Getting UP with Brian P. Swift

On the Spectrum with Sonia Krishna Chand

Send us a text

Just imagine you are living your life and going about your day to only have the course of your whole life change in a flash. This is what happened to Brian P. Swift back on December 26, 1979. Brian was just a gregarious 17 year old off school on winter break. He just finished celebrating Christmas with his family, and he was looking forward to spending the rest of the winter break relaxing and having some fun. He called his buddies to go play some football, and there was a group of guys who got together in a nearby field. This was where Brain received a tackle that changed the complete trajectory of his life....it was a tackle where he had issues getting up from the tackle. Brian couldn't move, nor could he feel. Brian suffered from c6 quadriplegia.

As much as Brian was down, he refused to be out. Brian had surgery and went to the Chicago Rehabilitation Center where statistics were grim about the quality of life for those with quadriplegia. It would be easy for anyone to get depressed and feel discouraged seeing the grim outlook that was given for people with quadriplegia. However, Brian used those statistics to motivate him further to achieve a quality of life he could be proud of. Brian went from being a student who didn't consider himself a studious person to going on to law school. Brian left the legal field and went into sales where he won an award his first year for bringing in the most sales. Brian eventually became an author, business executive coach, speaker, and radio host of WJOL. Brian refused to let quadriplegia define him, but rather, he was going to define what quadriplegia was. He defied statistics, and he showed people that life doesn't have to be so grim if you have the mindset to not let it.

章

1. Getting UP with Brian P. Swift (00:00:00)

2. Overcoming Quadriplegia (00:00:03)

3. Family Responsibility and Moving Forward (00:13:13)

4. Accountability and Hard Work (00:26:28)

5. Legal Accomplishments and Overcoming Challenges (00:33:15)

6. Legal Education and Career Transitions (00:42:17)

7. Family, Faith, and Overcoming Adversity (00:54:27)

8. CreativeCon Speaker and Book Launch (01:01:09)