These individuals have demonstrated that nothing is impractical.

We are all familiar with Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Albert Einstein, and Ludwig van Beethoven. However, very few people are aware of the struggles that these people went through. They only triumphed because of their unyielding resolve. Read on to learn more.

1. Randy Gardner

During the year 1964, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student. By remaining awake for 264 hours, or 11 days, without using any stimulants, he broke the world record for sleep deprivation. After four days, he began to believe that he was a well-known American football star winning the Rose Bowl. On the eleventh day, when he was forced to continually subtract 7 starting from 100, he also confused a street sign for the actual person. When he reached age 65, he stopped and claimed to have forgotten what he was doing, but later that day, Gardner gave a press conference in which he talked clearly and seemed to be in good health.

Gardner slept for nearly 15 hours after his marathon and quickly got back to his regular sleeping schedule. He achieved a record in the process, but the teenage escapade is now haunting him, and at the age of 74, he offers advice on staying up late.

Gardner claims that about ten years ago, I quit sleeping because I was unable to do so. I continued referring to this as karmic retribution for my body functioning normally for 11 days without sleep when you know very well that you need sleep. I was unpleasant to be around because everything that bothered me felt like a repeat of what I did fifty years before. This demonstrates why getting enough sleep is crucial even if you feel rested after a restless night.

2. Reinold Messner

One of the greatest feats of human achievement is climbing Mount Everest. Today, wealthier visitors can pay local sherpas to carry their belongings and give them more oxygen while they ascend the mountain, thanks to the trip's intense commercialization. Reinold Messner, a well-known Italian alpinist, was an exception to this.

He and the Austrian Peter Hagler became the first to ascend Everest in 1978. He was the first person to climb all 14 mountains in the world that are higher than 26,250 feet, including the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, without using supplemental oxygen. Two years later, he accomplished the first solo ascent of Everest. Messner claimed that I was in constant pain. The day I reached the summit of Everest, I felt more exhausted than I ever had in my entire life. They were completely unaware of all I knew, and I was literally at my limit. I just sat there.

3. Evangelos Katsioulis

Greek physician and psychologist Evangelos Katsioulis established the World Intelligence Network, a group for highly clever people. The majority of people receive scores between 85 and 114 on an IQ test, with the average result being 100. Evangelos scored 198 out of 200.

Evangelos believes in the power of the human mind and aspires to maximise educational outcomes by facilitating mental expression, stimulating creativity, and increasing productivity via appreciation of others' potential.

4. Jessica Cox

The date of Jessica Cox's birth is February 2, 1983. Her parents were shocked when they first met her. Jessica was born without arms, and although previous prenatal testing had revealed no abnormalities, physicians were unable to explain why she was born that way. Neither her parents nor the doctors were able to do anything about it. Even Nevertheless, Jessica's parents always wanted her to feel included in common activities and never sought to keep her from them.

Jessica Cox attended a conventional school rather than a special needs school, thus she had the same early experiences as any other child. In her frequent moments of being alone, she would picture herself as a superhero who could lift individuals above the skies with her superpower of flying. Cox received his pilot's license shortly after this ambition became a reality. Cox holds two Guinness world records for being the first armless individual to ever receive a pilot's license and a black belt from the American Taekwondo Association.

5. Concetta Antico

For one Australian-born artist by the name of Concetta Antico, it's a clichéd abstract question whether or not everyone sees the same colors. The query is not speculative. Antico, a resident of San Diego, California, has more color-absorbing receptors in her eyes than the majority of humans, which allows her to perceive and depict the world in a unique way.

Tetrachromats have a fourth cone or receptor in their eyes, which dramatically increases their range to a potential 99 million colors. The average person can only see about 1 million colors, whereas tetrachromats have an extra cone class in their eyes for color vision. Dr. Kimberly Jameson has carefully researched her.

Since then, Dr. Jameson has worked as a scientist at the University of Irvine in California. He describes Concetta as the ideal scenario for this uncommon illness. She claims that just two to three percent of people worldwide are thought to have the mutation I prefer to refer to as a gift. It makes my natural visual world so beautiful and brings unbelievable color options to my eyes, allowing me to paint what I see so that others can see it. My color vision also gives me the ability to see very subtle color variations, and color differentiations that would not be able seen with normal vision.

6. Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire, a 1974 London native, received his autism diagnosis when he was three years old. His early attempts at communication were merely sounds and murmurs because he was nonverbal. His fantastic drawings are currently on display in a permanent exhibition at the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery at London's royal opera circuit. Beyond the specifics of his trade, Wiltshire is able to draw a full landscape from memory, demonstrating the extent of Steven's influence. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II made him a member of the Order of the British Empire in appreciation of his contribution to services in the art industry.

Wiltshire received his first commission at the age of eight after only catching a brief glimpse of it, and his career has taken off ever since. Wiltshire's work has been the focus of numerous television documentaries, and renowned neuroscientist Oliver Sachs wrote about him in a chapter titled Prodigies in his book An Anthropologist on Mars. The 1988 Oscar-winning film Rain Man, which Wiltshire considers to be one of his favorite movies, starred Dustin Hoffman and Wiltshire on the cover in 1989. Wiltshire continues to create art to this day, and most recently he has been hired by a number of Singaporean municipalities to document their cities.

7. Stephen Hawking

One of the most well-known cases of perseverance in the face of difficulty is Stephen Hawking. Even the immensely well-liked 2014 movie Theory of Everything included a tribute to him. He received an ALS diagnosis at age 21 while pursuing a degree in cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Even though it didn't seem possible that he would make it past two years, Hawking defied the odds by not only earning his doctorate but also opening up new avenues for research into the universe over the years.

Hawking started using a wheelchair after the disease spread and he lost some of his mobility. Speaking became increasingly difficult, and an urgent tracheotomy in 1985 left him completely speechless. His electronic voice was created at Cambridge using a speech-generating gear and software, which allowed Hawking to choose his phrases by flexing his cheek muscles.

With the release of A Brief History of Time in 1988, Hawking quickly gained international recognition. The brief educational book served as a cosmology primer for the general public and provided an outline of space and time. The book The Future Existence of God became an instant hit and spent more than four years at the top of the London Sunday Times bestseller list. It has sold millions of copies worldwide since its release and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

8. Jason Padgett

Try doing maths after a severe brain injury if you think maths and science are challenging disciplines. Mathematical theorist Jason Padgett was subjected to a vicious attack but also survived. But Pagett also developed a talent early in life despite being a very vain individual.

"I Was Very Shallow," he chuckles. In 2002, life revolved around chasing females and frequenting clubs while girls partied, drank, and woke up with hangovers. As he was leaving a Karaoke bar, he was accosted by two males. Paget was viciously beaten by them, and they left him behind unconscious and severely concussed.

The following morning, when he awoke, he was seeing lines and shapes all around and inside commonplace objects. After the attack and subsequent brain injury, he developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. Throughout all of this, he also struggled with agoraphobia, which was severe enough to force him into hiding for more than three years. He almost immediately started drawing intricate mathematical diagrams, but this didn't come without a cost.

After consulting a therapist, Padgett was able to control his mental condition and started creating thousands of elaborate paintings. These designs all involve really difficult mathematical principles, and today, each one of them is worth thousands of dollars.

9. Josh Sundquist

Best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and paralympic ski racer Josh Sundquist is also an athlete. He has given speeches all around the world to audiences that have included Fortune 500 firms, inner-city public schools, and even the White House. At the age of nine, Josh's journey began. He spent a year receiving chemotherapy treatments after receiving a diagnosis of a rare kind of bone cancer and being given a 50 percent chance of survival. His left leg was also removed.

Josh was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 13, and three years later he started competing in ski races. After six years of preparation, he competed in 2006. He was chosen to compete for the United States on the Paralympic ski team in Torino, Italy in 2006.

A versatile athlete Josh is the only individual in history to have ever been selected for both the U.S. amputee football squad and the Paralympic ski team. Since then, just doesn't Fall, his debut book, has been a bestseller. And he gives speeches at gatherings all around the world.

10. Herbert Nitsch

One of the most significant personalities in diving history is the freediver, Herbert Nitsch. The world's deepest man has maintained and still holds a number of freediving world records. Freediving is the practice of diving as deep as you can without the use of an oxygen tank, leaving you entirely reliant on your own lungs to survive. Despite being a novice at free diving, he smashed the world record in 2007 by plunging 702 feet below the surface. And he has been revered as a hero by the freediving community ever since the horrific incident in which Nitch nearly perished in 2012.

While making an effort to beat the freediving world record. He describes how his mental health suffered greatly during his recovery. It was not an easy journey; during rehabilitation, I experienced sadness and began to doubt my ability to return to a normal life. At one point, I even considered jumping out of a window to put an end to it all. I suffered from physical and mental constraints. Fortunately, I understood that the rehab center's second floor was ineffective. So, despite the sluggish pace and initial depression, I quickly abandoned that idea. Instead, I decided to do whatever it would take to restore my life to how it once was.

11. Walt Disney

Given that Walt Disney is arguably the most well-known animator of all time, this might surprise you. Disney was sacked from his job as a newspaper cartoonist for lacking imagination, but this is the same man who made such cartoons as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and developed Disneyland. Of course, when Disney Skyrocketed in popularity in the ensuing decades, the editors of this newspaper were cursing themselves.

Conclusion

Have you discovered something unexpected from this list? Who among these stretched the boundaries of the human body and mind the furthest? Post your thoughts in the comments section!