August 31, 2023 • 44 mins
We talk to the extraordinary gold medalist Paralympic runner. Blake Leeper tells us that the biggest disability people can have is a bad attitude. You will be inspired by his determination, and his infectious enthusiasm, and view of the world. He has an a powerful message and has just release a documentary called "Abled" that is being showcased in Film Festivals right now.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:27):
inspired. So let's get started.This is great. It happens. God
did not put me on this earthsit aside. And every day that I
wake up, I said, Iwant to be one of the fascinated of
the world and I have no legs. Set your own goals, rise to
(00:58):
the occasion, fight for your dreams. Man, that's what That's what I
want to stand for. That's whatI want to be. When we have
excuses, that means you're pointing fingersright, it's their fault or is his
fault? Are you losing your power? So at the end of the day,
(01:22):
I'm thankful that was born without legs. Here we're back at Girl it
Happens. We are in studio todaytalking doing a very exciting guess. Someone
who's lived with some grit and hasmade a positive impact with it in his
life. I'm very excited to meetour guests today. I am too.
(01:44):
You know, we don't get everyday where we get to meet an Olympian.
We don't not every day we getto talk to the fastest man in
the world or one of the fastestmen in the world who doesn't have legs
by by all means, which issuch an incredible story. Well let's get
there, okay, Well we'll justget right off and we're going to start
and bring on one of our now, one of my most favorite people,
(02:07):
Blake Leeper. Blake, Welcome togir It happened. Hello everybody, how's
it going. Thank you so muchfor having me. I'm super excited for
this. Oh, we are honoredto meet you. We are honored to
that we've been able to get toknow you a little bit and we're gonna
be spending some more time with you, and you know, having a great
little leadership gathering out on Neckar Islandand Blake's going to spend some time with
(02:30):
us out there. So just gettingto know you, Blake and hearing your
store. It's just crazy about youknow, how life is really about a
mindset, you know, And soI think for the people that listen to
our podcast, you know, that'sreally what we speak about, you know,
(02:53):
is that you can overcome anything whenyou really put your mind to it.
And so I just a little justback. I watched a Ted talk
recently about a grit, and itwas saying that the most successful people in
life, the element, the thingthey all had in common was an element
of grit, some struggle, somerough time in life, and that really
(03:16):
is the building of a champion,of a successful warrior, or a business
or you know, and a lotof our kids don't have a lot of
grit these days. But you ifyou could walk us back to your life
story, start from the beginning andtell us about the grit you dealt with
growing up and how you are whereyou are now. Yeah, you're absolutely
(03:36):
right. You know. I'm atrue believer that your adversity is your advantage.
Is like that the struggles that yougo through in life really get to
show yourself and to the world howstrong you truly can be. But when
you go back to my story andthe day that I was born, you
have to understand the day that Iwas born. Their doctors told my parents
and basically told me that I wouldnever walk a day in my life born
(03:58):
with continual birth effects. But him, Emilia. They rushed me into the
ICU and came back and had thatconversation. You know, mister and missus
Leeper. I'm sorry, but youryour baby boy, Blake is never gonna
walk a day in his life.He's born missing both of his legs.
Just if your parents talk to youabout that day. Yeah, you know,
(04:20):
I go over with them, youknow when they tell me, you
know, this exact day story.You know, I'm a father myself.
You know, I have a threeyear old daughter, and I remember the
day my daughter was born. Youknow, I didn't don't care if she
was you know, a girl ora boy or whatever. I just I
just wanted a happy baby, healthybaby. And I think about my parents.
(04:40):
They didn't get that wish of havinga healthy baby. And I asked
him, what'd you say? Youknow, what what did you say when
the doctor told you that I wasnever gonna walk? You know, Mom,
who who'd you cuss out? Iknow you didn't take that information?
Who'd but they? You know,I asked the same question over and over
and over again. And they gaveme the same answer, and over and
over again they said yes. Theday that was born, they was nervous,
(05:02):
they were scared, they had meICU. But the second they brought
me back into the room, theydidn't care the fact that I was missing
both of my legs. The onlything they cared about was the beauty inside
of me. And in that moment, they just had to do two things.
The first thing, stick together asa family as a unit to the
good and the bad and ugly.And the second thing is to keep a
positive attitude towards the whole situation.And I'm a true believer like that.
(05:26):
Power positivity is what saved my life. So I've got a question for you.
So now you're growing up, right, you're one, two, three,
four. You don't probably realize thatthere is any disadvantage or disability when
you're very young, right, andso when does it start to hit you,
you know what, like this didn'tseem fair or did you go through
(05:48):
any of that or did you justkind of grow up through it? And
yeah, you know, as achild, I felt normal as possible.
Yes, I you know, Ihad my prosthetic legs, but it wasn't
I member. I was at avery young age, about five years old,
I was playing T ball and Iwas hit you know, I wanted
to hit a home run, youknow, miniature baseball. And I hit
the ball one day as hard asfar as I can in a baseball game,
(06:10):
and I started running around the basisand as I'm running around the basis,
my leg falls off mid run.Yeah, mid run, I get
tagged out. And I always jokeand say, who would tag another kid
out missing his legs? I know, but this was a serious league.
But I can remember at such ayoung age, as my leg was off
(06:30):
an he was over, I wastagged out. I was I was questioning
life, like why am I goingthrough this? Like why me? Like
why do I? Why do Ihave to go through this? Everybody at
the fields at this sporting event havetheir legs. My mother has her legs,
my brother's completely fine, and me, I'm the one that has to
go through this. But as Igot older and more trials and tribulations that
(06:51):
I went through in my life,I realized I was I was looking for
fault. I was looking I wantedto blame somebody or something like it's spy
ball, it's her fault. Butthe right of it is it was just
life that I fell in that moment. It was just life that was born
with our legs and and and Ihad to take responsibility. So I had
to flip it into reverse it.Instead of saying why me, I challenge
(07:12):
it, And I say, well, why not me? I meant for
this? Why not me? I'mstrong enough for this? Why not modern
enough for this? You know,I remember you said the biggest disability people
have as a bad attitude, right, I mean, because that's what it
is. We're talking again about ourminds. And and you know, growing
up, I can remember growing upnot such a great neighborhood, not such
(07:36):
great role models as family. Andyou look back because we you know,
we support a group called a RatioAlger and it's about kids that have been
through severe adversity and in their casethey use education as their way out right
and just exactly the same mindset youhave. And and so you know,
(08:00):
when you sit there and you seepeople that have made an excuse and as
their reason why they can't move forward, and you go and you look at
other people and go, well whatabout them? And what about them?
It's it's such a great brought thefresh air and to be inspired by others
(08:20):
that say, I'm not using anythingas my excuse. I'm going to keep
pushing through. Actually I'm going touse adversity as you know, something to
help propel me in life. Asyou said earlier as well, that's the
kind of people that are the winnersin the world, you know, the
ones that because it's it's so sture, minds are so strong to either be
(08:41):
able to overcome these things or togive us a reason why we sit there
and can't succeed, you know.So, Blake, do you remember the
moment that you change it from whynot to why not me? Or why
me? To why not me?Is there? Do you attribute it to
the positivity of your parents? Wasit a moment that you just reached your
low and you just said I havenowhere to go but up? Like?
(09:03):
Is that is that clear? Isthat a clear transition in your Honestly,
I think it's multiple transitions throughout yourlife where you have to constantly show up
where it kind of like you weretalking Glenn, where you get tested.
Right, you go through life,you have your ups, you have your
downs, but those moments of beingtested and because of my disability. I
had multiple moments throughout my life whereI was being tested and I had to
(09:26):
ask myself, I'm I'm gonna letthis make me, or I'm gonna let
this break me, and and andchoosing, you know what I mean,
the latter saying I'm gonna let thismake me. I'm you know, I'm
the special one. This is happening, you know, for me and not
just to me, because like yousaid earlier, we all deal with a
lot of adversities. Like nobody goesthrough this life without challenges, but it's
(09:48):
like what you do for those challenges, you know, moving forward. So
you know, I think about thetime where, you know, I went
to my first school dance and Iwore shorts and you could see my proscetic
legs, and I had this newjersey that I wanted everybody to see.
So I wore this jersey with theshorts, and I'll walk into the dance
and everybody staring at me at thisyou know, middle school dance. But
(10:09):
they're not staring at my jersey thatI was hoping they would stare at.
They were staring at my legs,and I got laughed at. I got
I got pointed at I got peoplewas talking about me. And I went
home that night and I cried.I cried so hard because I knew that
I was different. But but butas far as that moment was, I
had to look at myself in themirror and accept my flaws in awe and
(10:33):
making the decisions like this is whoI am. It's not gonna change.
So I need to lean into thisand and and accept this and embrace this
and be proud of moving forward andand and let the light shine where I
need to go. YEA, that'shard for people. It's hard. You
know what Flake's point, It's notlife isn't fair. And so to sit
(10:56):
back and you know, when youlook through your life and you're where you
are, and you're proud of whereyou are, and they're built on moments
like that where you ended up beingable to turn and make the right choice
or make the right decision. WhenI was fourteen years old, you know,
and everyone was laughing at me.I had a child. I'm in
(11:16):
eighth grade and people are writing onthe desk, baby maker, and the
kids are saying, my mom anddad won't let me play with you anymore.
I can't see you anymore, andthey hurt right these things, And
yet I look and I go,wow, Am I so proud? As
I think, not proud, butI'm glad. And I'm sure you are
grateful that you're able to. Andwe tell these young kids in the Horatio
(11:41):
Alger that you know, all ofthose lessons and all of that pain builds
his armor on you now that youcan get through so much more than other
people, people that have had itperfect in their lives. They're actually at
a disadvantage because when they run inadversity, they don't know what to do.
They don't know how to react.And you're going, you your plane
(12:07):
was canceled and now you're sitting inyour know that's your problem, right,
like please? Yes, it's interesting, you know, And I find that
inverse people's adversity and how they respondto it as all is obviously relative to
each person's situation too. And Ithink when you're going through things there,
(12:28):
this is not I tell me,if you agree with me, this this
is not a call to say buckup and move on and pick yourself up.
It's it's not a call to saydon't feel the pain of what you're
going through because I think there issomething cathartic and being in that moment,
being like, man, this freakinsucks and you just feel it. But
if you stay it, you can'tstay there, Like it's okay to feel
(12:50):
the real feelings of defeat and adversityand failure or whatever it is or pain
or law us. But I thinkthat the key is to not stay there.
Would you agree? Yes, No, I agree totally. It's it's
just that identifying, you know,saying like this is what it is,
(13:11):
like this is this is terrible.I can remember it every morning. You
know. My mother would walk intomy room and you know, the first
thing she would say is like,you have a disability, like we have
to acknowledge this, like this istough, like you're born missed in both
of your legs. But as soonas she would say that, she would
follow up with, but you havea thousand other abilities that make you a
(13:33):
person. You have a thousand otherabilities that allow you to wake up,
put your legs on, and keepmoving, not stay stagnant in this situation,
because if we get caught up.You know, you know one of
my favorite quotes is, you know, you know, life is ten percent
of what you're dealt with a ninetypercent of how you deal with it.
And so you look at my life, the fact that I was without legs.
(13:54):
We identify that ten percent, Weidentify the adversity, we identify the
challenges, but well and give itten percent of the weight, and then
we focus on ninety percent of whateverwhatever else we can contribute to society,
we can contribute to our community,to our lives, to other lives.
To wake up each and every day, focus on that ninety identify that ten,
(14:16):
but give power to the ninety andgive love and support where we can
be. Yeah, yeah, Ithink people are too often stuck in the
past. They're they're stuck in whatcould be, and they don't understand that.
You know, why put any weighton things you can't change, It
(14:39):
won't make a difference. So wegot to put weight on what we can
change, what we can do,what we can accomplish. And you know,
you're a great, wonderful example that. And you know, so here
you are, You've got this adversity, and now you end up deciding,
(15:00):
you know, I'm gonna, youknow, see how what I can do.
So you get into sports, youget into t ball, you get
into running, and then what startshappening? When do you start building this
complience? Yeah? When do youbecome the runner? Like? When does
that happen? Yeah? You knowit's like warm without legs. Doctors tell
tell my parents from me, Inever ruled wok and here I am.
(15:22):
You know. It was about whenI was about seventeen eighteen years old.
I make the decision. Now,you know, I want to run.
I want to be a professional runner. I never ran a day of my
life. I played basketball and baseball, so I played sports and was very
active. But to say I wantedto be a competitive runner was a little
far fetched to where it's crazy.I'm sure you guys can can attest to
(15:45):
this too as well. I youknow, on my journey to becoming a
runner, it was a lot ofemails. It was a lot of because
it's back here, this was aboutten fifteen years ago, so it was
a lot of emails. It wasa lot of phone calls, a lot
of you know, messaging, myspacing, and I heard a lot of
notes. I heard a lot ofnose because the running legs that I run
on are are extremely expensive and insurancedo not cover them. They're considered a
(16:10):
luxury, not a necessity. SoI was, you know, emailing nonprofits.
I was emailing into you know,coaches. I heard a lot of
nose, a lot of nose thata lot of knows, but I heard
found one yes. And I'm sureyou guys know if you if you keep
knocking on the door, you keepknocking on the door, you're going to
hear a lot of nose. Butone yes in your life can change your
life for forever. And I heardthat Yes. I found a nonprofit organization
(16:36):
out of San Diego who funded myfirst pair of running legs and I got
those in like two thousand and nine, and by my first race, going
into my second race, I madethe national Paralympic team. And I was
racing in a Brazil rio dation area. Oh wow, Well, well there's
a lot of there's there's a lotof credit to that organization that did say
(16:57):
yes. They mustn't believe even youenough. I mean, how wonderful again,
Yes, just beginning, Yes,conversation dear. One of Glenn's quotes
Noah is just the beginning of aconversation. So and that goes to a
test, like with the problem solving, when we go back earlier about how
my adversity is my advantage. Thethings I've been through my life taught me
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and showed me that you try onething, and if it doesn't work out,
you don't give up, you don'tquit. You just go a different
direction and try to seek it ina different way, and you continue to
fight, and you continue to showup, and eventually it will come to
pass and it will come for you. Yep, yep. I couldn't agree
more. And again, you knowthey're when when I look at certain people,
(17:44):
and you know, there's a agreat little story right about, uh
this, these two boys and dadputs them both in a room. One
is in a room with all thesegreat Christmas toys and he goes in the
room and the kid is saying thistoy stinks and this isn't big enough and
(18:08):
this isn't you know I wanted theblue one, not the red one,
right. And he puts the otherkid in a room full of horsemeneuver and
he walks back in the room andthe kid is digging and digging, digging,
and this is what are you doing? You know? And he says,
under all this crap, there's gotto be a pony somewhere, right,
And so it's all about your attitude, right. It's like, you
(18:32):
know, sometimes you've got it alland you don't even know it, and
other times you deal with you know, what little you have, and you
end up making something great out ofit. And so when I think about
these kids in racial Alger, there'sso many millions of examples of these kids
that we were sitting talking to oneand you know, he says, he's
(18:55):
with his dad, they're having lunch. Everything is going great, and all
of a sudden, he gets ringingin his ear really loud, and he
doesn't know what's going on because theworld's kind of going in slow motion and
he looks dad down and his dadhas been gunned down, shot and it
passes away right in front of him, and he says, I'm just so
(19:17):
grateful, no, I know,the bullets hit me right, Like his
mind turns to you, hey,you know, and you know, and
people and he's become a very greatleader and a very big uh. You
know, he just has gone offand stayed positive, you know what I
mean, And and other people justdon't have that. I don't know if
(19:38):
it's a gift or an ability tochange because, uh, while we talk
about this, the idea is hopefullyother people would go, maybe I don't
have it so bad, you know, and maybe I want to focus on
the things I do have work inmy life, and there's the things that
aren't. You're such an inspiration blaketo so many people, and you know,
really, you know, in theface of your own story, it
(20:00):
does make one pause, stop andsay, wow, what's my excuse?
You know they're there. I thinksituations like you do inspire people to stop
and think and reflect and consider theirown circumstances. Who who in your life?
Who inspires you? Who are yourwh who's the inspiration in your life?
(20:22):
Yeah? I had I had afew inspirations, just like you know,
my grandfather, you know, growingup. But one one that major
stuck out to me with I don'tknow if you guys remember Bo Jackson,
a football player who knows Bush knowsBo knows exactly had that he was a
football and baseball player but had thehip injury. And you know, during
(20:44):
the time of his hip injury,I was about, you know, five
six years old, you know,watching this story of this man being one
of the greatest you know, gettingin a bad, you know, hip
injury, but using a prosthetic hipto get back into the sports and get
back into the game. And Iremember I had his like highlight tape of
his rehab, you know, onVHS, and I would watch, I
(21:06):
would fast forward it to the pointwhere he would actually get injured and he
had the surgery. And it justgoes to show the power of representation of
just seeing somebody like even though hehad a prosthetic hip and I had a
procetic leg. I just heard theword prosthetic as a kid, and I
was like, if he can doit, if both can do it,
I can do it too as well. Bow knows then I can. I
(21:26):
can know to as well. Andthat was such great motivation for me to
show up to the baseball fields orto the basketball develop my skills, to
say maybe maybe. And it wasjust that, and you guys know it,
I just I just need that littlelittle ounce of hope. I didn't
I didn't much. I didn't youknow what I mean I did. I
didn't need a parade. I didn'tneed I did just a little else of
(21:49):
hope knowing that it can be doneor it is. So it's like so
so bow knows and leap or leapsliberally. So so tell some of the
people out there maybe that don't know, uh, your story as far as
what you've done with the running,because I think that's amazing. Yeah,
(22:14):
with your first national champion, yousaid you got your prostics and you won,
and then you're like, wow,I'm actually like is that What's like?
Wow, I'm actually pretty good.I'm gonna keep going. Is that
what happened? Going? Yeah,I got the taste of like a little
quick success and just you know,traveling the world. And I love traveling
the world, just you know,and and the ample possibilities of just going
(22:34):
all different places, and it justit just shot out from there. I
moved to San Diego. I trainedthe Olympic Training Center. I took a
silver in the bronze at the ParalympicGames in twenty twelve. I come back
and you know, in twenty thirteenand break the world record four one hundred
meter relay and take three more,three more medals, three silvers in twenty
you know, into in twenty seventeen, I break the four hundred meter world
(22:57):
record. In twenty nineteen, Ibreak it again and run the first NPT
ever to run under forty five seconds, and I was raked fixed in the
world against able body athletes, that'sagainst runners with or without legs, of
the fastest runners in the world.And I qualified for the Tokyo twenty twenty,
twenty twenty one Olympic Games, andwe're working on France twenty twenty four.
(23:22):
Is that the next goal ahead?That's the goal Paris, France,
twenty twenty four. I'm super excited, you know, to be competing at
the Paralympic Games. I took itsilver this year at the at the Paralympic
World Championships in Paris in the fourhundred meters and you know, I'm thankful.
I'm grateful for the opportunities and mysilver medal. But as you guys
(23:47):
know, we don't do this wherewe go we we we we we made
grit happen, right and you getthe goal like we fight. By any
chance, you uh, Nike helpingyou along on this journey. Just just
a little question, just wondering,you know, I don't know came in
my hand. Yeah, yeah,yeah. I haven't a sponsored Nike athlete,
(24:10):
which is which is pretty cool.I've been with him for a few
years. I got a hopefully youknow, leading into the you know,
Paris twenty twenty four, I gota couple of other endorsements, you know,
on the on the line right nowthat hopefully I would lock in.
And it's pretty cool to say meas a disabled man, how far we've
come with with inclusivity and inclusion.We're having these conversations where we you know,
we want to able bodied athlete,athlete with two legs, we also
(24:34):
want to athlete miss him both ofhis legs, or athlete in a wheelchair
or with feral pausy, and wewe've we we have a lot more to
go, but we've come so farinto yeah, And I think you're so
you're so right on that, andit's so important, I think, for
us to recognize how far we havecome and to acknowledge the victories and not
just focus on how far we stopto go. No, we's no,
(24:55):
we still got to work on it, but there is great victory in the
advan sms we've made and the attitudesthat are shifting. I think I think
you have you know, again,it's very evident, you know, you've
got this positive attitude and and youknow, do you think that's nature or
nurture. I've been asked myself alot someonder your feelings. Yeah, that's
(25:18):
that's funny you say that because mycoach we have that conversation at the beginning
of the year with nature and nurture, and you know that comes with like
building our season, you know,you know this protective seasons to trying to
be the best in the world.And we both came to an agreeance that
it's it's both, it's nature andnurture, Like you have to surround yourself
with the right environment, with theright people, but also provide yourself,
(25:41):
you know, with the right thingsand and and the beautiful part. And
this is why I say my adversityis my advantage. Because I was born
without legs, I understood at avery early age that life isn't easy.
Like if I wake up every dayand just let things come to me hoping
that I would have a good day, now I'm probably going to end up
having a bad day because I'm bornmissing both my legs and I'm a double
(26:04):
leg amput. But with me knowingthat I fight for it. I make
sure that I'm listening to the rightthings. You know podcasts like this,
I'm reading the right things. I'mI'm talking surrounding myself with the right things
and the right people. I'm puttingthe right things in my body, like
I intentionally fight for my happiness andmy motivation and my inspiration. So I
(26:26):
know I'm ahead, one step aheadof the game with my disability because I
have to be because if not,it would it would destroy me. You
said one word, and it's sotrue. Intentional, right, And you
have so many people that we talkto and they just said, you know
what, I just don't have theluck you have, and I just I'm
not able to do it because I'vehad a great cloud or I've done And
(26:49):
You're like, no, you haveto have an intentional mindset. You have
to surround yourself with the balcony people, not the basement people. You have
to be able to go out intothe world and know that even when you're
having a bad day that you haveto train your mind to say, you
know what, I am grateful forwhere I am, I'm great. You
(27:10):
have to convince yourself sometimes because it'snot easy. It's not always you know,
people say that to me, Like, you know, you're always in
a bid mood right, And I'mlike, you know, sometimes it isn't
no, it's not exactly. Sometimesit's very difficult to you know, put
(27:32):
one foot in front of the other, or in your case, one prosthetic
leg in front of the other andsit there and figure out how you're going
to get through the day. Andyou do it, and you keep doing
it, and when you do it, it becomes a habit that you realize
is very you know, important becauseother people they get that energy off of
you, whether it's you know,the positive energy or that you've got these
(27:56):
gray clouds. And I always,you know, we talk about, you
know, these quote great clouds,and you know what it is. It's
it's really about sowing seeds. Whetherif you're planting right the right seeds,
then eventually in your life you cancall it great clouds. Bring rain.
Rain makes things grow. So Iknow, but I'm saying when you have
(28:17):
when you plant the wrong seeds,when you cut corners, when you are
not good to people, then you'regonna people they say, ah, he's
Unlucky's not unlucky. He played youknow, he his whole life was built
on a on a shaky foundation.When you are strong, good, it's
sincere, honest. When you dothe right things, then people are gonna
(28:38):
help you. If you're a badguy, I guess what. You're not
gonna have endorsements, You're not gonnabe able to get to your races.
You're not they're not going to bethere for you. When you're a good
person, people want to see you, when they want to celebrate you,
they want to be around you,you know. And that's the big difference,
I think. So there's a there'sa book called Atomic Habits. I
(28:59):
don't know if you've read that.Know I started that, Yes, I
just started it recently. It's gotsome real that guy, Wow, what
a story there. But you talkabout these habits, and you know it's
it's it's a mindset to believe youare in a certain mindset of being not
well. I oh, I'm goingto try to lose weight. No,
I am a healthy person. Likechanging that dialogue so so important. And
(29:23):
what would you say to maybe achild who feels like they're in an impossible
situation, a young person who justcan't get out of the environment they're in,
their parents are not supportive. Whatwould you tell a child to do?
Would you give them a book toread. What what's your what's on
your book list? And what wouldyou say to a child like that,
a young teenager, Maybe, yeah, I love it, you know,
(29:45):
atomic habits, you know, bookslike that just really just talk about the
mindset and what it really changed,what it really takes to change things in
your life. But you know myadvice, you know, I kind of
what you're you're talking about, thepower of speaking great into your life.
I would start there, you know, writing things out first. Obviously,
write your gratitude list. I thinkthat's extremely important. Write all the things
(30:07):
that you're thankful for. And thenafter that, write all the things that
you're going to get done throughout theyear, throughout the week. Because the
power you know, speaking greatness intoyour life with conviction, you know,
once it's out there, you speakit out there. You know, it's
it's out there, you know,and people can, you know, they
can talk about it, they candisagree with you, they can, you
know, they can laugh at life, at you. You known, people
(30:27):
laugh at me because I was bornwithout legs and I said, I want
to be one of the fastest menin the world. They're like, like,
you have no legs, but Ispeak it with conviction, and by
speaking it out there into the universe, you slowly start conforming to that like.
Do you still slowly start becoming thatlike And one thing they cannot do
(30:47):
is take it away. So youknow, my advice would be, you
know, whatever situation that you're inthis moment, you know, you know,
identify it, acknowledge it. Butbut but speak greatness into your life
and start speaking greatness to your situationswhen you're walking into these rooms, when
you're walking in about to take atest, or you're walking into a competition,
whatever it may be. And andand watch what happens in your life
(31:11):
by speaking light into your situation andspeaking but happiness. And I's got all
chilly, I got all goosebumpy thatI you know, we speaking, We've
spoken so much about this, whichis the power of you know, i
know, speaking your dreams and manifesting, manifesting and you hit it. Because
(31:32):
a lot of people think that's alittle embarrassing. I can't go out there
and say it because you know peopleare gonna laugh at me or whatever.
And but when you start to reallysay it with conviction, then you believe
it, and other people start goingyou know what, he might just do
that, you know, and youlook at it. We just watched that
(31:52):
show on Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, and you look at that man.
He wanted to be the greatest bodybuilder, then he wanted to be the greatest
actor. Then he wanted to bea politician. And he believed it,
and he went out there and andhe said it, and you know a
lot of people went, you know, you're you don't know how to be
a politician. You never You're nevergonna be an actor. You can't even
(32:13):
speak English right right, Like youfeel embarrassed by speaking your dream out into
the universe for for people to judgeyou, you know, laugh at you
don't believe you disagree with you.I'm sure you know. That's the hardest
is something that you truly believe in. You like, I'm going to do
this, and they're like, no, you're not. It's not going to
(32:34):
happen. But you're still going.When I was a kid, I was
not. By the way, Ihave a book out, okay, it's
called it Didn't Know Grit. Hereit's in red. Grit is in the
center of it, because I thinkgrit is in the center of any great
story. And yes Wall Street Journalbestseller for all you that, and but
(32:58):
I dont I was young. Andagain while maybe I wasn't allowed to do
this a couple of things. Onetime is this I one time I might
have jumped up into Lincoln's lap andas a kid after the brand. Now,
(33:22):
I set up there and I lookedout over the you know, Washington,
DC, right, and just mymind was rolling about just Linken and
about leadership and about our everything,and it was so wild. It was
like two o'clock in the morning.But I just sat there, right,
So my buddy pushed me up.Long story, but anyway, another time,
(33:45):
there was a building in our cityand it was called the GBS Building,
and it was the tallest building inRockville. And my buddy and I
this happened to be his initials,by the way, Glenn Bryan Stearns GBS.
So we climbed the top of thatbuilding. We were I mean,
we got on the roof and wewent over the building and stood on top
(34:08):
of the letters GBS. And Iwould say, one day, I'm gonna
have a building with my name onit, you know. And I would
say that, and he did,and I'd always go by and go you
watch, you know, and it'sjust those little things. I mean,
they're crazy stupid, but but they'renot, you know, because it gives
it in your head to say I'mgonna do it, and then you start
(34:30):
believing you can do it. Youknow. Yeah, yeah, it works,
it work. It completely works.Like I don't wake up every every
morning and say, well, Ihope that i'll I wish, I wish
I can walk today. I haveto wake up with convicious that I'm going
to walk today, I'm going torun today, I'm going to figure it
out today, I'm going to becomethe fastest man in the world. Maybe,
(34:52):
you know, maybe not today,but eventually one day you keep and
then by saying that you figure it, you start figuring out, you slowly
start coming forming to it. Yep, a cup of hope does not quench
the dream. And it's got tobe a lot more in there. So
tell us a little bit about you'vegot your life you put out in a
documentary so the story of Blake Leeperwill be told in a beautiful format.
(35:15):
Tell us a little bit about thatand how that, how that is formatted,
And yeah, it's amazing, youknow, it kind of goes over,
you know, some of the thingswe talked about today, just you
know, me as a childhood,me being born without legs, making the
decision I want to become a runner. And then I started running competitively,
start breaking world records, and thenI get fast enough to qualify for the
Olympic Games. And then once Iqualified, breaking the world record, going
(35:37):
in you know, fifth in thenation, sixth in the world. That's
when I started getting sanctions from theOlympic committee because of my running legs,
because of course I'm running on prostheticdevices, carbon fiber devices. Sanctions.
Yeah, I was getting sanctioned onmy prosthetic limbs and they was doing unfair
sore we here we are. Ifought my whole life. I get to
(35:59):
the high level and then they sayI have an unfair advantage, And I
think it just really highlights how it'sinteresting that I'm deemed a disabled man until
I was too fast or too gooddat you're a threat. Now now you've
you've gone beyond what they ever expectedof you, and that scares people exactly.
(36:21):
So what happens when you exceed everybody'sexpectations in your life and the ones
you exceed everybody's expectations. You becomeyou switch from being a sympathy story we
feel bad for you, to ohwait, you now can take my spot
or my idea or who I myidentity, who I want to be,
because how good that you are.And that's when it became a problem.
And they come to find out thatthe ruling was they said I was too
(36:45):
tall my running legs, and soI had to drop my running legs by
six inches to qualify for the OlympicGames. And did it anyway? Did
it anyway? And I didn't,So I did anyway. So that's uh
So in your documentary, we're gonnabe able to just learn about your life,
(37:06):
learn about your grit, learn aboutwhat it takes to have the mindset,
the positive mindset. I imagine that, yes, and and and it
kind of follows my journey of thelifestyle and the things that I was doing
leading up to the moments when Iwas breaking the world record, when I
was running forty four second. Oh, I can't wait to see that.
(37:27):
My moments with my chiropractor, withmy coaches, you know, my workouts
and my training. I remember therewas a one one scene was a workout.
We was training on New Year's morning, you know, and it was
like, typically, you know,earlier in my career on New Year's Night,
are you kidding me? I'm outparty and staying up to like twelve
one one am. But like,fast forward to this part of my career,
(37:49):
understanding how important this moment truly isand knowing that if I have a
chance of being the best in theworld, you know, on New Year's
Night or New Year's Eve, I'min bed by, you know, not
in training with my teammates who mypartners, trying to be the fastest man
in the world. Wow, youhave such an incredible story, And I
(38:10):
think that's an important note to highlightbecause I think a lot of people,
what they'll find is when they starthaving a little bit of success and they
get out of their old habits andthey get into a new growth mindset,
and there will be those people aroundthat will try to drag you. Those
are the basement people. They willtry to drag you back down because they're
threatened by your success. And andand that's real, that's a real thing
(38:32):
that happens so long. But I'lltell you that's the highest to me,
the highest form of compliment because it'swhen you're getting people taking shots at you,
it means you've done something right.Yeah, you know, but we've
set in ours in our mortgage business, and you know we did it.
We got to number one blue ceilingoff, sold left, came back,
(39:00):
and now we're this little company andall the big guys are humbling us and
they're like, We're like, whyare you going after us when we've just
started again? But they know,they know what we've done. And we
start building that team back up,and everybody said, it's not fair.
It's not fair. Glynn, Isaid, this is the greatest compliment we
(39:20):
could ever get. Are you kiddingme? You know, So you can
look at it that way, oryou can sit there in the world not
fair, right, it doesn't matter, you know, it's gonna happen anyway.
Yeah, but anyway, it's sofunny. I was sitting in my
court cases and they're, you know, breaking down my races and my times
and my splits. Like I'm likewow, Like like you guys said,
like obviously at first is this momentof like being upset and being frustrated,
(39:45):
like I can't like why are wehere? I don't have the unfair advantage.
But then there was a moment likewow, like I ran so fast
that the Olympic think I'm cheating,Like they think that it's like something going
on. You have to understand thatthe technology has been around for almost over
twenty thirty years, like the Bladeshave been around for years and years and
(40:06):
years, and I'm the only doubleagamp two that's ran these times. That's
right. They just hadn't met youyet, like they have you and Will
Chamberlain. You know, they comeup, we got to raise the basket,
right, and it's like that's acompliment, right, Yeah, you
Blade. It is such a pleasureto sit down and talk with you.
(40:28):
We look forward to spending some timewith you and on Necker Island and we're
excited for that. For those thatwant to find you or follow you,
when you give people where where theycan go to follow your journey and the
documentary and where it's going to beand when we can see it, yeah,
you can follow my journey and havingupdates on my Instagram and at leapster
l e e p st er Ihave al leaper dot run. My website
(40:52):
would have been having updates as well, and just my YouTube, I'll be
dropping a little snip bits. Andwe're going around the tour right now of
film festivals. So we did theSeattle Festival, we did Dens with Wolves
here in Hollywood. We have afew more in Vermont, and just trying
to put it out there just throughoutthe theaters to see what type of attraction
(41:15):
and a type of feedback that we'llbe getting to moving forward with the film.
So I'm super excited just to beable to share my life story and
I'm hoping like with the film,but just with everything, like moments like
this, it's just shaming the podcastwith you guys, just like hopefully people
get inspired by just just hearing meand just understanding that. You know that
I was told no and I wasable to overcome that. So if I
(41:37):
can do that, imagine what youcan do with your life. I love
that. That's a great, greatnote to end this. It's been fabulous.
The film is called Abled, We'llbe looking for it, We'll be
following you, We'll be watching yourjourney and sharing you on all the way.
Blake, thank you for sitting downwith us and going over your life
story and sharing your magic and yourlight with us. It's been an absolute
(41:59):
pleasure looking forward to spending time withyou. All right, that's been another
episode. Sorry, I didn't meanto cut you. Go off there.
It's great happens. I love it. It is great. Happens every day
and we all overcome it in ourdifferent ways. So Blake leeper Lake,
thank you listening to another episode ofwhich you can follow all over social media
(42:22):
and YouTube. It happens. Iam put on this earth for a reason.
God put me on this earth fora reason. So whatever I go
through for that reason, it meansthat I'm going through that for a purpose.
So for me to walk into mycalling, and I have to embrace
and accept and try not to fearanything. Let me tell you, so
(42:49):
it's tomorrow problems. What would youget for it today? Forget everything else,
forget that it was any sun likeleft? What you spend today thinking
about? We get one opportune oftheir life, one chance in life to
(43:10):
do it. And what you're gonnado, to lay your foundation to make
whatever wrong you gonna make. Andit's found through ever Whens. The loss
is coming down with does the epertNobody to keep judge j Epper because ever
is between you, Ain't you Epper, ain't got nothing to do it nobody
(43:31):
else. Whatever the legacy you're gonnaleave, leave your legacy because every day
is a new day food, everymoment is a new moment. So now
(43:53):
you got to go out and showthem that all my different creature now than
I was five minutes ago, becauseI'm pissed off for greatness. It's a
ju mean pissed off for greatness.That means you're okay with being mediocre.
Ain't no man in here, okaywith being just space. So let's do
what we do. We ain't gotto worry by taking no break
Hi, I'm Mindy Sterns and I'mGlenn Sterns, and this is Grit Happens.
Join us as we engage in candidconversations with some of the most successful
people in every field and from everywalk of life, all with a common
thread of grit and a goal ofnot just surviving, but thriving. And
we hope that the show will helpyou feel informed, energized, and especially
(00:27):
inspired. So let's get started.This is great. It happens. God
did not put me on this earthsit aside. And every day that I
wake up, I said, Iwant to be one of the fascinated of
the world and I have no legs. Set your own goals, rise to
(00:58):
the occasion, fight for your dreams. Man, that's what That's what I
want to stand for. That's whatI want to be. When we have
excuses, that means you're pointing fingersright, it's their fault or is his
fault? Are you losing your power? So at the end of the day,
(01:22):
I'm thankful that was born without legs. Here we're back at Girl it
Happens. We are in studio todaytalking doing a very exciting guess. Someone
who's lived with some grit and hasmade a positive impact with it in his
life. I'm very excited to meetour guests today. I am too.
(01:44):
You know, we don't get everyday where we get to meet an Olympian.
We don't not every day we getto talk to the fastest man in
the world or one of the fastestmen in the world who doesn't have legs
by by all means, which issuch an incredible story. Well let's get
there, okay, Well we'll justget right off and we're going to start
and bring on one of our now, one of my most favorite people,
(02:07):
Blake Leeper. Blake, Welcome togir It happened. Hello everybody, how's
it going. Thank you so muchfor having me. I'm super excited for
this. Oh, we are honoredto meet you. We are honored to
that we've been able to get toknow you a little bit and we're gonna
be spending some more time with you, and you know, having a great
little leadership gathering out on Neckar Islandand Blake's going to spend some time with
(02:30):
us out there. So just gettingto know you, Blake and hearing your
store. It's just crazy about youknow, how life is really about a
mindset, you know, And soI think for the people that listen to
our podcast, you know, that'sreally what we speak about, you know,
(02:53):
is that you can overcome anything whenyou really put your mind to it.
And so I just a little justback. I watched a Ted talk
recently about a grit, and itwas saying that the most successful people in
life, the element, the thingthey all had in common was an element
of grit, some struggle, somerough time in life, and that really
(03:16):
is the building of a champion,of a successful warrior, or a business
or you know, and a lotof our kids don't have a lot of
grit these days. But you ifyou could walk us back to your life
story, start from the beginning andtell us about the grit you dealt with
growing up and how you are whereyou are now. Yeah, you're absolutely
(03:36):
right. You know. I'm atrue believer that your adversity is your advantage.
Is like that the struggles that yougo through in life really get to
show yourself and to the world howstrong you truly can be. But when
you go back to my story andthe day that I was born, you
have to understand the day that Iwas born. Their doctors told my parents
and basically told me that I wouldnever walk a day in my life born
(03:58):
with continual birth effects. But him, Emilia. They rushed me into the
ICU and came back and had thatconversation. You know, mister and missus
Leeper. I'm sorry, but youryour baby boy, Blake is never gonna
walk a day in his life.He's born missing both of his legs.
Just if your parents talk to youabout that day. Yeah, you know,
(04:20):
I go over with them, youknow when they tell me, you
know, this exact day story.You know, I'm a father myself.
You know, I have a threeyear old daughter, and I remember the
day my daughter was born. Youknow, I didn't don't care if she
was you know, a girl ora boy or whatever. I just I
just wanted a happy baby, healthybaby. And I think about my parents.
(04:40):
They didn't get that wish of havinga healthy baby. And I asked
him, what'd you say? Youknow, what what did you say when
the doctor told you that I wasnever gonna walk? You know, Mom,
who who'd you cuss out? Iknow you didn't take that information?
Who'd but they? You know,I asked the same question over and over
and over again. And they gaveme the same answer, and over and
over again they said yes. Theday that was born, they was nervous,
(05:02):
they were scared, they had meICU. But the second they brought
me back into the room, theydidn't care the fact that I was missing
both of my legs. The onlything they cared about was the beauty inside
of me. And in that moment, they just had to do two things.
The first thing, stick together asa family as a unit to the
good and the bad and ugly.And the second thing is to keep a
positive attitude towards the whole situation.And I'm a true believer like that.
(05:26):
Power positivity is what saved my life. So I've got a question for you.
So now you're growing up, right, you're one, two, three,
four. You don't probably realize thatthere is any disadvantage or disability when
you're very young, right, andso when does it start to hit you,
you know what, like this didn'tseem fair or did you go through
(05:48):
any of that or did you justkind of grow up through it? And
yeah, you know, as achild, I felt normal as possible.
Yes, I you know, Ihad my prosthetic legs, but it wasn't
I member. I was at avery young age, about five years old,
I was playing T ball and Iwas hit you know, I wanted
to hit a home run, youknow, miniature baseball. And I hit
the ball one day as hard asfar as I can in a baseball game,
(06:10):
and I started running around the basisand as I'm running around the basis,
my leg falls off mid run.Yeah, mid run, I get
tagged out. And I always jokeand say, who would tag another kid
out missing his legs? I know, but this was a serious league.
But I can remember at such ayoung age, as my leg was off
(06:30):
an he was over, I wastagged out. I was I was questioning
life, like why am I goingthrough this? Like why me? Like
why do I? Why do Ihave to go through this? Everybody at
the fields at this sporting event havetheir legs. My mother has her legs,
my brother's completely fine, and me, I'm the one that has to
go through this. But as Igot older and more trials and tribulations that
(06:51):
I went through in my life,I realized I was I was looking for
fault. I was looking I wantedto blame somebody or something like it's spy
ball, it's her fault. Butthe right of it is it was just
life that I fell in that moment. It was just life that was born
with our legs and and and Ihad to take responsibility. So I had
to flip it into reverse it.Instead of saying why me, I challenge
(07:12):
it, And I say, well, why not me? I meant for
this? Why not me? I'mstrong enough for this? Why not modern
enough for this? You know,I remember you said the biggest disability people
have as a bad attitude, right, I mean, because that's what it
is. We're talking again about ourminds. And and you know, growing
up, I can remember growing upnot such a great neighborhood, not such
(07:36):
great role models as family. Andyou look back because we you know,
we support a group called a RatioAlger and it's about kids that have been
through severe adversity and in their casethey use education as their way out right
and just exactly the same mindset youhave. And and so you know,
(08:00):
when you sit there and you seepeople that have made an excuse and as
their reason why they can't move forward, and you go and you look at
other people and go, well whatabout them? And what about them?
It's it's such a great brought thefresh air and to be inspired by others
(08:20):
that say, I'm not using anythingas my excuse. I'm going to keep
pushing through. Actually I'm going touse adversity as you know, something to
help propel me in life. Asyou said earlier as well, that's the
kind of people that are the winnersin the world, you know, the
ones that because it's it's so sture, minds are so strong to either be
(08:41):
able to overcome these things or togive us a reason why we sit there
and can't succeed, you know.So, Blake, do you remember the
moment that you change it from whynot to why not me? Or why
me? To why not me?Is there? Do you attribute it to
the positivity of your parents? Wasit a moment that you just reached your
low and you just said I havenowhere to go but up? Like?
(09:03):
Is that is that clear? Isthat a clear transition in your Honestly,
I think it's multiple transitions throughout yourlife where you have to constantly show up
where it kind of like you weretalking Glenn, where you get tested.
Right, you go through life,you have your ups, you have your
downs, but those moments of beingtested and because of my disability. I
had multiple moments throughout my life whereI was being tested and I had to
(09:26):
ask myself, I'm I'm gonna letthis make me, or I'm gonna let
this break me, and and andchoosing, you know what I mean,
the latter saying I'm gonna let thismake me. I'm you know, I'm
the special one. This is happening, you know, for me and not
just to me, because like yousaid earlier, we all deal with a
lot of adversities. Like nobody goesthrough this life without challenges, but it's
(09:48):
like what you do for those challenges, you know, moving forward. So
you know, I think about thetime where, you know, I went
to my first school dance and Iwore shorts and you could see my proscetic
legs, and I had this newjersey that I wanted everybody to see.
So I wore this jersey with theshorts, and I'll walk into the dance
and everybody staring at me at thisyou know, middle school dance. But
(10:09):
they're not staring at my jersey thatI was hoping they would stare at.
They were staring at my legs,and I got laughed at. I got
I got pointed at I got peoplewas talking about me. And I went
home that night and I cried.I cried so hard because I knew that
I was different. But but butas far as that moment was, I
had to look at myself in themirror and accept my flaws in awe and
(10:33):
making the decisions like this is whoI am. It's not gonna change.
So I need to lean into thisand and and accept this and embrace this
and be proud of moving forward andand and let the light shine where I
need to go. YEA, that'shard for people. It's hard. You
know what Flake's point, It's notlife isn't fair. And so to sit
(10:56):
back and you know, when youlook through your life and you're where you
are, and you're proud of whereyou are, and they're built on moments
like that where you ended up beingable to turn and make the right choice
or make the right decision. WhenI was fourteen years old, you know,
and everyone was laughing at me.I had a child. I'm in
(11:16):
eighth grade and people are writing onthe desk, baby maker, and the
kids are saying, my mom anddad won't let me play with you anymore.
I can't see you anymore, andthey hurt right these things, And
yet I look and I go,wow, Am I so proud? As
I think, not proud, butI'm glad. And I'm sure you are
grateful that you're able to. Andwe tell these young kids in the Horatio
(11:41):
Alger that you know, all ofthose lessons and all of that pain builds
his armor on you now that youcan get through so much more than other
people, people that have had itperfect in their lives. They're actually at
a disadvantage because when they run inadversity, they don't know what to do.
They don't know how to react.And you're going, you your plane
(12:07):
was canceled and now you're sitting inyour know that's your problem, right,
like please? Yes, it's interesting, you know, And I find that
inverse people's adversity and how they respondto it as all is obviously relative to
each person's situation too. And Ithink when you're going through things there,
(12:28):
this is not I tell me,if you agree with me, this this
is not a call to say buckup and move on and pick yourself up.
It's it's not a call to saydon't feel the pain of what you're
going through because I think there issomething cathartic and being in that moment,
being like, man, this freakinsucks and you just feel it. But
if you stay it, you can'tstay there, Like it's okay to feel
(12:50):
the real feelings of defeat and adversityand failure or whatever it is or pain
or law us. But I thinkthat the key is to not stay there.
Would you agree? Yes, No, I agree totally. It's it's
just that identifying, you know,saying like this is what it is,
(13:11):
like this is this is terrible.I can remember it every morning. You
know. My mother would walk intomy room and you know, the first
thing she would say is like,you have a disability, like we have
to acknowledge this, like this istough, like you're born missed in both
of your legs. But as soonas she would say that, she would
follow up with, but you havea thousand other abilities that make you a
(13:33):
person. You have a thousand otherabilities that allow you to wake up,
put your legs on, and keepmoving, not stay stagnant in this situation,
because if we get caught up.You know, you know one of
my favorite quotes is, you know, you know, life is ten percent
of what you're dealt with a ninetypercent of how you deal with it.
And so you look at my life, the fact that I was without legs.
(13:54):
We identify that ten percent, Weidentify the adversity, we identify the
challenges, but well and give itten percent of the weight, and then
we focus on ninety percent of whateverwhatever else we can contribute to society,
we can contribute to our community,to our lives, to other lives.
To wake up each and every day, focus on that ninety identify that ten,
(14:16):
but give power to the ninety andgive love and support where we can
be. Yeah, yeah, Ithink people are too often stuck in the
past. They're they're stuck in whatcould be, and they don't understand that.
You know, why put any weighton things you can't change, It
(14:39):
won't make a difference. So wegot to put weight on what we can
change, what we can do,what we can accomplish. And you know,
you're a great, wonderful example that. And you know, so here
you are, You've got this adversity, and now you end up deciding,
(15:00):
you know, I'm gonna, youknow, see how what I can do.
So you get into sports, youget into t ball, you get
into running, and then what startshappening? When do you start building this
complience? Yeah? When do youbecome the runner? Like? When does
that happen? Yeah? You knowit's like warm without legs. Doctors tell
tell my parents from me, Inever ruled wok and here I am.
(15:22):
You know. It was about whenI was about seventeen eighteen years old.
I make the decision. Now,you know, I want to run.
I want to be a professional runner. I never ran a day of my
life. I played basketball and baseball, so I played sports and was very
active. But to say I wantedto be a competitive runner was a little
far fetched to where it's crazy.I'm sure you guys can can attest to
(15:45):
this too as well. I youknow, on my journey to becoming a
runner, it was a lot ofemails. It was a lot of because
it's back here, this was aboutten fifteen years ago, so it was
a lot of emails. It wasa lot of phone calls, a lot
of you know, messaging, myspacing, and I heard a lot of
notes. I heard a lot ofnose because the running legs that I run
on are are extremely expensive and insurancedo not cover them. They're considered a
(16:10):
luxury, not a necessity. SoI was, you know, emailing nonprofits.
I was emailing into you know,coaches. I heard a lot of
nose, a lot of nose thata lot of knows, but I heard
found one yes. And I'm sureyou guys know if you if you keep
knocking on the door, you keepknocking on the door, you're going to
hear a lot of nose. Butone yes in your life can change your
life for forever. And I heardthat Yes. I found a nonprofit organization
(16:36):
out of San Diego who funded myfirst pair of running legs and I got
those in like two thousand and nine, and by my first race, going
into my second race, I madethe national Paralympic team. And I was
racing in a Brazil rio dation area. Oh wow, Well, well there's
a lot of there's there's a lotof credit to that organization that did say
(16:57):
yes. They mustn't believe even youenough. I mean, how wonderful again,
Yes, just beginning, Yes,conversation dear. One of Glenn's quotes
Noah is just the beginning of aconversation. So and that goes to a
test, like with the problem solving, when we go back earlier about how
my adversity is my advantage. Thethings I've been through my life taught me
(17:19):
and showed me that you try onething, and if it doesn't work out,
you don't give up, you don'tquit. You just go a different
direction and try to seek it ina different way, and you continue to
fight, and you continue to showup, and eventually it will come to
pass and it will come for you. Yep, yep. I couldn't agree
more. And again, you knowthey're when when I look at certain people,
(17:44):
and you know, there's a agreat little story right about, uh
this, these two boys and dadputs them both in a room. One
is in a room with all thesegreat Christmas toys and he goes in the
room and the kid is saying thistoy stinks and this isn't big enough and
(18:08):
this isn't you know I wanted theblue one, not the red one,
right. And he puts the otherkid in a room full of horsemeneuver and
he walks back in the room andthe kid is digging and digging, digging,
and this is what are you doing? You know? And he says,
under all this crap, there's gotto be a pony somewhere, right,
And so it's all about your attitude, right. It's like, you
(18:32):
know, sometimes you've got it alland you don't even know it, and
other times you deal with you know, what little you have, and you
end up making something great out ofit. And so when I think about
these kids in racial Alger, there'sso many millions of examples of these kids
that we were sitting talking to oneand you know, he says, he's
(18:55):
with his dad, they're having lunch. Everything is going great, and all
of a sudden, he gets ringingin his ear really loud, and he
doesn't know what's going on because theworld's kind of going in slow motion and
he looks dad down and his dadhas been gunned down, shot and it
passes away right in front of him, and he says, I'm just so
(19:17):
grateful, no, I know,the bullets hit me right, Like his
mind turns to you, hey,you know, and you know, and
people and he's become a very greatleader and a very big uh. You
know, he just has gone offand stayed positive, you know what I
mean, And and other people justdon't have that. I don't know if
(19:38):
it's a gift or an ability tochange because, uh, while we talk
about this, the idea is hopefullyother people would go, maybe I don't
have it so bad, you know, and maybe I want to focus on
the things I do have work inmy life, and there's the things that
aren't. You're such an inspiration blaketo so many people, and you know,
really, you know, in theface of your own story, it
(20:00):
does make one pause, stop andsay, wow, what's my excuse?
You know they're there. I thinksituations like you do inspire people to stop
and think and reflect and consider theirown circumstances. Who who in your life?
Who inspires you? Who are yourwh who's the inspiration in your life?
(20:22):
Yeah? I had I had afew inspirations, just like you know,
my grandfather, you know, growingup. But one one that major
stuck out to me with I don'tknow if you guys remember Bo Jackson,
a football player who knows Bush knowsBo knows exactly had that he was a
football and baseball player but had thehip injury. And you know, during
(20:44):
the time of his hip injury,I was about, you know, five
six years old, you know,watching this story of this man being one
of the greatest you know, gettingin a bad, you know, hip
injury, but using a prosthetic hipto get back into the sports and get
back into the game. And Iremember I had his like highlight tape of
his rehab, you know, onVHS, and I would watch, I
(21:06):
would fast forward it to the pointwhere he would actually get injured and he
had the surgery. And it justgoes to show the power of representation of
just seeing somebody like even though hehad a prosthetic hip and I had a
procetic leg. I just heard theword prosthetic as a kid, and I
was like, if he can doit, if both can do it,
I can do it too as well. Bow knows then I can. I
(21:26):
can know to as well. Andthat was such great motivation for me to
show up to the baseball fields orto the basketball develop my skills, to
say maybe maybe. And it wasjust that, and you guys know it,
I just I just need that littlelittle ounce of hope. I didn't
I didn't much. I didn't youknow what I mean I did. I
didn't need a parade. I didn'tneed I did just a little else of
(21:49):
hope knowing that it can be doneor it is. So it's like so
so bow knows and leap or leapsliberally. So so tell some of the
people out there maybe that don't know, uh, your story as far as
what you've done with the running,because I think that's amazing. Yeah,
(22:14):
with your first national champion, yousaid you got your prostics and you won,
and then you're like, wow,I'm actually like is that What's like?
Wow, I'm actually pretty good.I'm gonna keep going. Is that
what happened? Going? Yeah,I got the taste of like a little
quick success and just you know,traveling the world. And I love traveling
the world, just you know,and and the ample possibilities of just going
(22:34):
all different places, and it justit just shot out from there. I
moved to San Diego. I trainedthe Olympic Training Center. I took a
silver in the bronze at the ParalympicGames in twenty twelve. I come back
and you know, in twenty thirteenand break the world record four one hundred
meter relay and take three more,three more medals, three silvers in twenty
you know, into in twenty seventeen, I break the four hundred meter world
(22:57):
record. In twenty nineteen, Ibreak it again and run the first NPT
ever to run under forty five seconds, and I was raked fixed in the
world against able body athletes, that'sagainst runners with or without legs, of
the fastest runners in the world.And I qualified for the Tokyo twenty twenty,
twenty twenty one Olympic Games, andwe're working on France twenty twenty four.
(23:22):
Is that the next goal ahead?That's the goal Paris, France,
twenty twenty four. I'm super excited, you know, to be competing at
the Paralympic Games. I took itsilver this year at the at the Paralympic
World Championships in Paris in the fourhundred meters and you know, I'm thankful.
I'm grateful for the opportunities and mysilver medal. But as you guys
(23:47):
know, we don't do this wherewe go we we we we we made
grit happen, right and you getthe goal like we fight. By any
chance, you uh, Nike helpingyou along on this journey. Just just
a little question, just wondering,you know, I don't know came in
my hand. Yeah, yeah,yeah. I haven't a sponsored Nike athlete,
(24:10):
which is which is pretty cool.I've been with him for a few
years. I got a hopefully youknow, leading into the you know,
Paris twenty twenty four, I gota couple of other endorsements, you know,
on the on the line right nowthat hopefully I would lock in.
And it's pretty cool to say meas a disabled man, how far we've
come with with inclusivity and inclusion.We're having these conversations where we you know,
we want to able bodied athlete,athlete with two legs, we also
(24:34):
want to athlete miss him both ofhis legs, or athlete in a wheelchair
or with feral pausy, and wewe've we we have a lot more to
go, but we've come so farinto yeah, And I think you're so
you're so right on that, andit's so important, I think, for
us to recognize how far we havecome and to acknowledge the victories and not
just focus on how far we stopto go. No, we's no,
(24:55):
we still got to work on it, but there is great victory in the
advan sms we've made and the attitudesthat are shifting. I think I think
you have you know, again,it's very evident, you know, you've
got this positive attitude and and youknow, do you think that's nature or
nurture. I've been asked myself alot someonder your feelings. Yeah, that's
(25:18):
that's funny you say that because mycoach we have that conversation at the beginning
of the year with nature and nurture, and you know that comes with like
building our season, you know,you know this protective seasons to trying to
be the best in the world.And we both came to an agreeance that
it's it's both, it's nature andnurture, Like you have to surround yourself
with the right environment, with theright people, but also provide yourself,
(25:41):
you know, with the right thingsand and and the beautiful part. And
this is why I say my adversityis my advantage. Because I was born
without legs, I understood at avery early age that life isn't easy.
Like if I wake up every dayand just let things come to me hoping
that I would have a good day, now I'm probably going to end up
having a bad day because I'm bornmissing both my legs and I'm a double
(26:04):
leg amput. But with me knowingthat I fight for it. I make
sure that I'm listening to the rightthings. You know podcasts like this,
I'm reading the right things. I'mI'm talking surrounding myself with the right things
and the right people. I'm puttingthe right things in my body, like
I intentionally fight for my happiness andmy motivation and my inspiration. So I
(26:26):
know I'm ahead, one step aheadof the game with my disability because I
have to be because if not,it would it would destroy me. You
said one word, and it's sotrue. Intentional, right, And you
have so many people that we talkto and they just said, you know
what, I just don't have theluck you have, and I just I'm
not able to do it because I'vehad a great cloud or I've done And
(26:49):
You're like, no, you haveto have an intentional mindset. You have
to surround yourself with the balcony people, not the basement people. You have
to be able to go out intothe world and know that even when you're
having a bad day that you haveto train your mind to say, you
know what, I am grateful forwhere I am, I'm great. You
(27:10):
have to convince yourself sometimes because it'snot easy. It's not always you know,
people say that to me, Like, you know, you're always in
a bid mood right, And I'mlike, you know, sometimes it isn't
no, it's not exactly. Sometimesit's very difficult to you know, put
(27:32):
one foot in front of the other, or in your case, one prosthetic
leg in front of the other andsit there and figure out how you're going
to get through the day. Andyou do it, and you keep doing
it, and when you do it, it becomes a habit that you realize
is very you know, important becauseother people they get that energy off of
you, whether it's you know,the positive energy or that you've got these
(27:56):
gray clouds. And I always,you know, we talk about, you
know, these quote great clouds,and you know what it is. It's
it's really about sowing seeds. Whetherif you're planting right the right seeds,
then eventually in your life you cancall it great clouds. Bring rain.
Rain makes things grow. So Iknow, but I'm saying when you have
(28:17):
when you plant the wrong seeds,when you cut corners, when you are
not good to people, then you'regonna people they say, ah, he's
Unlucky's not unlucky. He played youknow, he his whole life was built
on a on a shaky foundation.When you are strong, good, it's
sincere, honest. When you dothe right things, then people are gonna
(28:38):
help you. If you're a badguy, I guess what. You're not
gonna have endorsements, You're not gonnabe able to get to your races.
You're not they're not going to bethere for you. When you're a good
person, people want to see you, when they want to celebrate you,
they want to be around you,you know. And that's the big difference,
I think. So there's a there'sa book called Atomic Habits. I
(28:59):
don't know if you've read that.Know I started that, Yes, I
just started it recently. It's gotsome real that guy, Wow, what
a story there. But you talkabout these habits, and you know it's
it's it's a mindset to believe youare in a certain mindset of being not
well. I oh, I'm goingto try to lose weight. No,
I am a healthy person. Likechanging that dialogue so so important. And
(29:23):
what would you say to maybe achild who feels like they're in an impossible
situation, a young person who justcan't get out of the environment they're in,
their parents are not supportive. Whatwould you tell a child to do?
Would you give them a book toread. What what's your what's on
your book list? And what wouldyou say to a child like that,
a young teenager, Maybe, yeah, I love it, you know,
(29:45):
atomic habits, you know, bookslike that just really just talk about the
mindset and what it really changed,what it really takes to change things in
your life. But you know myadvice, you know, I kind of
what you're you're talking about, thepower of speaking great into your life.
I would start there, you know, writing things out first. Obviously,
write your gratitude list. I thinkthat's extremely important. Write all the things
(30:07):
that you're thankful for. And thenafter that, write all the things that
you're going to get done throughout theyear, throughout the week. Because the
power you know, speaking greatness intoyour life with conviction, you know,
once it's out there, you speakit out there. You know, it's
it's out there, you know,and people can, you know, they
can talk about it, they candisagree with you, they can, you
know, they can laugh at life, at you. You known, people
(30:27):
laugh at me because I was bornwithout legs and I said, I want
to be one of the fastest menin the world. They're like, like,
you have no legs, but Ispeak it with conviction, and by
speaking it out there into the universe, you slowly start conforming to that like.
Do you still slowly start becoming thatlike And one thing they cannot do
(30:47):
is take it away. So youknow, my advice would be, you
know, whatever situation that you're inthis moment, you know, you know,
identify it, acknowledge it. Butbut but speak greatness into your life
and start speaking greatness to your situationswhen you're walking into these rooms, when
you're walking in about to take atest, or you're walking into a competition,
whatever it may be. And andand watch what happens in your life
(31:11):
by speaking light into your situation andspeaking but happiness. And I's got all
chilly, I got all goosebumpy thatI you know, we speaking, We've
spoken so much about this, whichis the power of you know, i
know, speaking your dreams and manifesting, manifesting and you hit it. Because
(31:32):
a lot of people think that's alittle embarrassing. I can't go out there
and say it because you know peopleare gonna laugh at me or whatever.
And but when you start to reallysay it with conviction, then you believe
it, and other people start goingyou know what, he might just do
that, you know, and youlook at it. We just watched that
(31:52):
show on Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, and you look at that man.
He wanted to be the greatest bodybuilder, then he wanted to be the greatest
actor. Then he wanted to bea politician. And he believed it,
and he went out there and andhe said it, and you know a
lot of people went, you know, you're you don't know how to be
a politician. You never You're nevergonna be an actor. You can't even
(32:13):
speak English right right, Like youfeel embarrassed by speaking your dream out into
the universe for for people to judgeyou, you know, laugh at you
don't believe you disagree with you.I'm sure you know. That's the hardest
is something that you truly believe in. You like, I'm going to do
this, and they're like, no, you're not. It's not going to
(32:34):
happen. But you're still going.When I was a kid, I was
not. By the way, Ihave a book out, okay, it's
called it Didn't Know Grit. Hereit's in red. Grit is in the
center of it, because I thinkgrit is in the center of any great
story. And yes Wall Street Journalbestseller for all you that, and but
(32:58):
I dont I was young. Andagain while maybe I wasn't allowed to do
this a couple of things. Onetime is this I one time I might
have jumped up into Lincoln's lap andas a kid after the brand. Now,
(33:22):
I set up there and I lookedout over the you know, Washington,
DC, right, and just mymind was rolling about just Linken and
about leadership and about our everything,and it was so wild. It was
like two o'clock in the morning.But I just sat there, right,
So my buddy pushed me up.Long story, but anyway, another time,
(33:45):
there was a building in our cityand it was called the GBS Building,
and it was the tallest building inRockville. And my buddy and I
this happened to be his initials,by the way, Glenn Bryan Stearns GBS.
So we climbed the top of thatbuilding. We were I mean,
we got on the roof and wewent over the building and stood on top
(34:08):
of the letters GBS. And Iwould say, one day, I'm gonna
have a building with my name onit, you know. And I would
say that, and he did,and I'd always go by and go you
watch, you know, and it'sjust those little things. I mean,
they're crazy stupid, but but they'renot, you know, because it gives
it in your head to say I'mgonna do it, and then you start
(34:30):
believing you can do it. Youknow. Yeah, yeah, it works,
it work. It completely works.Like I don't wake up every every
morning and say, well, Ihope that i'll I wish, I wish
I can walk today. I haveto wake up with convicious that I'm going
to walk today, I'm going torun today, I'm going to figure it
out today, I'm going to becomethe fastest man in the world. Maybe,
(34:52):
you know, maybe not today,but eventually one day you keep and
then by saying that you figure it, you start figuring out, you slowly
start coming forming to it. Yep, a cup of hope does not quench
the dream. And it's got tobe a lot more in there. So
tell us a little bit about you'vegot your life you put out in a
documentary so the story of Blake Leeperwill be told in a beautiful format.
(35:15):
Tell us a little bit about thatand how that, how that is formatted,
And yeah, it's amazing, youknow, it kind of goes over,
you know, some of the thingswe talked about today, just you
know, me as a childhood,me being born without legs, making the
decision I want to become a runner. And then I started running competitively,
start breaking world records, and thenI get fast enough to qualify for the
Olympic Games. And then once Iqualified, breaking the world record, going
(35:37):
in you know, fifth in thenation, sixth in the world. That's
when I started getting sanctions from theOlympic committee because of my running legs,
because of course I'm running on prostheticdevices, carbon fiber devices. Sanctions.
Yeah, I was getting sanctioned onmy prosthetic limbs and they was doing unfair
sore we here we are. Ifought my whole life. I get to
(35:59):
the high level and then they sayI have an unfair advantage, And I
think it just really highlights how it'sinteresting that I'm deemed a disabled man until
I was too fast or too gooddat you're a threat. Now now you've
you've gone beyond what they ever expectedof you, and that scares people exactly.
(36:21):
So what happens when you exceed everybody'sexpectations in your life and the ones
you exceed everybody's expectations. You becomeyou switch from being a sympathy story we
feel bad for you, to ohwait, you now can take my spot
or my idea or who I myidentity, who I want to be,
because how good that you are.And that's when it became a problem.
And they come to find out thatthe ruling was they said I was too
(36:45):
tall my running legs, and soI had to drop my running legs by
six inches to qualify for the OlympicGames. And did it anyway? Did
it anyway? And I didn't,So I did anyway. So that's uh
So in your documentary, we're gonnabe able to just learn about your life,
(37:06):
learn about your grit, learn aboutwhat it takes to have the mindset,
the positive mindset. I imagine that, yes, and and and it
kind of follows my journey of thelifestyle and the things that I was doing
leading up to the moments when Iwas breaking the world record, when I
was running forty four second. Oh, I can't wait to see that.
(37:27):
My moments with my chiropractor, withmy coaches, you know, my workouts
and my training. I remember therewas a one one scene was a workout.
We was training on New Year's morning, you know, and it was
like, typically, you know,earlier in my career on New Year's Night,
are you kidding me? I'm outparty and staying up to like twelve
one one am. But like,fast forward to this part of my career,
(37:49):
understanding how important this moment truly isand knowing that if I have a
chance of being the best in theworld, you know, on New Year's
Night or New Year's Eve, I'min bed by, you know, not
in training with my teammates who mypartners, trying to be the fastest man
in the world. Wow, youhave such an incredible story, And I
(38:10):
think that's an important note to highlightbecause I think a lot of people,
what they'll find is when they starthaving a little bit of success and they
get out of their old habits andthey get into a new growth mindset,
and there will be those people aroundthat will try to drag you. Those
are the basement people. They willtry to drag you back down because they're
threatened by your success. And andand that's real, that's a real thing
(38:32):
that happens so long. But I'lltell you that's the highest to me,
the highest form of compliment because it'swhen you're getting people taking shots at you,
it means you've done something right.Yeah, you know, but we've
set in ours in our mortgage business, and you know we did it.
We got to number one blue ceilingoff, sold left, came back,
(39:00):
and now we're this little company andall the big guys are humbling us and
they're like, We're like, whyare you going after us when we've just
started again? But they know,they know what we've done. And we
start building that team back up,and everybody said, it's not fair.
It's not fair. Glynn, Isaid, this is the greatest compliment we
(39:20):
could ever get. Are you kiddingme? You know, So you can
look at it that way, oryou can sit there in the world not
fair, right, it doesn't matter, you know, it's gonna happen anyway.
Yeah, but anyway, it's sofunny. I was sitting in my
court cases and they're, you know, breaking down my races and my times
and my splits. Like I'm likewow, Like like you guys said,
like obviously at first is this momentof like being upset and being frustrated,
(39:45):
like I can't like why are wehere? I don't have the unfair advantage.
But then there was a moment likewow, like I ran so fast
that the Olympic think I'm cheating,Like they think that it's like something going
on. You have to understand thatthe technology has been around for almost over
twenty thirty years, like the Bladeshave been around for years and years and
(40:06):
years, and I'm the only doubleagamp two that's ran these times. That's
right. They just hadn't met youyet, like they have you and Will
Chamberlain. You know, they comeup, we got to raise the basket,
right, and it's like that's acompliment, right, Yeah, you
Blade. It is such a pleasureto sit down and talk with you.
(40:28):
We look forward to spending some timewith you and on Necker Island and we're
excited for that. For those thatwant to find you or follow you,
when you give people where where theycan go to follow your journey and the
documentary and where it's going to beand when we can see it, yeah,
you can follow my journey and havingupdates on my Instagram and at leapster
l e e p st er Ihave al leaper dot run. My website
(40:52):
would have been having updates as well, and just my YouTube, I'll be
dropping a little snip bits. Andwe're going around the tour right now of
film festivals. So we did theSeattle Festival, we did Dens with Wolves
here in Hollywood. We have afew more in Vermont, and just trying
to put it out there just throughoutthe theaters to see what type of attraction
(41:15):
and a type of feedback that we'llbe getting to moving forward with the film.
So I'm super excited just to beable to share my life story and
I'm hoping like with the film,but just with everything, like moments like
this, it's just shaming the podcastwith you guys, just like hopefully people
get inspired by just just hearing meand just understanding that. You know that
I was told no and I wasable to overcome that. So if I
(41:37):
can do that, imagine what youcan do with your life. I love
that. That's a great, greatnote to end this. It's been fabulous.
The film is called Abled, We'llbe looking for it, We'll be
following you, We'll be watching yourjourney and sharing you on all the way.
Blake, thank you for sitting downwith us and going over your life
story and sharing your magic and yourlight with us. It's been an absolute
(41:59):
pleasure looking forward to spending time withyou. All right, that's been another
episode. Sorry, I didn't meanto cut you. Go off there.
It's great happens. I love it. It is great. Happens every day
and we all overcome it in ourdifferent ways. So Blake leeper Lake,
thank you listening to another episode ofwhich you can follow all over social media
(42:22):
and YouTube. It happens. Iam put on this earth for a reason.
God put me on this earth fora reason. So whatever I go
through for that reason, it meansthat I'm going through that for a purpose.
So for me to walk into mycalling, and I have to embrace
and accept and try not to fearanything. Let me tell you, so
(42:49):
it's tomorrow problems. What would youget for it today? Forget everything else,
forget that it was any sun likeleft? What you spend today thinking
about? We get one opportune oftheir life, one chance in life to
(43:10):
do it. And what you're gonnado, to lay your foundation to make
whatever wrong you gonna make. Andit's found through ever Whens. The loss
is coming down with does the epertNobody to keep judge j Epper because ever
is between you, Ain't you Epper, ain't got nothing to do it nobody
(43:31):
else. Whatever the legacy you're gonnaleave, leave your legacy because every day
is a new day food, everymoment is a new moment. So now
(43:53):
you got to go out and showthem that all my different creature now than
I was five minutes ago, becauseI'm pissed off for greatness. It's a
ju mean pissed off for greatness.That means you're okay with being mediocre.
Ain't no man in here, okaywith being just space. So let's do
what we do. We ain't gotto worry by taking no break
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