1. Disabled pioneer still raising the bar
board because it is a holiday at-
mosphere where I feel I can do
everything everyone else is do-
ing,” Nick said. “On a cruise ship
I can go anywhere and do most
things everyone else is doing.
“And I really like the special
friendship on board. There’s a
feeling that grows up between
the passengers and the crew –
that we’re all in this together. By
the end of the trip I have found I
have made a lot of good friends.
It’s a great feeling.”
On the job, Nick has consoli-
dated his position as a salesman,
as well as taking the position of
stock controller for the dealer-
ship.
He has also won the coveted
“Gold Leader” award from his
employer, Toyota, three times
over the past three years. To win
the award the salesman has to
sell more than 220 vehicles over
the preceding year. Few people,
even without a disability, are
able to achieve it and most of
them are in big-city dealerships
with many times the number of
potential customers
that Nick has.
So how has he
done it?
“The main thing
I try to do when I am
dealing with cus-
tomers is to show
that I care about
them,” Nick says.
“Buying a new car
is a big thing for
many people. Some
can only afford to do
it once in their life
and it is something
special.
“So I do everything I can to
get them the car that they feel
they need.”
Nick says it has helped that
he has always loved dealing with
continued from page 36
people. Like many disabled peo-
ple, he has a special empathy.
As we pointed out in our first
article, Nick’s disability was
caused by problems at birth that
deprived his brain of oxygen
causing damage to the move-
ment centres of his brain.
Now, aged 38, he drives his
own car, is paying off his own
‘He has always had to battle to get by and
to fit in – to overcome the temptation to feel
he deserves special treatment. He says he
got much of his strength from his parents
who taught him that life is a battle for
everyone and “you make life what you want
to make it, whoever you are”.’
home, and lives a similar life to
most people who are not disa-
bled. He has been used to living
a “normal” life like everyone else
since his earliest years when he
became the first
disabled person
at the school he
attended, paving
the way for many
other disabled
students over the
years.
He has always
had to battle to
get by and to fit in
– to overcome the
temptation to feel
he deserves spe-
cial treatment.
He says he
got much of his
strength from his parents who
taught him that life is a battle for
everyone and that “you make life
what you want to make it, whoever
you are.”
Nick Burling outside the Windsor Toyota dealership
PeoplePeople
Disabled pioneer still raising the bar
Nick Burling has always been
a pacesetter. When we first wrote
about him almost five years ago
he was already a pioneer. He
had led the way for disabled
kids at a normal school, despite
the fact that he was severely
affected by cerebral palsy. He
had also established himself as
a successful car salesman at a
new car dealership in Windsor
in Sydney’s outer west.
Since then, Nick has gone
from strength to strength. He
has consistently sold more cars
than most salesmen in big city
dealerships and he has defied
sceptics by showing he can even
take care of himself on board a
ship.
“When I approached a cruise
ship company to take a cruise
on my own, they said it couldn’t
be done,” Nick says. “They said
that someone in a wheelchair
couldn’t get by without a carer.
But I didn’t hold it against them
- they didn’t know me.”
When we spoke, Nick was
getting ready for his fourth
cruise. Not only did he man-
age to get by on his own on the
others, he became a star enter-
tainer. On one trip he made it
into the finals in a talent contest
with his rendition of Billy Joel’s
evergreen hit “Piano Man”. Even
though passengers should have
been in bed getting some sleep
before an early rise the next
morning, half the ship stayed up
to see him perform.
“I’m really not that great a
singer,” Nick laughed, “but eve-
ryone seemed to have so much
fun when I got up there it spurred
me on. You never know what you
can do until you try.”
One of Nick’s proudest pos-
sessions these days is the iPad
on which he keeps the videos
that other passengers took of
him motoring about in his electric
wheelchair, visiting everything
from the ship’s restaurants and
the swimming pool to the on-
board disco. One shows him
responding to a dare to join the
dancing by raising himself next
to his wheelchair and swaying
along with the dancers.
“I have had a great time on
By William West
MARCH 201236 PERSPECTIVE
continued on page 34