Nick Vujicic is a bully’s dream. Born without arms or legs, he was an easy target. When the bullying at school became too much, Vujicic attempted suicide at age 10. But Vujicic found a way to overcome the hurt and
Nick Vujicic is a bully’s dream. Born without arms or legs, he was an easy target. When the bullying at school became too much, Vujicic attempted suicide at age 10.
But Vujicic found a way to overcome the hurt and fear he endured, and now he shares that insight with readers in “Stand Strong: You Can Overcome Bullying (and Other Stuff That Keeps You Down),” available next month from WaterBrook Press.
Vujicic will be the guest speaker at the Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon March 15 on Kauai.
Vujicic has made it his personal mission to stop bullying, a quest that began last year when Gary Herbert, the governor of Utah, invited him to speak out against the bullying epidemic he was seeing in schools. Vujicic spoke at two school assemblies, which were then simulcasted into hundreds of public junior and senior high schools in the state.
“You speak uniquely and candidly to the issue of bullying with incredible conviction through your own personal experiences,” Herbert wrote in a letter to Vujicic in 2013.
Vujicic has received similar invitations from the governors of Hawaii and Texas, and eventually hopes to speak to every public school student in the country through his nationwide campaign to encourage students to end bullying. “Don’t be a by-stander, but a person on stand-by” is Vujicic’s call to action.
Vujicic is proof that anyone can overcome bullying. As a child, he lost hope that he would ever graduate from college and be able to support himself. He wondered how he would ever find a woman who would love him when he couldn’t even hold her hand.
But Vujicic believed God had a wonderful plan for his life, and he persevered in pursuing his dreams. He graduated from college with a double major and started his nonprofit organization, “Life Without Limbs.
Vujicic married Kanae, the love of his life, in 2012 and they have a one-year-old son, Kiyoshi. Vujicic’s lack of limbs, the very thing that made him an easy target for bullies, is now what opens doors for him to share his story as a motivational speaker and author.
“I lack limbs, but I’ve hung in there and come through some major storms. I’ve dealt with bullies all my life,” Vujicic writes. “In fact, I’m still dealing with bullies — and I’m a married man with a child. I’ve learned to handle bullies, mostly by controlling how I respond to them and by building a solid foundation from which to fend them off.”
His book “Stand Strong” helps teens and adults build a bully defense system by teaching you how to:
• Make responsibility for your own behavior so bullies have no power over you
• Create a safety zone where you can go to mentally draw strength
• Monitor and manage your responses to emotions triggered by a bully
• Master empathy so you can help others who are being bullied
