Nicolas Hamilton shares his last name and his love for racing with his 7-time F1 world champion brother Lewis Hamilton. But the similarity stops there.
The title of his book, ‘Now that I have your attention, I hope to inspire you’ is a stroke of genius. Because persons with disabilities, like Nicolas, have our sympathy but not our attention. Nicolas Hamilton was born with cerebral palsy. He found it in himself to tune out the noise, despite being told by ‘enough times, by enough people’ that his life experiences would be limited. And he tells us in this book, that it all boils down to ‘leap of faith’ and ‘defiance,’ both!
Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:
1. From ‘simulations racing’ to the real racing track, Nicolas Hamilton’s journey to leave his wheelchair, walk unaided and become a racer, came with the support of his older brother Lewis Hamilton. And of course, from the voice within.
2. The book is structured into seven chapters- more like seven lessons from Nicolas Hamilton’s life. These are extremely relevant for parents raising kids with disabilities; as the author explains- people talk ‘about’ your kids but not ‘to’ your kids. And this lack of acknowledgement can be awful for their sense of identity.
3. My gut feel is that this book would be useful for anyone who feels excluded, for reasons other than disability too. Such as social status or even caste in some societies.
4. What is worse, is that the first flush of success, after years of feeling left out, comes with its own challenges. The loneliness of exclusion can bring negative influences into your life, who now see your money and encourage you to be part of activities like gambling. Before you know it, the discipline which created your success melts away and you hit rock bottom. This is what happened to Nicolas and he had to build himself, the second time around.
5. Therefore, it is no surprise that Nicolas talks about the chance to pass on his wisdom as a ‘privilege’. And it is this bare honesty with which this book has been written too. Talking about his meltdowns, he says, “by showing my vulnerability and being kind to myself in those moments, I’ve actually made myself stronger in the long run.” Dismissing the classic ‘stiff upper lip’ as hogwash, he says that keeping it all in is the reason for high rates of male suicide in the UK.
For the uninitiated, at the height of his success, Nicolas Hamilton stood 6th in a race fill of able-bodied drivers, in the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship), the pinnacle of British motorsport.
Even today, every rejection he faces- whether not getting sponsorships for a race or having confirmed sponsors drop out last minute- takes him back to his childhood! Yanking himself out of it by flexing his perseverance muscle, he tells his readers that all success comes at some cost. We just have to make sure its worth it!
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta