when it comes to the human spirit I
believe that the potential is limitless
and it is coming from a person who has a
lot of limitation I was born with I was
born with type 1 osteo Genesis
imperfecta which is a very fancy name
for brittle bones
the idea is my boys are a glass so
whenever I fell as a child I’m breakable
I’m also very fortunate that I have the
mildest form of this condition so I’ve
met people who have type 3 onwards so I
personally am very fortunate very
blessed to have it easier in a sense
today I’d like to share a bit more about
how we can discover and harness the
potential of the human spirit
I personally am a big fan of comic books
right so I add my own array of
superheroes that I like when I was young
my favorite superhero is Batman because
he is limited by the fact that it
doesn’t have a power but he uses what he
has to contribute right so because of my
condition I’ve broken my bones so many
times I lost how a long time ago
what I don’t even really have a memory
of myself walking I only could find
pictures of myself that is one of the
last pictures of me standing as a child
and for as long as I could remember my
mum had to carry me in her arms wherever
we went
I know I came from a family that it’s
not very well-to-do financially and
because of that we could never afford a
wheelchair and my mom had to carry me to
school leave me there in my first year
in primary she would wait there here
he says you bring me to the toilet then
after that a wet diapers up until I was
probably about ten years old and at ten
years old I finally managed to have my
own wheelchair and that was I think one
of the best sensations of freedom I’ve
had so a lot of people would would think
that I would dream of walking and
running I think I’ve had that when I was
younger but ever since I got a
wheelchair wheelchair is much better so
I can sit anywhere I couldn’t go out and
play a lot when I was younger so I could
only go to school and home school and
home so I had a lot of time in my hands
so one of my favorite habits was to
daydream right we can relate to that
daydreaming
especially during lectures all right I
daydream a lot when I was when I’m at
home because I couldn’t just play
physically so I would always daydream up
the most ridiculous things I would think
of myself as a superhero what would I be
I thought about a lot of scenarios of
what what kind of powers I like do I
want to fly but no flying but not having
super-strength landing might be a
problem right so what if I can you know
myself what if I can have super-strength
all those things right so I have a habit
of daydreaming but I guess that was the
start of a lot of the habits I had later
on that will help me in life and one of
the biggest process that helped me in
discovering my potential is the habit of
dreaming the impossible it came from
daydreaming and from daydreaming I
develop a habit of just analyzing my
whole day just recapping my body and I
could be 10 years old and I would think
through the day before I sleep and
realize that I offended a friend okay I
probably said something that hurt my
friend
and then it became a habit of
introspection where I was able to think
internally and ask myself questions that
I couldn’t think of initially and that
helped me in discovering areas that I
could improve on areas that I would like
to explore on more but one of the key
things I believe in harnessing and
discovering our human potential is
dreaming the impossible when we are kids
it is very easy for us to dream the
impossible isn’t it right what are some
of these ambitions that you may have as
a kid you could say you know I want to
be a pilot right it’s quite possible
right I want to be a scientist
I always said I want to be a scientist
because while I was seven years old I
was the only boy plant that could spell
scientist okay I want to be a scientist
just to practice my friends I wanted to
be a stand-up comedian but as you can
see didn’t woke up very well right
and there’s other things that we have
thought of as a kid that later on it
became impossible right maybe some of us
have dreams of becoming an astronaut
right say I want to be an astronaut but
space as you grow up you realize that
space seems too far and space seems to
impossible to achieve right then a
number of years back we had our first
uncle Irwin what seemed impossible
became possible but he starts with
dreaming Lee impossible for me sports
was impossible what are the toughest
times ahead in school was the fact that
my friends could play my friends who
play sports but I had to watch from my
class and I was an active kid so I
stopped talking since the age of three I
couldn’t walk but I could still move
around
I couldn’t kneel then I would kneel down
yo baby and break my femur the female is
your biggest bone and is the biggest
bone in your body so it’s the hardest to
break but I just snap it just like that
for for jumping on my bed when I know
I’m so not supposed to write sports was
crazy
because I’ve always dreamt about being
an athlete so at the age of maybe 15 16
I googled Paralympic wheelchair
basketball and the first image I found
was a wheelchair basketball with a ball
in midair
he and his wheelchair was in midair with
another litter in lower so I said okay
probably I shouldn’t be doing that right
so I thought myself what can what can I
do
so never really thought about it and it
was 2008 I was a freshman in college and
I was watching the opening ceremony of
the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games I was
waiting for the Malaysian team to come
up and I was just waiting anxiously and
suddenly of a big feeling of just an
overwhelming sense of emotions came over
me and I was watching the athletes
pointing the cameras their phones are
with a new generation pointing of course
they’re walking up they’re just pointing
up phones to the audience and I told
myself one day I want to be there not
watching as an audience but the one
holding the phone I didn’t really do
much about it that vision that
impossible dream got left behind the
back of my head or no until I graduated
from college and in 2012 I received my
first sports wheelchair so I was using
something a v8 before this and I had the
opportunity to acquire a new sports
wheelchair and I told myself I’ve always
wanted to do marathons right because I
felt it there’s a lot of things that we
can learn from marathon running
to be applied to life and so I tried my
first thank um with my friend over there
Alex Oh young I did it in an hour four
minutes at the end of it I had cramps of
my arms my chest my core my legs has no
idea why my legs cramp but yeah it
happened somehow and the whole world was
spinning so I said okay maybe I should
try it better next time and trained
better and about six months later I did
my second 10 km and I completed it in 45
minutes and so I went on to further
distances 21 km I did my first video
first any 1 km in 2 hours plus and then
later on I tried the Penang Bridge and
did it in sub 2 which is below 2 hours I
finished my cam in 1 hour of 8 seconds
within 1 hour 50 minutes years and then
the year after that I did a full
marathon in 4 hours plus 4 hours 20
minutes
yeah 3-1 minutes in between the 21 km
and this so this was in 2013 and 2014 in
between these two events I was caught by
Alex who join me for my first 10 km and
he said you want to join me for your
first full marathon I said sure why not
we were raising funds for the
underprivileged children and I said and
because of the the relationship I had
with the children I felt so inspired by
them and I said I wanted to do more so
after that I told him you know what I
know I’m supposed to do a full marathon
in that 100 km distance but I’ll be
trained as if I’m doing that so it was
impossible to do to jump from 21 km
being my first at that point to 100 km I
don’t recommend this to anyone by the
way so don’t do this without doctor’s
supervision but it is impossible but I
believe that when you have an impossible
dream but you have realistic plan
and ghosts and the right people and
resources to help you you can go beyond
what you can imagine I think that if we
always set the target is achievable we
will always achieve it right if I train
with them with 42km in mind I will
probably finish what if you can buy a
chain with a hundred cam in mind and
even if I fail 42 chemist’s nothing
then later on I played Sitting
Volleyball for the ancient youth games
and even that because people were
telling me that Daniel do you want me to
which everything sure but there’s no
coach in Malaysia no coach assimilation
no program nobody is doing it I told
myself I want to reach the Paralympics
no matter what so in the end I tried out
Sitting Volleyball I wasn’t sure whether
I should play spin what about brittle
bones but in the end I played it and I
had talent in it and I represented
Malaysia for it as well but I always
believed that in order to really find
your potential you have to see
challenges as an opportunity to throw
don’t see challenges as something that
you don’t want to happen you wonder
before yeah sure don’t be a troublemaker
right but you want to see every
challenge as an opportunity to grow I
feel this was how I broke my femur and I
was casted like that at that point in
time because of the old technology
nowadays if you break a prima you go in
with a surgery you’re out with a cast so
at the point that I was constant like
that for three months up to the waist
when I started my therapist journey last
year I had a few challenges
number one idea have resources no
co-simulation no program no budget no
racing chair and then finally I acquired
it early of the year then early of the
year I broke the ribbon and after they
recover I thought to myself this is just
an opportunity of growth yeah then two
months later I fell down from my chair
and injured my leg so I couldn’t train
okay this is another opportunity to grow
but it is not just a positive bye
it is having realistic plan so even in
the hospital I was planning what should
I do right now they will bring me closer
to my goal even if it takes a long the
time so I recovered from that now I can
go back to training about close to three
months ago I had lost some visual my
left eye and doctor said is multiple
multiple retinal tears so I had to go
through surgery to prevent myself from
being blind took two months off I just
got back to training three weeks ago so
multiple challenges that come along the
wave but all the heroes I’ve seen
whether it’s a comic book hero or
whether it is a real-life hero that I
really admire all of them we relate to
them not at their highest we relate to
them when they are their lowest and so I
always believe that that is an
opportunity to grow but even while we
are looking at our dreams and that
dreams sometimes become passion and a
passion I believe although we have
multiple passion sometimes those passion
can become person and my purpose is to
inspire people with my life Sports is
just a platform a tool nothing matters
more than me inspiring people to fulfill
the potential in life and so to discover
the potential of your human spirit your
spirit is important to build around our
purpose so my goal is to inspire so I
spent a lot of time in energy
development with youth I do a lot of
charity work I spend a lot of time with
people and that’s the goal Sports is
just something that happens you want to
achieve but also because it brings me
closer to my goal and sometimes you
would think that no Daniel I have a
dream but I’m not too sure what to do
because all the challenges come but I
believe that if you build everything
around a purpose that is stronger and
bigger than you you will be able to find
ways to overcome those two
just guess it’s no longer just a passion
it is a purpose in life
pushed inspire is what I came up with a
few years back it is the name that used
but more so it is coming from a belief
that everyone can push beyond the
oppressive limitations and they are
challenges to fulfill their potential
and I believe that if every one of us
here who feel our god-given potential
we will inspire others to do the same
and this was a story of how I realized
my potential in racing I went to a three
or 5k race back embrace and there’s some
hopes of winning I was a newcomer there
they were close to 200 people and some
of them were athletes elite athletes in
different sports whether with some hopes
of winning and I met myself people say
you know somebody introduced me to the
sunny sunny is nation’s number one reach
a marathon that’s it
okay that’s it I have no chance but
again if my purpose is not just about
sports it’s not just about winning
it is about inspiring people I will find
a way and I told myself I used to wear a
message back in the day wherever I went
to race and I realized that in order for
more people to see much message I should
start last long story short I won won
the first wheelchair race I joined 5km
with the second place coming in 45
seconds later so there was how I
is no stranger to a lot of you and yes
arms and legs aside all those
limitations aside it is is essentially
just a person with a purpose in life to
make a difference in the world it’s not
trying to overcome his disability yeah
when we were younger yes maybe but when
we think of a purpose bigger than
ourselves greater than ourselves and we
realized that we have an opportunity to
help change this world with our spirit
then we realized that nothing is more
important than a purpose bigger than
ourselves
and because of that I am pursuing okay
2020 Paralympics is a personal goal that
I want but more importantly I want to
use it to inspire people and I believe
that you can also use something in your
life whatever that is it does have to be
Paralympics that is a big big but
something that you can use to inspire
someone because I believe that he who
has a why to live for get better almost
any how and if you can find a wife that
you can really hold on to and believe in no challenges to it thank you so much
believe that the potential is limitless
and it is coming from a person who has a
lot of limitation I was born with I was
born with type 1 osteo Genesis
imperfecta which is a very fancy name
for brittle bones
the idea is my boys are a glass so
whenever I fell as a child I’m breakable
I’m also very fortunate that I have the
mildest form of this condition so I’ve
met people who have type 3 onwards so I
personally am very fortunate very
blessed to have it easier in a sense
today I’d like to share a bit more about
how we can discover and harness the
potential of the human spirit
I personally am a big fan of comic books
right so I add my own array of
superheroes that I like when I was young
my favorite superhero is Batman because
he is limited by the fact that it
doesn’t have a power but he uses what he
has to contribute right so because of my
condition I’ve broken my bones so many
times I lost how a long time ago
what I don’t even really have a memory
of myself walking I only could find
pictures of myself that is one of the
last pictures of me standing as a child
and for as long as I could remember my
mum had to carry me in her arms wherever
we went
I know I came from a family that it’s
not very well-to-do financially and
because of that we could never afford a
wheelchair and my mom had to carry me to
school leave me there in my first year
in primary she would wait there here
he says you bring me to the toilet then
after that a wet diapers up until I was
probably about ten years old and at ten
years old I finally managed to have my
own wheelchair and that was I think one
of the best sensations of freedom I’ve
had so a lot of people would would think
that I would dream of walking and
running I think I’ve had that when I was
younger but ever since I got a
wheelchair wheelchair is much better so
I can sit anywhere I couldn’t go out and
play a lot when I was younger so I could
only go to school and home school and
home so I had a lot of time in my hands
so one of my favorite habits was to
daydream right we can relate to that
daydreaming
especially during lectures all right I
daydream a lot when I was when I’m at
home because I couldn’t just play
physically so I would always daydream up
the most ridiculous things I would think
of myself as a superhero what would I be
I thought about a lot of scenarios of
what what kind of powers I like do I
want to fly but no flying but not having
super-strength landing might be a
problem right so what if I can you know
myself what if I can have super-strength
all those things right so I have a habit
of daydreaming but I guess that was the
start of a lot of the habits I had later
on that will help me in life and one of
the biggest process that helped me in
discovering my potential is the habit of
dreaming the impossible it came from
daydreaming and from daydreaming I
develop a habit of just analyzing my
whole day just recapping my body and I
could be 10 years old and I would think
through the day before I sleep and
realize that I offended a friend okay I
probably said something that hurt my
friend
and then it became a habit of
introspection where I was able to think
internally and ask myself questions that
I couldn’t think of initially and that
helped me in discovering areas that I
could improve on areas that I would like
to explore on more but one of the key
things I believe in harnessing and
discovering our human potential is
dreaming the impossible when we are kids
it is very easy for us to dream the
impossible isn’t it right what are some
of these ambitions that you may have as
a kid you could say you know I want to
be a pilot right it’s quite possible
right I want to be a scientist
I always said I want to be a scientist
because while I was seven years old I
was the only boy plant that could spell
scientist okay I want to be a scientist
just to practice my friends I wanted to
be a stand-up comedian but as you can
see didn’t woke up very well right
and there’s other things that we have
thought of as a kid that later on it
became impossible right maybe some of us
have dreams of becoming an astronaut
right say I want to be an astronaut but
space as you grow up you realize that
space seems too far and space seems to
impossible to achieve right then a
number of years back we had our first
uncle Irwin what seemed impossible
became possible but he starts with
dreaming Lee impossible for me sports
was impossible what are the toughest
times ahead in school was the fact that
my friends could play my friends who
play sports but I had to watch from my
class and I was an active kid so I
stopped talking since the age of three I
couldn’t walk but I could still move
around
I couldn’t kneel then I would kneel down
yo baby and break my femur the female is
your biggest bone and is the biggest
bone in your body so it’s the hardest to
break but I just snap it just like that
for for jumping on my bed when I know
I’m so not supposed to write sports was
crazy
because I’ve always dreamt about being
an athlete so at the age of maybe 15 16
I googled Paralympic wheelchair
basketball and the first image I found
was a wheelchair basketball with a ball
in midair
he and his wheelchair was in midair with
another litter in lower so I said okay
probably I shouldn’t be doing that right
so I thought myself what can what can I
do
so never really thought about it and it
was 2008 I was a freshman in college and
I was watching the opening ceremony of
the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games I was
waiting for the Malaysian team to come
up and I was just waiting anxiously and
suddenly of a big feeling of just an
overwhelming sense of emotions came over
me and I was watching the athletes
pointing the cameras their phones are
with a new generation pointing of course
they’re walking up they’re just pointing
up phones to the audience and I told
myself one day I want to be there not
watching as an audience but the one
holding the phone I didn’t really do
much about it that vision that
impossible dream got left behind the
back of my head or no until I graduated
from college and in 2012 I received my
first sports wheelchair so I was using
something a v8 before this and I had the
opportunity to acquire a new sports
wheelchair and I told myself I’ve always
wanted to do marathons right because I
felt it there’s a lot of things that we
can learn from marathon running
to be applied to life and so I tried my
first thank um with my friend over there
Alex Oh young I did it in an hour four
minutes at the end of it I had cramps of
my arms my chest my core my legs has no
idea why my legs cramp but yeah it
happened somehow and the whole world was
spinning so I said okay maybe I should
try it better next time and trained
better and about six months later I did
my second 10 km and I completed it in 45
minutes and so I went on to further
distances 21 km I did my first video
first any 1 km in 2 hours plus and then
later on I tried the Penang Bridge and
did it in sub 2 which is below 2 hours I
finished my cam in 1 hour of 8 seconds
within 1 hour 50 minutes years and then
the year after that I did a full
marathon in 4 hours plus 4 hours 20
minutes
yeah 3-1 minutes in between the 21 km
and this so this was in 2013 and 2014 in
between these two events I was caught by
Alex who join me for my first 10 km and
he said you want to join me for your
first full marathon I said sure why not
we were raising funds for the
underprivileged children and I said and
because of the the relationship I had
with the children I felt so inspired by
them and I said I wanted to do more so
after that I told him you know what I
know I’m supposed to do a full marathon
in that 100 km distance but I’ll be
trained as if I’m doing that so it was
impossible to do to jump from 21 km
being my first at that point to 100 km I
don’t recommend this to anyone by the
way so don’t do this without doctor’s
supervision but it is impossible but I
believe that when you have an impossible
dream but you have realistic plan
and ghosts and the right people and
resources to help you you can go beyond
what you can imagine I think that if we
always set the target is achievable we
will always achieve it right if I train
with them with 42km in mind I will
probably finish what if you can buy a
chain with a hundred cam in mind and
even if I fail 42 chemist’s nothing
then later on I played Sitting
Volleyball for the ancient youth games
and even that because people were
telling me that Daniel do you want me to
which everything sure but there’s no
coach in Malaysia no coach assimilation
no program nobody is doing it I told
myself I want to reach the Paralympics
no matter what so in the end I tried out
Sitting Volleyball I wasn’t sure whether
I should play spin what about brittle
bones but in the end I played it and I
had talent in it and I represented
Malaysia for it as well but I always
believed that in order to really find
your potential you have to see
challenges as an opportunity to throw
don’t see challenges as something that
you don’t want to happen you wonder
before yeah sure don’t be a troublemaker
right but you want to see every
challenge as an opportunity to grow I
feel this was how I broke my femur and I
was casted like that at that point in
time because of the old technology
nowadays if you break a prima you go in
with a surgery you’re out with a cast so
at the point that I was constant like
that for three months up to the waist
when I started my therapist journey last
year I had a few challenges
number one idea have resources no
co-simulation no program no budget no
racing chair and then finally I acquired
it early of the year then early of the
year I broke the ribbon and after they
recover I thought to myself this is just
an opportunity of growth yeah then two
months later I fell down from my chair
and injured my leg so I couldn’t train
okay this is another opportunity to grow
but it is not just a positive bye
it is having realistic plan so even in
the hospital I was planning what should
I do right now they will bring me closer
to my goal even if it takes a long the
time so I recovered from that now I can
go back to training about close to three
months ago I had lost some visual my
left eye and doctor said is multiple
multiple retinal tears so I had to go
through surgery to prevent myself from
being blind took two months off I just
got back to training three weeks ago so
multiple challenges that come along the
wave but all the heroes I’ve seen
whether it’s a comic book hero or
whether it is a real-life hero that I
really admire all of them we relate to
them not at their highest we relate to
them when they are their lowest and so I
always believe that that is an
opportunity to grow but even while we
are looking at our dreams and that
dreams sometimes become passion and a
passion I believe although we have
multiple passion sometimes those passion
can become person and my purpose is to
inspire people with my life Sports is
just a platform a tool nothing matters
more than me inspiring people to fulfill
the potential in life and so to discover
the potential of your human spirit your
spirit is important to build around our
purpose so my goal is to inspire so I
spent a lot of time in energy
development with youth I do a lot of
charity work I spend a lot of time with
people and that’s the goal Sports is
just something that happens you want to
achieve but also because it brings me
closer to my goal and sometimes you
would think that no Daniel I have a
dream but I’m not too sure what to do
because all the challenges come but I
believe that if you build everything
around a purpose that is stronger and
bigger than you you will be able to find
ways to overcome those two
just guess it’s no longer just a passion
it is a purpose in life
pushed inspire is what I came up with a
few years back it is the name that used
but more so it is coming from a belief
that everyone can push beyond the
oppressive limitations and they are
challenges to fulfill their potential
and I believe that if every one of us
here who feel our god-given potential
we will inspire others to do the same
and this was a story of how I realized
my potential in racing I went to a three
or 5k race back embrace and there’s some
hopes of winning I was a newcomer there
they were close to 200 people and some
of them were athletes elite athletes in
different sports whether with some hopes
of winning and I met myself people say
you know somebody introduced me to the
sunny sunny is nation’s number one reach
a marathon that’s it
okay that’s it I have no chance but
again if my purpose is not just about
sports it’s not just about winning
it is about inspiring people I will find
a way and I told myself I used to wear a
message back in the day wherever I went
to race and I realized that in order for
more people to see much message I should
start last long story short I won won
the first wheelchair race I joined 5km
with the second place coming in 45
seconds later so there was how I
is no stranger to a lot of you and yes
arms and legs aside all those
limitations aside it is is essentially
just a person with a purpose in life to
make a difference in the world it’s not
trying to overcome his disability yeah
when we were younger yes maybe but when
we think of a purpose bigger than
ourselves greater than ourselves and we
realized that we have an opportunity to
help change this world with our spirit
then we realized that nothing is more
important than a purpose bigger than
ourselves
and because of that I am pursuing okay
2020 Paralympics is a personal goal that
I want but more importantly I want to
use it to inspire people and I believe
that you can also use something in your
life whatever that is it does have to be
Paralympics that is a big big but
something that you can use to inspire
someone because I believe that he who
has a why to live for get better almost
any how and if you can find a wife that
you can really hold on to and believe in no challenges to it thank you so much
Please follow and like us: