Farley, the L.H. Carnell Professor at Temple University, says
“Heroes...often have difficulty articulating why they did it, often
saying, ‘I simply had to do it’ or ‘I just did it, I didn’t think about
it.’”^16 That fits with how some high sensation-seekers just act and
trust that things will just work out. But there’s more to the equa-
tion, according to Farley: “However, I believe two ingredients are
included in most Big H heroism, and those are risk-taking/risk-
tolerance and generosity (compassion, kindness, altruism, empa-
thy). If an individual is significantly risk averse he or she is very
unlikely to place their life at risk for the sake of someone else. They
might want to do it for a host of good reasons, but they simply
cannot do it.”^17Paradox Sports: Making the Impossible Possible
I want to close with one of the most touching stories I encountered
in writing this book. It revolves around a company called Paradox
Sports, which was founded by Timmy O’Neil who you met in
Chapter 4. You want to know what the “paradox” is in Paradox
Sports? They develop hardware and services to help people who
need adaptive climbing assistance – most often amputees and peo-
ple with limb differences (many of whom are coming home from
war) – to participate in extreme sports.^18 These are high sensation-
seekers who are helping their own flock – other high sensation-
seekers – reengage in the sensation-seeking activities they love
after injuries most would assume would make it impossible.
What does this look like? Imagine 18 amputees in Ouray,
Colorado, doing some of the most extreme ice climbing imaginable.
Or a blind woman snowboarding, not just down the junior slopes
mind you, but executing and landing jumps that would make most
of us weak in the knees. Or a high school student who couldn’t
walk, taking his first steps after downhill skiing in a chair.
These are the kind of people Mike Neustedter, the executive
director of Paradox Sports, has been working with all of his life.
The blind woman on the snowboard – that is Mike’s best
friend from college. After she lost the use of her eyes, Mike was
determined to help her snowboard again, because she had begun to
believe her plans for the future vanished with her sight. “I wanted
to find a sport or something that would get her involved in some-
thing that she couldn’t do. That was the easiest way for me to
provide her with the power to feel that even though she has170 / Buzz!Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:18:43, subject to the Cambridge