Interview with Gustavo Serafini - Empowering Disability for Himself and Others

Gustavo Serafini was born with an extremely rare birth defect known as proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD).  ).  At birth, he had only his left arm and two shortened legs, one supported using a prosthesis and the other with a brace.  In spite of that beginning, Gustavo has gone on to become a successful entrepreneur with the company he co-founded with his brother, pureaudiovideo.com, providing exceptional home entertainment experiences in South Florida and beyond.  He is also the creator and host of the Enabled Disabled podcast, a platform of love and inspiration for people with disabilities and those who support them. 

In this episode, we explore Gustavo’s journey from childhood with loving and supportive family and friends, but no real role models to emulate nor others with disabilities in his world. Helped by learning meditation at a young age, Gustavo used mindfulness practice to work through his negative thoughts and emotions by letting them be without becoming attached or repelled.  Today, he uses swimming as a moving meditation serving a similar purpose. 

 A lover of sports, Gustavo made his eighth-grade basketball team, overcoming naysaying by others (who didn’t want him hurt by rejection) in the process. Eventually, he used that as an entry into coaching, beginning with his younger brother’s basketball team and moving up to coaching high school. Of that experience, Gustavo says “I really enjoyed having twelve people who come from different backgrounds, are in different places in their lives, and trying to mold them together into a team, to become more than the sum of their parts”. Adding, “I learned so much about myself, about how to motivate people, how to bring people together, how to deal with those adversities”.

After high school, once again pushing himself beyond self-imposed limits, Gustavo made the brave step to move away from his support system of family and friends in Los Angeles to attend the University of Chicago halfway across the country.  His first experience of snow and ice, a lack of accommodations, a ton of walking, outright rejection of his right to live as a disabled individual, were just some of the challenges he faced.  In meeting them head-on, he found an “inner resourcefulness” that has carried him to this day. 

Another huge influence in Gustavo’s growth was Zen Buddhism. Specifically, he cites two books, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy. He found that sitting with himself was a powerful tool for self-acceptance. He also took much inspiration from Martin Luther King, Jr, eventually writing his Master’s thesis on Dr. King.  Gustavo saw Dr. King as a role model and the Civil Rights movement he led as being integrally aligned with the notion of a disabled person also being seen as an outsider, as the “other”.

Gustavo’s story has universal applications for us all and his motto of “If I can do it, so can you” resonates throughout the episode.

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