference as to him being blind. "I'm visually impaired! I can still see stuff, so I'm not blind!" he snapped at me. We must come to term with our blindness. If we are comfortable with it and accept it as a fact of life that we cannot change, we will grow in confidence. And if we grow in confidence, people will notice that. Whereas if we are uncomfortable with our blindness or inefficient because of a refusal to accknowledge blindness and receive training, people will notice us for an entirely different reason. They will give us "the pity treatment" as someone earlier said. This is a great discussion and I look forward to getting more input.
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Brice Smith <brice.smith319 at gmail.com
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Date sent: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 16:57:12 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Personal characteristics and traits of successfulblind people
>> 
>> This entire discussion is pointless because no one has defined
>> successful. What is it? Is it getting a master's degree and job in
>> your field? Climbing a tall mountain? Working as a garbage collector
>> to feed and protect your husband and children? If I travel solo around
>> the world would you call me successful despite my disability, or laugh
>> at me because I don't have a job? If I have an expensive English
>> degree and work as a receptionist at an engineering firm am I now
>> considered "successful" even if I'm miserable and hate my job? If I
>> work at Target because I've got bills and responsibilities, am I
>> successful for getting a job or a failure for not having the
>> curiosity, intellect, training, adaptability -- or whatever other
>> characteristics you have identified in this thread?
>> 
>> We go on and on with these useless terms and buzzwords without
>> defining them or considering that success to one person might be
>> failure to another.
>> 
>> Brice
>> 
>> 
>> On 3/27/14, justin williams <justin.williams2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> You do have to be better than the majority; it is not fair, but you do. At
>> times, you will get a little bit of a break, but to be really successful,




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