Some years ago the Canadian Medical Association reported the strange case of Jack Traynor. Jack was an Englishman who fought in the trenches of World War I. Twice he was shot: one bullet severed the nerves and tendons in his right arm; the other put a hole in his skull. Jack was alive, but his arm was useless and his brain was damaged. He couldn’t walk, and he had constant epileptic seizures. His right arm hung paralyzed. Doctors stopped treating him and predicted his death in a very short while. The Ministry of Pensions gave him a total disability.

That was in 1920. One morning in 1923, Jack suddenly jumped up out of bed. He washed and shaved, dressed himself, and walked out the door on his own!

It’s not possible! the doctors said. But Jack just carried right on: he set up a business fo…