John Robinson: Author and Congenital Amputee Shares Secrets for Success with Russell Sage College

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Written by Shannon Hunter, Senior Writer

On Thursday November, 19^th at 7:30pm, John Robinson spoke in Bush Memorial on the Russell Sage College campus. John is married and a father of three, graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications, currently works for WMHT as director of corporate support, and enjoys golfing in his spare time. From that description, John Robinson sounds like the typical successful family man, because he is.

What makes John not so typical is the fact that he was born a congenital amputee without extension of his arms and legs, and he now stands 3’9” tall. Only 26 out of every 100,000 children born have congenital amputations, and in most cases it is only one or two limbs. In John’s case, all four limbs are congenital amputations. Nonetheless, this has not stopped John from reaching great success and living a normal life, which is why he decided to write a book titled Get Off Your Knees: A Story of Faith, Courage and Determination, to share his inspirational story. He was also recently the subject of a 60 minute documentary created by and featured on WHMT.

A ten minute clip from the documentary, which showed John working as well as hiking with his wife and children, began the presentation. Starting with a joke, Robinson quickly lightened the mood and set up a segway for his first topic of discussion: first impressions. Robinson acknowledges how important it is for everyone to make a good first impression, and in his case, he sees making a good first impression as the best way to make people just as comfortable about his body as he is.

Moving on to his second point, Robinson stated, “Dealing with first impressions leads to a very important question in my life and in yours. Is it an obstacle or an opportunity? Often times, opportunities are disguised as challenges.”  He then tells of his two biggest obstacles, which he now sees as opportunities which enabled him to gain mental independence.

The first was learning how to get dressed on his own, a process which required trial and error but when success was reached, allowed Robinson to enter college without this concern. The second opportunity was learning how to drive. After trying to teach himself to drive a lawn tractor at age 12 and crashing into a flower bed, Robinson gave up on driving until a driver’s ed instructor gave him an opportunity to try hand controls at the age of 16. Eight hours of supervised driving later, Robinson could drive, without crashing into any flower beds.

Throughout his presentation, Robinson shares multiple stories with the audience, keeping laughs abundant while also being realistic and informative. In the end, Robinson’s message is that knowing your limitations but also being comfortable with who you are will enable anybody to do what they want.

After an hour of entertaining and informing the audience, Robinson answered audience questions, and then proceeded to M.O.S.S bookstore for a book signing and reception.