Ever heard of the best-seller “Le Scaphandre et le Papillon”?
Maybe you’d recognize it by the popular English translation “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”?
Jean-Do, as he’s affectionately known in many circles, was a journalist, author and highly respected businessman, who lost 99.9999% of his ability to communicate after a heart attack put him into a coma.
Upon waking, he was left with a rare condition called “Locked-In Syndrome”, where you’re effectively locked inside your body. His physical abilities were limited to being able to blink one of his eyes.
This life change put an end to his career as the highly respected and globally-recognized editor at Elle Magazine.
I wanted to share this clip with you. It’s actually from the biographical film about him, portrayed by an actor. However just watch this sequence and note both Jean-Do and his assistant, and the patience that was required by both of them to write his best-selling novel (post-accident.)
If you think you don’t have it in you to head to the office, write a blog post, endure yet another business meeting, etc, etc… I hope this clip will help give you the perspective you need to get things done today, tomorrow, and beyond:
The assistant had to say every single letter in the alphabet, until Jean-Do blinked confirmation at the right letter — then the entire process started over again for the next letter. This is how a man whose life appeared to be over managed to write an entire (best-selling) novel.
What passion, perseverance and patience right?
Sadly, the man died two days after Le Scaphandre et le Papillon was published.
What a story…
