FIRST AIR DATE: 5/27/14

When people talk with you for the first time, they're very nervous, and they don't

know how to approach you.

Right.

How do you make it easier for them?

Well, you know, like, I sometimes even take advantage of that and become a

little bit humorous sometimes.

For example?

Kids come up and say, What happened? And I say, Cigarettes.

[CHUCKLE]

And you know, then people around them start, you know, laughing. But I hug

people. I was the Guinness Book of World Records holder for hugs in an hour;

one thousand seven hundred and forty-one hugs in an hour. My arms fell off.

[CHUCKLE]

And someone beat me.

[CHUCKLE]

So now, we gotta go back and beat them back. But no; I love hugging.

Hugging is my way of-obviously, they try to shake hands. I say, Don't worry, I

don't shake hands, just give me a hug.

Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs. Despite the many challenges this

created for him growing up, he was able to overcome them all, and credits is

family's love, his faith in God, and his positive attitude for his success. Nick

Vujicic, next on Long Story Short.

Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox is Hawaii's first weekly television

program produced and broadcast in high definition.

Aloha mai kakou. I'm Leslie Wilcox. Nick Vujicic is a motivational speaker as

well as a best-selling author, a Christian Evangelist, and the leader of a nonprofit

organization, Life Without Limbs. He's been an inspiration to audiences around

the world, encouraging people to overcome obstacles and follow their dreams.

But Nick was not always confident.

When you were born in Australia, did your parents know that you'd be born

without limbs?

No; at the time, they even had ultrasounds, and no one bothered to check, to

double check that I had my ten fingers and ten toes. And it was a shock; it was

a tragedy. When I was laid by my mother's side, she said, Take him away, I

can't look at him right now. Full of emotion and questions; Why, why did this

happen, couldn't we see this at least coming?

Later, you would face all those questions. Why did this happen? But, what was

their thought process in dealing with it?

It was obviously difficult. And I knew that it would be someday that I would be

able to hear it straight from them. And I felt like I had to be a teenager before I

really went down that way. For you to hear from your own mother, I couldn't

hold you, I couldn't breast feed you, I couldn't have peace about your

existence and your purpose for at least four months, that was hard to hear. And

so, they took one day at a time, but my dad and mom were people of faith,

believing that God does not make mistakes even though it's hard to see how He

is perfect when imperfect things happen. But one day at a time, loving each

other, and planting seeds of hope and encouragement; that's the only way

that I got through my childhood. Going to school, getting bullied, they always

were affectionate. They were very busy parents, but at the same time, they

always made time to make sure that their son knew that he was beautiful, and

that he's not a mistake, and to do this best.

When you were a little kid, you wore prosthetic arms.

Yes; at six years old, we had state of the art technology, 1989, actually made in

Toronto, Canada. And they were very costly. Some people in Australia wanted

to give me an opportunity, so they paid for it, and we were just so thankful for

that. And they were quite big. I was only a little guy; I was about twenty-five

pounds at the time.

And they came with shoulders and arms.

Shoulders and whole harness thing, and the hand rotating, and the arms going

up and down. But each arm weighed about six pounds, so it was quite heavy.

And it stopped me from being so mobile. And then, I had to sort of relearn how

to write. So, trying to write with my robotic arms means I had to move my whole

body. That didn't work. I felt a bit like Robocop. And in me trying to accept

myself, I had to accept myself the way that I was. So, there were some

psychology as well in that. But overall, it wasn't a benefit for me.

Would you tell us about your early years?

Yeah, basically, I first up front say that I believe it's worse being in a broken

home than having no arms and no legs. You can have arms and legs, but if

your heart's broken, it's broken. If you're paralyzed by fear, you're disabled.

And so, it was difficult for me to believe in a greater hope. A man without vision

dies. I didn't see a good vision for my life, and I started dying on the inside.

Even though you had loving parents and a stable home?

Even though I had a loving stable home. Imagine; I know what would have

happened if I didn't have that. 'Cause I actually was on the brink of giving up

and trying to actually commit suicide.

When was that?

Age ten.

Age ten. What were you contemplating doing?

Drowning myself in my bathtub. I actually tried. I first thought of giving up at

age eight. And I was thinking, Well, maybe I can just jump off the countertop of

the kitchen counter as I watched my mom cook. That was our sort of bonding

session. And I thought to myself, I'm done. You know, all the bullying at school,

all the teasing. My mom and dad don't know if I'm ever gonna get married. I

don't know if I'm gonna be ever independent. If I don't have a purpose, what's

the point? If my pain's not gonna change, I want out. So, at age ten, as I tried

to drown myself, I thought of one image. And the image was my mother and

my father crying at my grave, wishing they could have done something more.

So, I decided to stay, just because of that. They didn't deserve that pain. So, I

stayed.

I think you were one of the first crop of young people to be mainstreamed

through schools, and there, you encountered bullying. What was the worst thing

that happened to you in school?

You know, there is no pinnacle of my negative experience of bullying. And

bullying is experienced by everyone, not just people in wheelchairs. So, the

problem for me was the taunts, the stares, the laughs were not just in school, but

in every public setting. You couldn't get away from it. You can't ignore it. But

there is no one worst thing. But people, you know, called me names, they made

different jokes, and some I tried to ignore, some I confronted. There was one

guy, I did head butt him.

It was an actual arranged fight outside the buildings of school?

So, it was about this kid coming up to me and saying, I bet you can't fight. And

you know me, now, you know, trying to be confident, I said, I bet you I can. He

said, Well, how can you prove it? And I said, Well, I'll meet you on the field at

lunch. There were about twenty of us there, and I never resort to violence since

then. Fighting back is not the answer. If you need to self-defend yourself, if

someone is really choking you and, you know, maybe you had some self-

defense classes, but we're not here to attack. We're here to prove how strong

we are. And I was tempted, and I took that fall. But I really didn't think he was

gonna do it. I thought, How low can this guy be?

Exactly. Calling out a guy in a wheelchair. So, how did it work out? He did

actually call you out of your wheelchair; right?

Right. You know, he said, You gotta get out of your wheelchair. And I'm like,

Okay, so I can't run him over. [CHUCKLE] So, I go to I go to the field, and I said,

Go on your knees. But he still had his hands. And you know, I wrestled with my

brother and my sister, and I got a mean chin. I can, boom, get into their wrist,

right to their bone, and you know, felt like I got that move. But I didn't think this

guy was gonna-

But he had arms to ...

He was pretty tall, so therefore, long arms. Pushed me down once. And I'm like,

Man, is this guy for real? Went up to him a second time, like walking up, and

pushed me down again. And all the girls are like, Oh, leave him alone. And the

last thing I ever wanted was that. So, I got up and I charged, and I went straight

into his nose. He flew back, blood came out.

So you hurled yourself at him.

Hurled myself at him. Used my wheelchair to get back up, and I jumped maybe

three steps, four steps, but very fast. I used to be a lot faster when I was

younger. And I said, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And he just walked, and

everybody was like, Wow, you know. So, imagine, first of all, my fear. I'm a PK,

pacifist kid. I had to confess my sins to my parents. [CHUCKLE] I'm like, Mom

and Dad, I'm so sorry, I have to tell you.

I beat up a guy at school today.

I head butted a guy at school, and blood came out of his nose. I'm so sorry.

They didn't believe me. And they didn't smack me, they didn't discipline me.

They used to discipline me that way with a belt. And I was ready for it. My

parents did not spare the rod [CHUCKLE], and it was a way that they wanted to

discipline us. That's how they grew up.

You got treated the same as your brother and sister?

Treated the same. I actually was probably the biggest bully out of all three of

us. I'd dub my brother for things that I did actually, and so I was pretty bad. I

was sort of getting bossy sometimes. So, that was the childhood Nick Vujicic,

not realizing that my brother is just loving me and he's helped me as much as he

can just because he can, and not because he's supposed to. And so, there

were some dynamics there, but my parents, you know, they gave us good

discipline. You know, if they felt that that was something to get us back on the

straight and narrow, they did that. But I was very thankful that I did not get a

smack. What do you mean you head butted a kid? And so, I didn't realize at

the time that that they just thought I was wanting attention by them. So, I'm

thankful that didn't happen. But I would never hit anyone, ever again. I

promised myself. 'Cause the guilt that I had. And I realized that, you know,

people gossiping about me or laughing at me, I realized it's either ignorance or

hurting people or hurting others ignorantly. And even the people who were

bullying me that one day where I had twelve bullies pick on me. And they

didn't know that I was being picked on that much, and I felt like I should give

up. And one thing that helped me to get through it, and even forgive them,

was believing that someone out there actually did love me, outside of my

family. And there was one girl who had no idea I was teased twelve times that

day. I counted them all on my fingers. And she saw me across the playground

on my way out of school, and she said, Hey, Nick! And I'm like, Great, here it is.

She came up, she looked me right in the eye; she said, Nick, I just want you to

know that you're looking good today. And I'm like, Oh? So, that's why I

became a speaker.

Even though he decided that he wanted to become a speaker, Nick Vujicic had

no idea what he would talk about, or even where he would speak. He first had

to survive the rest of his childhood.

Did you go through all of the angst of the questions that many people in difficult

circumstances ask themselves? Why me? How could God do this to me? Why

are people so cruel? How can I possibly survive? How can I provide for myself?

How can I provide for a family? Can I have a family?

Right.

How did you go through all of that?

It was a journey. At thirteen years old, I actually hurt my foot playing soccer. So,

I have a foot that's about six inches long with two toes that allows me to type

and walk, and drive my wheelchair around, and swim.

And balance?

And balance. I was in bed for three weeks, sprained my foot. Three weeks

being in bed for a thirteen-year-old is like three years. I felt disabled for the first

time. I need my foot for everything, and I realized I need to be thankful for what

I had, instead of being angry about what I don't have. So, I started counting my

blessings. I said, God, more than arms and legs, I need purpose, I need peace, I

want Heaven. Come into my heart, forgive me my sin; and Lord, if you don't

give me arms and legs, I have a pair of shoes in my closet just in case He does.

Use me. If I don't get that miracle, use me so that others would know that

greater than a physical healing, you need a spiritual healing. You need your

soul restored. He doesn't need to change my physical aspect; He needs to

change my heart, my mind, and really give me what I'm looking for, happiness

through peace.

So, you learned to have a positive attitude, but it took more than that, didn't it, to

give you peace?

It did. It took time. It wasn't overnight. I have a positive attitude not because

that's my coping mechanism, but I found real hope, real happiness. Not in

temporary things of what people think of you or what job you're gonna get, or

what money you're gonna have, and if or if you're not in a relationship. You