This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

In 1976, the Austrian Formula One racer,

Nicki Lauda was involved in a fiery crash at the German Grand Prix.

Taking a 150 mile per hour turn, he swerved off the track and hit a fence.

His racing car exploded into flames. Another car crashed into his vehicle.

The Associated Press reported what happened next. The race was restarted, but for louder it was a race for life.

While his fellow drivers jockeyed for position, he was

near to an intensive care unit with severe burns, fractures and lung damage.

Surgeons pronounced he was near to death and last rights were administered.

But Nicki Lauda refused to give up.

He not only came back from near death, but in the weeks that followed, he staged one of the

most astonishing recoveries in sports history.

Just 40 days after doctors had given up hope and a priest had knelt at his bedside,

the Austrian ace climbed back into the cockpit of his glaring red Ferrari.

Nicki Lauda returned to the track, barely a month after he was presumed dead.

His miracle recovery had more to do with his iron will

than with master surgery.

In an interview, Nicki Lauda made clear

that quitting was not something he ever considered.

The first week after the accident they couldn't take any decisions at all because it was too bad.

And after when it was feeling good, I wanted to race again. The annals of sports and business and science are filled with stories like this. Hearing them can give us the courage to

confront challenges in our own lives. But do they always give us the right message?

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