Turning tragedy into purpose with Steven Dowd

Steven is a disabled motivational speaker, based in London.

Themes he speaks about:

• Disability
• Forced Change
• Planning for Resilience, and
• Dealing with Uncertainty

Steven Dowd committed to get fit and agreed to compete in a charity cycling event.

He bought a bike, started training and rode to work like thousands of others.

Early one June morning he was headed to a friend’s flat to do the daily commute together, but never arrived…

A freak accident left him paralysed from the neck down.

With candour and humour in keynote talks for international corporate audiences Steven shares his story, the highest highs and the lowest lows of an against-all-odds recovery journey and how he approached the situation to achieve his greatest successes to date.

“There are always lessons to be learned in challenging situations. Every situation can be useful no matter how uncomfortable. I didn’t always appreciate that.”
-Steven Dowd

An ‘Everyman’ with a long corporate career himself, Steven genuinely understands the corporate audience and is highly relatable. He clearly underlines that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things with the right toolkit.

The insights and take-aways are specifically aimed at benefitting anyone going through personal or professional challenges, facing significant events or forced change. 

“There’s no hierarchy around challenge. We will all face our biggest challenges at home or at work at some point. The good news is you don’t need to break your neck to learn a thing or two beforehand that just might help.”
-Steven Dowd

 
After Steven was injured, in his a very dark time, he even started to talk to his wife about going to Switzerland for assisted suicide, but he decided against it and instead made a decision that after surgery he would give himself 200 days to get better.

He started to take steps after 90 days and lived by the advice try to be better than you were the day before and if you are celebrate that little step as a victory.

Stephan talks about how he decided to be a motivational speaker and what that process was like for him.

We discuss the importance of not comparing your biggest challenge to another persons biggest challenge. 
Stephan talks about the rowing event he was apart of and how impactful it was