Nov 23, 2022
Seeing Adversity as a Gift with Robert Paylor
Denise talks to professional motivational speaker Robert Paylor, who inspires millions with his message of hope, courage, and unwavering determination. Paylor is living proof that with discipline and a strong support team, we can achieve the impossible. He uses the story of the best day of his life, also the day of his greatest tragedy, as his driving purpose to help others.
At 6’ 5” the Sacramento native was naturally strong and a gifted athlete. His love for contact sports led him to rugby, first as a student at Jesuit High School, the number one ranked team in the nation. A natural born leader, captain of the team, Paylor and his team won a lot of hardware. As a college student at UC Berkeley, he earned a starting position on the legendary Men’s Rugby Team, which has won 33 national championships.
May 6, 2017 his team was competing in the Collegiate Rugby National Championship against Arkansas State. As a big guy, Paylor was accustomed to being in a maul where three or more players push against one another. There are strict rules about mauls, one being that players are not allowed to join from the side. As the opposing team continued to make illegal moves, Paylor found himself in a tight headlock and was pushed to the ground. He heard a “snap” and in an instant was face down, in the dirt, unable to move.
He suffered severe injuries to his spinal cord and doctors told him he’d never walk again, let alone move his hands. Faced with whether to have a potentially life-threatening surgery he contacted his priest. A devout Catholic, Paylor wanted to make sure he could receive the Sacrament of Last Rites. He was given 30 minutes to decide.
In this inspirational conversation, Paylor pays forward the advice he’s been given, and the strategies he uses to keep making progress. As his priest told him right before his surgery, “The one thing you have control over is your mindset…Your willingness to wake up every day and fight this is up to you and this injury can’t take that away from you.”
Paylor found the courage to face his fear of a body—and a future—he didn’t recognize. He says he sleeps peacefully knowing he gives every day all he has. When he doesn’t feel like exerting the effort to simply get out of bed in the morning, he remembers that millions of people feel just like he does. When he faces difficulty, he asks himself, “Compared to what?” not to dismiss his challenges but to overcome them.
The single best catalyst to leaping those mental hurdles comes from knowing that when he stays strong, others can stay strong too. Instilled by his faith and engrained by athletics, Paylor is inspired by the words of his UC rugby coach and friend Jack Clark, “Be grateful for everything and entitled to nothing.”
To book Paylor and follow him on social media go to www.robertpaylor.com.
Setup by a friend to pay for uncovered medical expenses, visit his healing and rehab GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/robertpaylor.
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Robert Paylor is a motivational speaker who shares the skills he uses to overcome quadriplegia and go from paralyzed to powerful. The former 2017 UC Berkeley Men’s Rugby Team player uses a life-changing injury to fuel his purpose of inspiring others to reach their full potential. Four years after he was told he would never walk again, Paylor walked with assistance across the stage to receive his diploma from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Paylor still resides in California, enjoys the outdoors, barbequing, hikes, the water—and still loves rugby.
Denise Ilitch, an owner of Ilitch Family Companies and President of Ilitch Enterprises, has been a part of Detroit’s business and philanthropic community for over 40 years. As a mother, lawyer, entrepreneur, devoted community servant and tireless advocate for women and children, she learned early, from her father, that everyone is worthy of contributing to the world. Her passion for affordable, accessible, quality education stems from her own experience as a first-generation student, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, where she currently serves on the Board of Regents, and a law degree from the University of Detroit Law School.
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