“They gave me the weakest body in the family. So I built the strongest mind.”
— Yaroslav the Wise
Attributed to Yaroslav the Wise, who walked with a limp his entire life yet transformed Kyivan Rus into the most cultured state in medieval Europe through law, education, and diplomacy.
My brothers were warriors. I was the cripple they sent to govern a frozen outpost called Novgorod. They had swords and armies. I had a limp and a library. By the time it was over, my daughter signed royal documents in France while the French king marked his with an X because he could not write. Whatever you think makes you weaker than everyone else, that is the exact thing that will make you different from everyone else. Use it.