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Stuttering is a speech disorder (it’s not a disease, please), the impact of which on a person’s emotional state can be severe. Most people who stutter usually prefer keeping a low-key image for the fear of being caught stuttering in social situations, and often project their negative feelings onto others, believing that they think he is nervous or stupid. This is what people generally know. What people don’t know is that deep down within their hearts, these people have a burning desire to use their potential to the fullest, but are restrained from doing so due to their impediment. (I can tell, I am a stutterer myself). But then, there are people who take an entirely different route and are able to turn their biggest problem into their biggest asset. Here we take a look at 10 such people, and how they scripted their resounding success stories in their respective fields, and how they continue to inspire to this day.

10: James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones is an American actor of stage and screen, and is best known for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, and Mufasa in The Lion King. At the age of five he developed a stutter so severe he refused to speak aloud. When he moved to Brethren, Michigan, in later years, a teacher at the Brethren schools started to help him with his stutter. He remained functionally mute for eight years until he reached high school. He credits his high school teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him out of his silence. The teacher believed forced public speaking would help him gain confidence and insisted he recite a poem in class each day. In an interview he said, “I was a stutterer. I couldn’t talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school.”

9: Bruce Willis

In 1972, while Willis was still a teenager, his parents separated. He then attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown, where he encountered issues with a stutter. He used to be hatefully nicknamed Buck-Buck by his schoolmates. Finding it easy to express himself on stage, and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and being student council president. Eventually his hard work and perseverance paid off, with the result that today he is counted amongst the most successful actors of all time.

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