Category: Work & Career

Starting a business with a disability

youshouldgoanyway

I have owned a Hawaii web development company since 2000 and have learned many lessons while running it. Prior to starting any new venture there are many uncertainties. Often these uncertainties are the reasons people don’t start their own thing. It’s too scary. Mix in the fact that you have a disability and it can be easy to say, “Oh I could never do that.” But in my experience, my disability has had little negative impact on my ability to start and run my business. In fact, I’d have to say that because of my disability I have found it easier to handle the issues that come up.

Flexibility

Mini challenges present themselves almost every day when dealing with a disability. Sometimes there are stairs that need to be worked around. Sometimes all the disabled parking spaces are full. Sometimes you need to wait for help. A business has its own mini-challenges as well. Sometimes a form needs to be filed. Sometimes a client needs extra special attention. Sometimes a contractor doesn’t deliver what they said they would. In dealing with both a disability and a business you need to be flexible and able to handle the things that come your way without freaking out.

Ingenuity

If you use a wheelchair or have a mobility problem, you might not even realize how creative you have to be in order to live your life. Sometimes you need to figure out how to get up off the floor. Other times you need to jerry-rig something to help you accomplish a household task like cleaning, laundry, or painting. Often this sort of creativity happens without even noticing it. In business, ingenuity is a key factor in making a business a success. Clients have needs and the vendors that can solve client problems in creative and cost-effective ways are the ones that will get the jobs. In dealing with computer programming like I do, a programming challenge seems like nothing after dealing with physical challenges like “How do I get up off the floor if I fall?” Whether it’s creative marketing, creative programming, creative product development, or creative networking, there are many parallels to the creative thinking required by disabled people.

Attitude

A can-do attitude is admirable and easily developed by people with disabilities. It’s also a positive quality in a business. Developing this attitude involves leveraging the two previously-mentioned items (flexibility and ingenuity) with an overall positive outlook on a project or task. People with disabilities who are able to live their lives in productive ways usually have this attitude built-in or develop it over time. In business, this attitude helps to put clients at ease, create trust that the job will get done right, and lead to word-of-mouth referrals. It’s as valuable in business as it is in life.

So if you are considering starting a business, or even finding a job, I encourage you to examine yourself and notice that you probably have flexibility, ingenuity, and a positive attitude already. Acknowledging these attributes is the first step towards using them to go out and do the things you want to do. If you feel like you need to develop these attributes further, then find a small project around the house and consciously approach tackling it with flexibility, creativity, and a positive attitude. When you run into an obstacle, decide to tackle it head-on. Inevitably you’ll have to be flexible and creative enough to solve the problem in a new way. Then once you have completed the task, you’ll reflect positively back on it and know that the next one will be even easier.

I look forward to sharing more of what I’ve learned running my company in the future.

Tax Time

youshouldgoanyway

I have a job and pay taxes every year. One of the first questions after I start TurboTax is “Are you disabled?”

Every year, I laugh because my answer to that question is not the answer that TurboTax or the IRS is looking for. I would answer that question “Yes” in every other circumstance, but answering “Yes” in this context takes you to a bunch of information that tells me I should have answered “No.”

It’s an odd mental conflict for me. Society tells me that I am disabled but the IRS is telling me I am not disabled because I still work.

Maybe there needs to be a new term for the working disabled.

Use anxiety as a motivator

youshouldgoanyway

We’ve all felt it before, that nervous feeling that seems to drop your brain down into the middle of your stomach. It can make you feel pukey, uncomfortable, sad, and generally preoccupied with your feelings. In dealing with muscular dystrophy, disability, or life in general, I have experienced these anxious periods many times over the years. It can come from external pressures like bills and responsibilities, but often it comes from a place of uncertainty, like that “last day of school feeling” when you don’t know what the next step is going to be.

Recently, however, I finally came to learn what this anxiety has done for me — it has been a motivator. It has been that “thing” that has taken me up a notch, either to perform or to succeed or to just get through whatever I was experiencing. In each and every memorable experience with anxiety I unwittingly responded with a big push — a determined effort to move to the next thing. Some people don’t respond that way, however. It’s how you decide to deal with anxiety can either make or break you. Anxiety can be leveraged to achieve great things or it can take you out of the game.

Anxiety is not a pleasant feeling. It’s extremely uncomfortable. My immediate response to anxiety is “I just need to get rid of this!” But how? I know people who medicate for anxiety. They pop pills or drink alcohol or eat. While I am not against medication, I think you need to medicate and make an effort to change at the same time. If you take pills for anxiety but don’t simultaneously try to deal with your anxiety then you’re just prolonging and deferring that uncomfortable feeling. If you simply drink away your anxiety, you don’t deal with it either. It comes back, you drink more, and pretty soon you’re not just suffering from anxiety, you’re suffering from depression and alcoholism.

I prefer not to medicate anxiety. For me, anxiety is now a powerful motivator. Just the fact that it makes you physically uncomfortable signifies that you need to get off your butt and do something different. It is so easy to become mentally complacent with a situation — both bad and good — such that your brain adapts and gets you into a comfort zone. If you are in a negative situation, you might decide to ignore the anxiety and accept the negative job, relationship, or living situation. But even when you are in a good situation — making good money, dating a great person, or otherwise feeling satisfied — you get comfortable and forget that you need to do something to maintain that situation.

I had the opportunity to go through what I call an “highly aware anxious experience” where I felt like I was able to step back from the anxiety and see the way it was impacting me. I discovered that in the moment of feeling anxious, my energy level was much higher than when I was not anxious. The anxiety kicked me back up a notch. Then the anxiety left me and I felt like I slid back down into a lull that I wasn’t happy with. I consciously decided to kick it back up a notch, and although it took a bit of energy, when I did return to the higher energy level, I didn’t feel anxious anymore. I felt in control.

It is being up that notch that I know leads to bigger and better things. Why get sucked into a lull, or artificial comfort zone when you could advance to the next big thing whether it’s a new life experience or a better contribution to the world? I now feel that when my body makes me feel anxious, it’s telling me “Kick it up a notch or I am going to make you feel like shit until you do!” It’s a very empowering feeling to understand this.

Think about it from a historical perspective for a moment. When humans had to hunt for their own food in order to survive, they couldn’t just sit around and be complacent with an immediate kill. Perhaps they took time to enjoy them meal, but at some point soon, they had to think about where the next meal was going to come from or they would starve. I believe that at its core, anxiety is a survival instinct and a free, motivating leftover from our ancestors which clearly has very relevant importance in today’s world.

Anxiety is definitely a mixed blessing. But if you can gain control of it, or at least understand it, it can be an amazing asset.  Now I try to kick it up a notch on my own, but when I don’t, I have something ready to crack the whip for me — anxiety — which I now recognize as that self-motivating factor that money cannot buy.