I think the biggest common thread would be overcoming obstacles. Most of my stories end up being about people who had a lot of problems in their lives. They had bad childhoods. They came from disabilities, poverty, all kinds of disadvantages, things hurled at them through life — challenges hurled at them. And, yet, they struggled and were able to overcome these and achieve something great and become heroes in their own way.
I think probably the most dramatic example of that would be my book Wilma Unlimited, which is the true story of Wilma Rudolph and how she became the fastest woman in the world. Here was this girl born premature, weighed four pounds, had all of these illnesses, finally was stricken with polio, couldn’t walk until she was 12 years old. Came from a family of 22 children and terrible poverty and prejudice. She couldn’t get treatment at hospitals, because the hospitals in her state of Tennessee wouldn’t treat black people. The story of how she overcame those obstacles and ended up at the Olympics as a runner winning three Gold Medals at the Olympics — first woman to do that — was probably the most amazing life story that I’ve ever heard.
