A new 2010 Edition, updated with 130 color photographs and completely revised text featuring numerous tales of adventure to reinforce the powerful message.

Turn Daily Setbacks and Dramatic Challenges into a Key Component of Success

Adversity is one of the most potent forces in life. It shapes your character, clarifies your priorities, and defines your path. It can also fuel your greatness. Each of us faces a rich assortment of adversities every day, ranging from minor hassles to major setbacks and challenges, even tragedies.

Nobody knows this better than blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer and adversity expert Dr. Paul Stolz. In this exciting new edition of The Adversity Advantage, this dream-team joined forces to offer incredible experiences and practical science to teach you how to turn life challenges into a powerful advantage.

Weihenmayer, who is the only blind person to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits, shares his struggles on high mountains to turn adversity on its head and do the impossible. Co-author Stoltz has spent decades decoding the human relationship with adversity and is the creator of the globally acclaimed Adversity Quotient.

Fully revised and updated, this new edition of The Adversity Advantage offers lessons from real-life adventure, seemingly insurmountable challenges, and extensive research to help you achieve greatness. This unique book provides an exciting and insightful framework for surpassing obstacles and reaching higher goals. Its seven proven principles will help you harness the adversity in your life and turn it into agility, innovation, energy, and happiness:

TAKE IT ON!

SUMMON YOUR STRENGTH

ENGAGE YOUR CORE

PIONEER POSSIBITIES

PACK LIGHT, PACK RIGHT

SUFFER WELL

DELIVER GREATNESS, EVERY DAY

Let The Adversity Advantage inspire you to overcome obstacles, no matter how daunting! 

“The very process of studying this book led me to look carefully at myself with an awareness of how the challenges of my life can be the very fuel that will enable me to swim against the stream, against cultural currents, against all forms of adversity inherent in my most important goals.”

—From the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey, Ph.D., author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Erik ha pochi mesi quando i genitori scoprono che i suoi occhi si muovono in modo strano. A tre anni, dopo mille visite e consulti, la diagnosi di un luminare di Boston è una mazzata: retinoschisi, progressivo distacco di entrambe le retine. Presto sarà completamente cieco. E così accade. Occhiali spessi e uno speciale monocolo gli permettono per qualche anno una vita quasi normale. Ma al liceo Erik deve rassegnarsi a camminare con il bastone bianco, a reimparare a leggere, questa volta il Braille, a muoversi con un cane guida. Eppure non si perde d'animo. Scoperta l'arrampicata, mentre prosegue gli studi, si laurea, comincia a insegnare e si sposa; realizza anche scalate incredibili, che farebbero felice ogni alpinista dalla vista buona: McKinley, Aconcagua, Kilimangiaro, addirittura l'Everest e i mille metri di granito del Capitan. La sua autobiografia fonde appassionanti vicende sportive in una storia intensamente umana.

Erik ha pochi mesi quando i genitori scoprono che i suoi occhi si muovono in modo strano. A tre anni, dopo mille visite e consulti, la diagnosi di un luminare di Boston è una mazzata: retinoschisi, progressivo distacco di entrambe le retine. Presto sarà completamente cieco. E così accade. Occhiali spessi e uno speciale monocolo gli permettono per qualche anno una vita quasi normale. Ma al liceo Erik deve rassegnarsi a camminare con il bastone bianco, a reimparare a leggere, questa volta il Braille, a muoversi con un cane guida. Eppure non si perde d'animo. Scoperta l'arrampicata, mentre prosegue gli studi, si laurea, comincia a insegnare e si sposa; realizza anche scalate incredibili, che farebbero felice ogni alpinista dalla vista buona: McKinley, Aconcagua, Kilimangiaro, addirittura l'Everest e i mille metri di granito del Capitan. La sua autobiografia fonde appassionanti vicende sportive in una storia intensamente umana.

'A vivid and compelling book.' (Time magazine)

Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoscheses, a degenerative eye disorder that would leave him blind by the age of thirteen. But Erik was determined to rise above this devastating disability and lead a fulfilling and exciting life.

In this poignant and inspiring memoir, he shares his struggle to push past the limits imposed on him by his visual impairment-and by a seeing world. He speaks movingly of the role his family played in his battle to break through the barriers of blindness: the mother who prayed for the miracle that would restore her son's sight and the father who encouraged him to strive for that distant mountaintop. And he tells the story of his dream to climb the world's Seven Summits, and how he is turning that dream into astonishing reality (something fewer than a hundred mountaineers have done).

From the snow-capped summit of McKinley to the towering peaks of Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro to the ultimate challenge, Mount Everest, this is a story about daring to dream in the face of impossible odds. It is about finding the courage to reach for that ultimate summit, and transforming your life into something truly miraculous.

'I admire you immensely. You are an inspiration to other blind people and plenty of folks who can see just fine.' (Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air)