This TED Talk features storyteller and motivational speaker Tom Nash,

recorded live at TEDx Sydney 2019.

Often when I'm out in public, a child will stare at me.

And if the child is particularly brave, they'll approach me and ask,

are you a pirate?

To which I then need to respond once again, yes.

I mean, let's be honest, I've got two hooks, prosthetic legs and a poncho on for hard liquor.

All I need is an eye patch and a parrot and I'm basically there.

But I like being a pirate.

I find many advantages to having a disability.

And I'm not just talking about the money I save on gloves, or the fantastically

legitimate excuse for never having to master chopsticks. I'm talking about real advantages I feel

I've gained having gone through physical adversity. When I was 19, I contracted a disease that resulted in the loss of both my arms

at the elbows, both my legs below the knee, and left enough scars on my face to elicit

jealousy in Freddie Kruger.

Now, I may never be able to communicate in sign language, but my increased resilience

and general ability to problem solve

has been heightened by being forced to think laterally

to overcome problems that most people aren't faced with.

One of the first lessons that I learned

immediately followed the painful and arduous task of learning how to walk again,

but it went on to pay dividends for the rest of my life.

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