Sean Stephenson's Inspiring Voice

Some people might not expect Sean Stephenson.

He's 3 feet tall with mangled legs and short arms.

He's confined to a wheelchair.

Excel? Make that excellent.

The 30-year-old lives like a self-described rock star and has accomplished much more than most able-bodied people do in a lifetime.

"I'm on this planet to be an example of -- as best I can -- human potential," Stephenson told IBD.

That potential includes sharing the stage with the Dalai Lama, Tony Robbins and Henry Winkler as an anything-is-possible motivational speaker and starring in the Bio TV special "Three Foot Giant."

He's appeared on Oprah, Jimmy Kimmel, CNN, C-Span, Discovery Health and CBS News, and has been featured in the Chicago Tribune and New York Times.

Thinking And Writing

Stephenson owns a board certification in clinical psychotherapy and runs a private therapy practice.

He's written four books, including this year's "Get Off Your 'But': How to End Self-Sabotage and Stand Up for Yourself."

He graduated from DePaul University with high honors in political science, leading to a White House internship and work for a congressman from Chicago.

More? He's writing a doctoral dissertation via American Pacific University on clinical hypnosis. And he's dating a blond Canadian hottie he met in Indonesia.

Afflicted with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disorder, Stephenson suffered breakage through his body when he was born in 1979 in Chicago. Doctors expected him to die within 24 hours.

The boy defied that prediction, but grew up with back pain and bones so fragile, a sneeze could snap a rib.

By age 18, he had endured more than 200 fractures.

Every time he broke a bone, he had to lie still and wait for it to heal. His parents lay on the floor with him. Going to a doctor was futile.

"We just adjusted. We just learned flexibility," said Gregg Stephenson, Sean's father. "It was a matter of just living day-to-day and trying not to get overwhelmed by what are we going to do when he gets into high school, what are we going to do when he gets into college."

When Sean was 9 he caught his leg in a door frame. The leg broke.

"Why me?" he yelled in pain. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"

After trying to calm him down, his mother, Gloria, asked him: "Sean, is this going to be a gift or a burden?"

From then on, "I had a clear revelation," Stephenson wrote in his book. "I had always loved my life, amid all the pain. I realized that I was meant to teach others to do the same."

Stephenson's parents instilled in him that although he has physical limitations, he must focus on what he can do. His father once told him that although he couldn't play baseball, if he worked hard enough, one day he could own a baseball team.

When the youngster would get upset, his parents would tell him to go ahead and feel sorry for himself. Then they would set an egg timer and tell him he could sulk for 15 minutes. He always felt better soon.

Now he recommends people use the egg-timer trick.

While a junior in high school, Stephenson started speaking in public about being disabled. By the time he reached college, he was talking at churches, schools and companies, with this theme: Don't let this kind of stuff keep you down.

One day his father suggested he pursue such experience-sharing as a full-time career.

Did he ever. Stephenson has spoken in 47 states and seven countries. His corporate speaking fee starts at $10,000 and is rising, owing to demand. He gives 40 to 50 talks a year.

"The mission is to rid the world in my lifetime of insecurities," Stephenson said. "Anytime you feel insecure, you feel like you're not enough. Right? You're not tall enough, smart enough, rich enough, good-looking enough, thin enough, and you use that as a crutch. You use that as your excuse to why you don't have what you want."

So many people approached him for advice after his speeches, Stephenson saw another prospect: become a therapist. So he studied to be one and in 2006 opened a therapy practice in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.

He calls his method "breakthrough or full-immersion therapy." A session goes like this: Stephenson sees a client 15 straight hours. One time.

Jamie Coombs, who had been addicted to drugs and alcohol since she was a teenager, went through Stephenson's marathon therapy session three years ago.

"He's really my angel on earth; he saved my life," said the 27-year-old. "The way I felt was better than any high I have ever felt in my life."

Outside of work, Stephenson volunteers raising money for the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation, which funds research and raises awareness of the disease.

All-Out

Stephenson hardly lets up. These days he's developing content and seminars for FinerMinds.com, which specializes in spiritual and self-help products.

And he aspires to:

Create a summer Confidence Camp to teach children self-esteem.

Start an orphanage called Adopt An Angel that would be based in a developing country, "where we can show the power of what it's like to raise a child with a disability."

Grace the cover of GQ magazine as a sex symbol.

"I want people to realize that as Americans with a disability, we're not some castaway that doesn't have sexual relations, doesn't have a desire to have family, doesn't date," he said. "That's so not true."