The absolute rock-star that is Cyrus Habib
Columbia. Rhodes Scholar. Oxford. Yale Law. Record-breaking political fundraiser. State Senator. Lieutenant Governor. Three-time cancer survivor. Fully blind since 1989.
Born to Iranian immigrants to the United States, Cyrus knew at an early age that he would soon lose his eye-sight due to a cancer which could only be cured through the removal of his retinas. This means that he learned to read braille and use a white cane while he still had limited vision. Every day, him and his parents were preparing themselves for him to live the rest of his life in darkness.
Let that sink in.
‘Stay Tuned with Preet’, a popular podcast hosted by Preet Bharara; another son of immigrants who went on to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He famously earned a reputation of a “crusader” prosecutor after having prosecuted nearly 100 Wall Street executives and shutting down multi-billion dollar hedge funds for charges of corruption.
On this episode aptly titled ‘From Braille to Yale’ — as per Cyrus’s own suggestion, no less — Cyrus recounts the time in his childhood when his school supervisors had begun to sideline him to during lunch breaks so as to prevent him from causing injury to himself due to his increasingly limited vision.
Cyrus came home that day and shared this with his mother, Susan Amini — a litigator herself. The very next day, Susan took Cyrus to the Principal’s office to teach him how to advocate for himself. There, she made it clear that she would herself teach Cyrus how to maneuver the playground and ensure that “he’s going to learn it as well as any other kid knows it.” Her reasoning, according to Habib, was this:
“It may happen that he may slip and fall and it may even happen that he may slip and fall and break his arm. That’s a fear any mother has. I can fix a broken arm — I can never fix a broken spirit.”
Cyrus faced a similar challenge when he decided to throw his hat in the ring for a seat in the Washington House of Representatives in 2012. In his initial conversation with a party leader, Cyrus was told that campaigning involved a ton of door-knocking and that the leader wasn’t so sure how that would ever work for Cyrus.
At this point, Preet Bharara points out, “he hadn’t seen you ski.”
That’s right. Cyrus Habib downhill skis.
Not only did Cyrus go on to win the election the first time out, he also set a record for the most money ever raised in a State House race in Washington. 2 years later, he was elected to the Washington State Senate with 65% of the vote. Another 2 years after that in November 2016, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Washington with direct support from Barack Obama, defeating several seasoned Senators.
Today, he’s the highest ranking Iranian-American elected to state office in United States. A testament to the fact that the human mind is at full liberty to set its own limits, unabated by what the world considers realistic.
Note: This article was originally published in Aug 2018 and was posted here as a result of merging 2 Medium accounts into one.
