A fateful day in Chad Howey’s young life — ten minutes under water.

The term “cold water drowning” was used to describe his condition. At age 2 1⁄2 his mind was swept clear of the alphabet and other things he had learned. Even though he was alive, and left with full intellectual capacity, he had a body “they said” that didn’t go through the motions of life fast enough.

As he grew into boyhood it became harder and harder for him to keep up. He knew what he wanted to do, but he couldn’t seem to get his body to do it quickly enough. Swinging at a baseball after it was in the catcher’s glove made him feel dumb. Being behind in reading and having kids laugh at him in reading class made him feel dumb.

Then at age 10 Chad was given an opportunity to turn his greatest weakness into his greatest strength. With fierce determination and lots of encouragement from his mother, Chad enrolled in a speed reading course.

“Dumb? I’ll show them!” he said to himself. It meant hours of practice in addition to keeping up with his regular schoolwork, but he dropped self-pity and stopped asking “Why me?” and just did what had to be done.

If you’re average as a reader you’re probably reading 250 words per minute with 70% to 80% comprehension. Speed reading courses promise to double and even triple that. You might know someone who’s up to 1,000 wpm.

Not Chad Howey. Newspapers in his home- town showed the ten-year-old’s picture and then verified the statement:

“TEN-YEAR-OLD CAN READ 9,000 TO 10,000 WPM WITH 90% COMPREHENSION!”

It’s true, with tremendous effort and commitment, Chad’s diligence paid off. It proves once again that people with a goal, a plan, a commitment, and hard work can…

— turn their weaknesses into strengths

— make negatives into positives

— improve and grow

— release their unlimited potential.

Chad Howey proved it.