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Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
Maria highlights stories of people that have been the "less than 1% chance" and have come out of their situations thriving and seeing life as happening FOR them and not TO them! Inspiring and empowering stories that will show you that against all odds you can make it through anything!
Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
Overcoming Darkness: Dr. Charles Powell's Inspirational Journey of Resilience and Purpose
What if losing your sight was the beginning of your greatest achievements? Join me, Maria Aponte, as I sit down with Dr. Charles Powell to uncover his incredible journey of resilience and purpose. From battling depression and alcoholism after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa to earning a doctorate and founding Divine Visions Consultant and Paralegal Services LLC, Dr. Powell's story is a testament to the unyielding power of determination. Hear how the love for his daughter and the support of his fiancée, became the catalysts for a profound transformation.
Discover the educational triumphs of Dr. Powell, who navigated the challenging landscape of higher education as a blind student. We explore his academic journey from junior college to earning multiple advanced degrees, culminating in a doctorate in business administration from Salem University. Despite facing discrimination in the job market, Dr. Powell's perseverance led him to create his own path to success. Learn about Divine Visions, his company dedicated to providing affordable legal and business resources to the community, making complex systems accessible to those in need.
Through personal stories and heartfelt anecdotes, we delve into the importance of community support and the power of overcoming adversity. Dr. Powell and I discuss breaking stereotypes, embracing differabilities, and highlighting the resilience and capability of individuals living with disabilities. Be inspired by Dr. Powell's journey and the broader message that with the right mindset and support, physical limitations need not define one's destiny. Tune in for a powerful episode that will motivate you to believe in the boundless possibilities of positive determination.
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Facebook Page: Divine Vision Consulting & Paralegal Services, LLC
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Welcome back to the Against All Odds the Less Than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people thriving against all odds, and my hope is that we can all see how life is always happening for us, even when we are the Less Than 1% Chance.
Speaker 2:Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less Than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte. I am so pumped for today. You guys are in for a treat. I have Dr Charles Powell here with us today. Wait till you hear this story About 12 years ago, he lost his sight due to a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:Yay, I said it right. Instead of feeling sorry for himself and relying solely on the disability benefits, he decided to further his education to enhance his employability. He returned to school, obtained a dual bachelor's degree in criminal justice, with specialization in crime scene investigations and homeland security. He has a triple master degree in criminal justice administration, cybersecurity and forensic science, and a doctorate in business administration. You guys, this incredible human being is here with you today. Please help me welcome Dr Charles Powell to Against All Odds. Thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity. I'm proud to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm so excited. Let's go back a little bit 12 plus years ago. What did you start experiencing? How did this even come about?
Speaker 3:Well, my whole life I knew that I had retinitis pigmentosa because it was a condition on my mother's side. So back in those days they wasn't really big on explaining things to us. I just knew that I had poor eyesight, so not knowing no better. As I got older, in my teenage years, I wanted to be the cool kid. I didn't want to wear glasses, so I started getting the laser surgeries and eye corrections and things of that nature, not knowing that it would affect me later on in life. But about 12 years ago it was crazy because everything was going good. I started to lose my night vision and I had no idea what was going on until one morning I woke up and couldn't see anything.
Speaker 2:Wow, how was that transition Did you? Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine my gosh, I can't even imagine that.
Speaker 3:Transition was crazy. I first and foremost, it was a whirlwind of emotions. I was scared, I was mad, I was upset, I was just. I can't even explain it. I woke up and couldn't see. First thing I did was yell for my fiance because I thought something was really wrong. And when I knew something was wrong, I couldn't see, but I was just scared. I can't explain it, no other way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard, even when you're walking in a room that's dark and you feel so off balance and I can't even imagine what it is to wake up like that, and that's incredible. It just it blows my mind. So what were your next steps going after? Like, how long did it take you for you to like process? Because I hope that there was obviously a process of emotions.
Speaker 3:It was way far a process. I got really mad. I started arguing with my fiance, pushing everyone away. I went on a downward spiral for about eight to nine months, constantly drinking. Every day I would wake up to drink. I didn't care about nothing, didn't want to hear nothing. My fiance and my daughter at the time was only five years old who she really couldn't grasp the concept of what was going on. She just knew that her daddy was different. If I can drink all day, that's what I would do. I didn't care about nothing, I didn't want to do anything. If you said hello to me, it was an argument. I give my fiance the most credit in the world because she actually stayed with me. I would have left myself at that time and in a way, I actually did, because I gave up on life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's like an identity shift that you have, like there's no easy way to transition from that and there's no manual to it either. So it's processing all those emotions, and when we don't want to process, we lash out right. And yeah, I feel like I've been in those not same situation, but circumstances of like not wanting to process emotions, and then everyone else around me is the bearer of those things, and so how did you then make the transition from not wanting to deal with it to then saying, all right, well, these are the circumstances I have, let's make the most of it.
Speaker 3:I consciously. I never came to that conclusion or that concept. It was actually my daughter and my fiance who actually brought that around to me. When you're doing so much and the love of your life, like my daughter, was my world. And when she started asking questions, why don't I play with her no more, why don't I do that? And the first thing out of my mouth was daddy can't see, I can't do this, I can't do that. And after hearing it so much and seeing and hearing the disappointment in her, I knew that it was time for a change. So I stopped drinking. I stopped drinking every day. I stopped looking at the bad part of it and started looking at the good. And my fiance, deanna.
Speaker 3:She did a lot of research and she found different organizations for the blind or dealing with the blind and luckily in my community I had a local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. So we reached out to them. I actually spoke to the president at that time and, just being around other blind people, they invited me out to one of their meetings and at that time we showed up. I had no idea what to expect. Now, remind you, I still don't know these people. I don't know who to be associated with? No one. So I'm still on that skeptical weariness yeah that skeptical weariness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but soon as we went into the room and it's funny because one of my biggest obstacles at this time was the phone, I didn't know I had a cell phone before I lost my sight and I came depending on it. Yeah, I was so mad that I got filled for the buttons that's the dollar number I realized that there's no more text messaging and nothing like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I basically had a basic. I was coming to the terms that go out and get me a flip phone, so I could say hello, and let's talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:When we went to this meeting at the National Federation of the Blind, the first thing that Deanna noticed my fiance was. Everybody has smartphones. I was like nah, that that's impossible. It just don't work that way. And one of the individuals at the meeting introduced me to the Apple iPhone, and this was so incredible because the accessibility yeah it was just amazing. We left that meeting that day and I went and got me an Apple iPhone.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That is that's incredible because, yeah, you don't even think of what is possible, you don't know that you're missing it and it's so simple as technology that you don't think about in this circumstance.
Speaker 3:Yes, that was my first. That was my first introduction to technology as a blind person, but it was by far not the last.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I left that meeting and it was like, okay, I have a cell phone, I learned how to use it. And then my biggest fear I have a fiance, I have a daughter and disability. That was not going to kick it. So of course I got afraid that I couldn't help contribute to my family's financial stability. I didn't want my fiance to have to take care of me and it was always a fear like, okay, maybe she'll get tired of supporting a grown man and leave me, and how am I going to live? And that was a big fear and I had no idea what to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what did you do before you were blind?
Speaker 3:before I was blind. I was basically. I did all physical work, I was in construction, I was an outdoors person. All the jobs I had was labor jobs, because I was born and raised in Plainfield, new Jersey, then moved to Brooklyn, new York, so as a youngster I never had goals of doing much of anything. The neighborhood that I grew up in, survival was my main purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't, so you didn't go to college after school or anything like that.
Speaker 3:No, I barely made it through high school. Yeah, I was that student who high school graduation was that was the greatest thing in the world. Yeah, student whose high school graduation was, that was the greatest thing in the world. I had, no, no even dreams about going to college. Cause, again, I came from that neighborhood that it was only two ways out sports or entertainment. Well, actually three you can be sports, entertainment or criminal. So, by me getting out of high school and just getting a job back then it was fast food restaurants, and then I got into like landscaping and construction. So I was happy. Yeah, I didn't see. I never thought that I can be that individual who can be more because of the geographical location that I was brought up in and at that time my parents. A job was a job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and it's like the product of the surroundings and when we're in it, we don't know that there's something, that we have something more inside of us. Exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:When your heroes are the football and basketball players, the entertainers or the neighborhood drug dealer who got the nice cars and all the money. That's all that we had.
Speaker 3:That's all that I know, and I'm not blaming that on anything, that's just the base reality of my upbringing. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So then you are introduced to some technology and you start looking for different opportunities after that. Or how did going back to school come about? Organization, we met up every week. They put me in contact with different people who sent me off to Baltimore, maryland to a business. It was a program out there. It was an 11 month program that they taught you how to get around with a cane and how to use computers and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:But again, my daughter was in West Virginia and I was in Baltimore, maryland. My daughter started going through anxiety that's missing me because she's used to me being home every day. So I didn't complete that program. So I actually came back within the first two months because, being away from home, the problems was going on at home. My daughter was missing me and me not being there to even help out and like raising my daughter. I came back home and at that that time when I was speaking to the other individuals I knew in the groups and in a blind community they was just basically they had already accepted the fact that just take your disability check and be happy and I was like I can't, because what they're giving me every month is nothing. Yeah, I couldn't survive on that.
Speaker 3:So it was actually my fiance and I. We sat and we talked and it's crazy because I like okay, I want to go back to work. What can I do? I can't seem to do what I used to do. I have no skills. I have a high school diploma and I'm a grown man. So, mind you, I'm not a young chicken at this time. I'm not like. So I basically sat down and like okay, I need to find something that I can do that I don't need sight for, and that may sound crazy to people, but you never know how hard that is until you actually got to think about things to do. Yeah, so we was at a fair out here. It's a very popular fair, it was the Blackberry Festival.
Speaker 3:A young woman by the name of Kimberly Blair was the recruiter for the West Virginia Business College, a local business college, which was an eight-month program. I sat there and I listened to her spill and I was like okay, whatever, that's just in crate, that's crazy. So I didn't do no thinking of it. But the following week, me and my fiancee went down to the school and she was the admissions represent representative and I told her I want to take your 18-month paralegal program because I figured I'm like okay program. Because I figured I'm like okay, this can kill two birds with one stone. I don't need to be a paralegal and by learning this skill I can help bring justice that I seen so many people get deprived or denied. So I was like okay. She looked at me and she was like OK, you do realize you're blonde. I'm like yeah. After we agreed to that, she laughed and I laughed, she went in there, she signed me up.
Speaker 3:It's so funny because when she signed me up, the next course was starting like in a month and a half. So now I'm all excited. I'm enrolled in a junior college. Small college, I can get around, so I'm good. The first day of classes, my professors each one of them came to me like well, no disrespect, but I never taught a blind person, so how do I teach you?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I like, just like you, teach everyone else. At that time I went through a program called the Division of Vocational Rehab. They sponsored me, they paid for me a sighted helper, which was an individual who went with me to class every day and anything that took sight he would help me with.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Now, mind you, I've only been blind for like a little over a year and a half yeah so I mastered using the cane getting around. I pretty much can get through a building if I've been there more than once or twice, but I'm still learning the computers and the software and stuff like that, so I'm not a pro at that yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I learned about digital books. All of my books were digital. Yep. So I did that, and when I turned in assignments, they let me type them up in word form and email them to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I did that and during those 18 months I was like, okay, I get this certificate, I'll go out and get me a job. Okay, I get this certificate, I'll go out and get me a job. And that was the whole key. That was the. My number one motivation was getting the job, helping provide for my family. Yeah, that was my only goal. So I did that.
Speaker 3:I started getting good at it and when the time was coming up for me, about to complete, the local college near us was Salem University they had a representative come down and they was like okay, well, we invite all of you to Salem University campus to take a look in case you want to further your education, go further with it, besides just an associated certificate in paralegal. I went up there and I met this met, the Cam Lounsbury. He puts on the crime house every year which he will stage a crime and his students have to go through and figure out what happened. Yeah, so I didn't know this was going on at the time. I was just going to see the school.
Speaker 3:But since I was in criminal justice in paralegal, he asked me did I want to go through the crime house? So me and my sighted assistant. He said okay, I'll take you through and I'll tell you what's going on. So the professor was so he was intrigued about my blindness and how I would do this. So he walked me through the house and he described everything that was there and at the time it was a triple homicide with a lot of different things in it. So when he described it, he said what do you think happened? And I gave my theory of what happened or what could happen or what I would do if I was investigating it. I didn't get it 100% right, but he said that I was in the top percentile of being the closest, even with everyone else having sight.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:So from there he took me from the crime house to the dean's office, who I actually spoke to her. I sat down and never met these people in my life. I spoke to him and the dean, the whole school, and she sat there and she said well, is it an interest of coming to Salem University? Again, my answer I just wanted to get a certificate to make myself more employable so I can help my provide for my family. I have no intentions of following. I never dreamed that I can go to college when I had sight. Now I'm doing it without sight. But they talked to me and they made it sound very good, very interesting. So basically, I signed up for a bachelor's degree and from there I kept seeing that I was good at this learning thing, this writing papers to school. So, to make a long story short, I ended up with a dual bachelor's, a triple master's in criminal justice and April 19th of 2024, I just walked with my doctor's degree in business administration.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I got goosebumps. That is so awesome. That is perseverance, obviously, and tenacity and being relentless in your pursuit of something more. That is incredible, so incredible. Congratulations, because that was just last month. It's been a month now.
Speaker 3:It's been a little over a month since I became Dr Charles Powell and, honestly, I'm still actually getting used to it yeah. I would get a phone call if somebody can. Can I speak to Dr Charles? Can I speak to Dr Powell? Like, oh, you got the wrong number. Then it dawned on me, oh, that is me. And then I gotta apologize.
Speaker 2:So I'm like, okay so where do you go from here? Do you have a job lined up? How does that work?
Speaker 3:Okay, this goes back until let's rewind a little bit. Yeah, after I got my dual bachelor's and I started my master's, I sent out a resume to every law firm or anything dealing with the law in a 20 mile radius and as long as I sent out my resume, everyone was calling me back. But after the first interview I go in there and I'm not a hundred percent I'm not going to say with discrimination or anything like that, but I feel like once they noticed that I was blind, they never called me back. So I didn't stop there. I did again. The main goal was to help feed my family, so I took a job as a dishwasher at Chick-fil-A. I went in, I took a job at Chick-fil-A andI washed dishes and I knew that wasn't for me, but it was providing a paycheck, so I wasn't complaining and I ventured out.
Speaker 3:In 2021, I ventured out and opened Divine Visions Consultant and Paralegal Services LLC. And at night I'm still washing dishes. And Divine Visions is basically a company who do freelance paralegal services for law firms, lawyers and corporations and I just provide legal research and translation for the general public. So I started that in 2021 and I was still washing dishes. So at the end of 2021, beginning of three, 2022, I figured that if I want to be serious about my business, I can't just do part-time with it. And I'm still in school, mind you, going for finishing up my last master's and pursuing my doctorate. So I quit dishwashing and I ran divine visions and, as anyone who know who did the doctoral program, that's not a part-time gig, that's like full-time and it's like time consuming. So I was basically doing a little side work with divine visions and focusing all on my schooling.
Speaker 3:And now that I graduated, to get back to the question, what's next? I divine visions is still open. I'm still working with divine visions, but I'm actually trying to reach out and do more. I have my resumes out there to different corporations, different companies, and I'm still promoting Divine Vision. So hopefully, within the near future, I will make a determinative decision what am I going to do? Am I going to focus on Divine Visions full-time and still go back in the public to work, or do I want to be in the public working and just do Divine Visions on the side? I haven't really came up with that because, again, it's barely been a month since I had food in school. I'm just enjoying it right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is so incredible and yeah, the entrepreneurial rollercoaster is an interesting one, but I definitely think that it's the way to go. Like you put in what you want to get out of it, and it's definitely been a blessing in my life and you know, being your own boss, there's no way to be able to discriminate against yourself. So I think that it's like proving everyone else wrong, and not for the sole purpose of that, but just because you need to prove yourself right, like you've got this and you can. You can do anything you put your mind to. Obviously, you got your doctorate and masters and there's so much, so much that you've been able to accomplish. Why not Right? Why not pursue your own thing in such a big way?
Speaker 3:I'm really pushing farther to divine visions, because divine visions is to me it's not only a financial stability or it's not only about the money. I feel privileged and I feel blessed to be able to go back and help other people, because our vision is we do legal and business. So on a legal aspect, it's so many times. Growing up, I've seen so many people get caught up in things that they didn't deserve to be in for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and just not knowing. Even if you now how can I put this politically correct? I've seen so many people they broke their law and I know that they knew they was doing wrong, but they were simply feeding their family but you. They ended up getting like 15 to 20 years when they only should have got like three to five years or even probation yeah so by not knowing they was, they became victimized by the system and as an injustice.
Speaker 3:So I feel privileged that I can be able to help someone yeah like I had someone call me and it was like well, my landlord is evicting me for this reason or that reason and I'm like well, technically the law says he can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They don't know. It's just like when it's not even criminal law, you got like administrative law disability. If you're going for disability and you have no idea there's so many people you can go to who charge you an arm and a leg? Now, mind you, you're going to disability because you can go to who will charge you an arm and a leg? Now, mind you, you're going to disability because you can't work. Yeah, so for you to file for disability, someone is going to take what 20 percent of whatever you get back just for their services, when a little bit of research you can do it yourself yeah, and that's where my company comes in at Divine Visions is a legal resource for the community to help with things that they can do themselves without taking them to the poorhouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's really and it is. It's tough. For a very long time, I was a single mom of three kids and my oldest had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I had to look for resources to help because there were so many things, so many issues that we were going through and sometimes I just I didn't know what else to do, and having resources that can guide you in the right direction, that could be there for you is it was probably one of the most important things that happened to us in that time period, because it was definitely not easy and I understand that and that is why I appreciate my company.
Speaker 3:Like I said, when I started it off, it was just on the legal and now is legal and business. We can reach out and help businesses and even people like yourself podcasters, management strategies, management guidance paperwork, contracts and things of that nature is so much that we can offer now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is a blessing to others and, like you said, being your own boss is more than not being able to discriminate against yourself or be able to fire yourself. Yeah, I can set my own prices. I know a individual who came to me who needed advice, who needed help. They said they done, called law offices and everywhere, and the cheapest they'll do it for was like 1500 to 2000, yeah, and this person was barely making their rent. So if I can tell them, look, I can do this paperwork and it's not going to cost you that much, well, they're like well, charles, we can't pay you. I don't know what we're going to do, and I know they was famous for, let's say, apple pies.
Speaker 3:I can be like okay, okay, my birthday is coming up baking an apple pie yeah and it's not taking nothing out of my pocket, it's not taking food off of my table. I can still feed my family. If I can help someone, I will do it at a fraction of a cost, if at any cost. We are a business, so I have to make money. But yeah, I know that if I pass on a blessing, because I believe that God has put me in a position, that he's put me in for a reason and it wasn't just to get rich or to act like I'm better than anyone else. I feel that I have a passion for helping people and that's what I enjoy about DeJuan Visions we help people and we still provide a resource and a service that is much needed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. That's amazing and I think that, like, when we do things with the best of intentions, that we are paying forward, you get abundantly gifted coming to you. God has a way of helping you because you're helping more people. So I think that sometimes, in the most random ways, you are getting those blessings in return. So that's amazing and I agree, I feel like life happens for us and not to us, and we just have to learn how to find that purpose in our story, in our circumstances, in the way life happened, and it's really. It's the reason I have this podcast. It's the reason that I am still standing here today is because I figured out that the circumstances that I went through in my life all had a purpose and I have a voice to be able to speak up about them Gloria Hatt.
Speaker 3:Yes, and I truly understand that when you say you have a voice. That is another thing that I take pride in. I have. I pride myself in being a voice for those who live with disabilities. I am here to solely destroy the stereotype that all blind people are good for is standing on the corner begging for change or living off a disability.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel that I don't even call my blindness a disability. I call it a differability, because I just do things different.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And everyone. It is so crazy that people will hear my story or see me going to school or see me outside cutting grass or just doing stuff that everyone else does, and they think it's so amazing. I'm like it's sad that you think that way, because I am still a man. If you go outside and cut your grass, ain't nobody going to look twice. They're not going to go praise you, they're just going to be like Maria's cutting grass. But if I'm outside cutting my grass, is it traffic jam?
Speaker 2:Yeah, seriously Ain't he blind.
Speaker 3:I'm like, okay, it's not that hard to do.
Speaker 2:I think, though, it's because and correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's because you are shining the light on the things that they aren't willing to do, and they have. They have all sentences, so you are shining the light on. Listen, I have this, I'm less one of the senses that I was born with, and I am still doing the things, and that, I think, shines a light on the things that people aren't, um, willing to put in the work for.
Speaker 3:Yes, I truly agree with you and basically I just want them to see this is my reality. I just want to be given the opportunity that everyone else has given.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, I can see, but that doesn't mean that I'm irrelevant. That doesn't mean that I cannot be a productive member of society. That does not mean that I want special treatments. No, my fiance works all day. She works at eight hours, sometimes 10 to 12 hour shifts. Who am I to say, come home and cut the grass, where I can go out there and do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And if I use, I don't use my blindness for nothing. I got so many people who I hear be like oh, I can't do it because I can't see. That's crazy when I put in my resumes or I go out for a job or I want to do something, I don't want somebody saying, oh, you can't do this because you're blind.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I hear that a lot, but now I'm showing you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, watch me.
Speaker 3:They said OK, you don't supposed to go back to school, You'll never make it. Okay, you said that when I started an 18 month program for a certificate. 10 years later, I have a doctor's hanging on my wall so I can do it. People need to stop looking at one's circumstances and classifying them. Yeah, I hate it when someone say who dressed you this morning? A blonde person, or did you get dressed in the dark? This morning I get dressed by a blonde person and in the dark every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I do not think that I do a bad job at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you look all nasty.
Speaker 3:People say when they go to my fiance, be like, oh, that suit look good on him, or you pick out his clothes, very good, she'd be like I don't pick his clothes out, he dresses so. And that's where technology comes in at. Everyone thinks every email that I send my fiance or my daughter send it for me. No, that's not the point. I'm on the computer, I am doing this. People need to get past the stereotypes and realize that technology has brought us to a stage that we can do everything that everyone else can do. We just do it different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's the beauty of it too, that we get to learn as a society that maybe we only think that there's one way and there's so many other ways to do things.
Speaker 2:And so many and tenacity, and I'm so proud of you. I just met you and I'm just so proud of you. This is such an incredible story and I honestly feel like it is shining a light on those that choose to allow life to happen to them. And and you chose to, not only due to, obviously, necessity of having a family that you needed to provide for as well, but to choose to go against the odds of people thinking that you were going to be able to get a doctorate or any kind of upper education, and that is so incredible. That was what you were able to do, and you didn't allow the naysayers and the doubters get to you, because look at you now like how amazing. What's an example to your daughter.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that and again, honestly, I have to stay humble. I got to speak honest. I didn't do this to say, oh, look what I can do because I'm blind. I wasn't trying to make a point At that point. I wasn't trying to make a statement that blind people could do anything they put their mind to. I wasn't trying to overcome my blindness. Honestly, I was just trying to keep food on the table.
Speaker 3:I was trying to contribute to my family, I just wanted to eat. So a lot of people hear my story or listen to my testimony and be like, oh, he is doing this. Now I might be the voice of the disability community, now I might be shining a light on the resilience and the dedication to wanting to be better. But simple and plain. I was just trying to eat, I didn't care. But simple and plain, I was just trying to eat, I didn't care. I never dreamed that I'd be sitting on a podcast or sharing this story, because that wasn't the intentions. My main motivation was to contribute to my family's financial stability, to help provide for my daughter to keep food on the table. Now, everything else the podcast, the testimony, the, the stories I could tell now that's truly a blessing. But that was never the intentions and I actually I never even dreamed about it.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I just feel like sometimes, though, you're the, you're not gonna go out. Starting with that intention, I think that it unfolds yes as your story goes.
Speaker 2:Because, again, people will be inspired by your story because, yes, you had a motive that was big enough for you to take action on, but that shows people that there they have to find that motive within themselves, whatever it may be, whether it's the family needs to be fed or I need to lose 40 pounds, you have to find the motive. Mine was I needed to find a way to get healthy because, if not, cancer was going to take over and I may not have been here for my kids. And so, like it's that moment of deciding, okay, I can either allow myself to succumb to all these circumstances or I do what I need to do to be here and provide for my family. And that's where I think that people are in awe with the story is because and I definitely understand being humble with your story However, I think you are that light, that the lighthouse, if you will, for people to understand that, no matter what circumstances they're put in, that you can figure out a way.
Speaker 2:And if you have the motive and you make that decision, you can make things happen, because you did it with an additional obstacle. And that's where it shows that it's so different from someone that's fully able-bodied, that they have their sight, they have that, they can do it and they choose not to. They make that decision and I and that's where it becomes inspirational, because not everyone chooses that and you did, chooses that and you did whatever motive you had, you chose that path so that, and in that, you became the lighthouse for others to say, well, if Charles did it, then I can too.
Speaker 3:I would definitely. That would be one of my goals out of the two things, that, even though I didn't start this journey for this reason, but if any message that I can get out, it's just like you said regardless of your circumstances, regardless of the situation, know that life is not over. I have a saying that I lost my sight and not my life, and it took me a while to get to this point. It's not going to happen overnight. So, basically, regardless if you lose your sight, your hearing or whatever, you got to want to be better and want to do better. And maybe now that so many people who's out there, blind, saying I can't do it, if my story can help them or inspire them or motivate them to do more.
Speaker 3:Yes, I would love to see the blind community raise up. I would love to see society as a whole to take notice that, okay, maybe this person is blind, but let's give him a chance for opportunity. And there's so many people out there who see the blindness and they will not give us the opportunity, whether it be for employment or whether it be for anything. Don't see us as a disabled individual. We're different. I always say I may be the one blind, but society is the one who can't see the reality that I can contribute, yes, and there's so much more to me than my blindness.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and I think that's a powerful message right there. That is such a powerful message and I think that I am so excited for people to listen to your story because it is something. Sometimes we don't intend to be the lighthouse, and sometimes that's what God put in our path.
Speaker 3:And that is the key word. Right there, god is the choreographer, the master designer of all things. I tell everyone, with the inspiration of biblical stories, some of the strongest influencers, people in the Bible had the worst past, had the worst situations, had the worst circumstances because their story didn't begin with their past, because their story didn't begin with their past, it ended with what they're doing now.
Speaker 3:Yep. So, regardless of what the past had or what you went through, if you're going against all odds and overcoming those odds, the person you are at the end is the person that you can motivate, or the story or the testament that you can give to life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh, this was so amazing. Thank you so very much, dr Charles Powell. I don't think it'll ever get old for you. I don't think it would ever get old for me if it were my circumstances, but you worked hard for it. So, dr Charles Powell, it was such a pleasure to have you on Against All Odds podcast and listeners. I will put all of his information in the show notes. Thank you for listening and I hope you got something out of it.
Speaker 2:I want to hear in the comments what your biggest takeaway was with this, because I think it just it has so much, and sometimes we don't realize how powerful our story is, and sometimes that's the path that God does put in our way. That is the path that we're supposed to follow is having a powerful story and showing people that if we can do it, they can too, and I think that's huge for Dr Charles Powell. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I really hope that you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Peace out, guys. Love your life. Bye-bye.
