Cancer survivor hopes book will push others
“People would say to me, ‘You ski really well, considering you have only one leg,'” said Rosenberg, a cancer survivor who lives in Newton. That irked Rosenberg, but also motivated him.
“They slam you into a class. It classifies you,” he said. “When people knock you down, you have to fight back.”
Rosenberg lost his leg to osteogenic sarcoma when he was 16, and had two-fifths of his lungs removed three years later. Now an accomplished athlete who has founded six technology companies, the 53-year-old father of three has written a memoir aimed at helping others overcome their obstacles and doubts: “Who Says I Can’t.”
The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge will host a book launch event at its Needham headquarters on Dec. 16. The memoir is available for sale here.
“The book is really about when something bad happens to you -- whatever it is, it could be cancer, depression or getting a divorce -- you need to find tools to bounce back,” said Rosenberg. “There are a series of themes in there. One, finding one little victory to build you back up.”
Comments like “pretty good, considering” motivated Rosenberg to ski, swim and bike. He competes in the 192-mile, two-day Pan-Massachusetts Challenge and the Swim for Life in Provincetown, as well as swimming from San Francisco to Alcatraz every year.
Rosenberg's book emerged over the past five years. In 2004, he started to write a blog, “Who Says I Can’t," with the goal of providing ideas and tips for other amputees, but it began evolving into a series of vignettes.
During the AIDS race from Boston to New York, Rosenberg was approached by several people who told him he was motivating them. And friends encouraged him to write more than just a blog. When Rosenberg took a yearlong job assignment in Oregon, he worked on his book during plane rides.
The finished product, he said, is not a cancer book. The themes focus on finding self-confidence to overcome difficult, unfortunate life situations.
“There is the strategy of getting one little victory at a time and building on that. Educating people around you, what’s easy for you, what’s hard for you. It helps,” said Rosenberg. “My parents knew exactly how far to push and when to push, and when to back off. Sometimes you get trapped thinking you can’t do that and someone pushing you, it gets you over that hump.”
Rosenberg is using a number of different marketing tools to promote the book. Through the help of a friend, who is a professor at Emerson College, a group of students was assigned to market his book through social media.
Rosenberg will be donating a portion of book to the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge.
He is also vying for a spot on "Oprah." He posted a video to YouTube, which can be seen here.
Caitlin Castello can be reached at caitlincastello@gmail.com
Waiting for Twitter to feed in the latest...