Expected to die at birth, Sean Stephenson has faced an army of reasons to give up and countless opportunities to embrace pity. He suffered more than 200 bone fractures by age eighteen, reached a height of only three feet, and is permanently confined to a wheelchair. Despite his challenges, he took a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world, including Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, President Clinton, and his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Edgar Harrell owned and operated the Pella Window Company, Inc., Rock Island, Illinois for thirty-five years until his retirement in 1985. During the years 1970 to 1985, he served on the board of trustees of the Moody Bible Institute, in Chicago, Illinois, and has been a popular Bible teacher and lay minister throughout his adult life. He has enjoyed many years of fishing and big game hunting in the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to New Mexico, and currently resides in Clarksville, Tennessee with his wife Ola, together enjoying their two children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. As a survivor of the USS Indianapolis, Mr. Harrell speaks extensively around the United States about his experience at sea.