"The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Create The Future." Abraham Lincoln and Peter DruckerHow close to "normal" are you? In 1952, America was only three years away from the Salk vaccine, which would eliminate the threat of polio. That same year, nine-year-old Robert Emmett contracted the paralytic disease. It ravaged his body and unmoored his spirit; doctors told him he'd never walk again. Faced with a lifetime of health complications and discrimination, Robert gave himself a challenge: to find the courage to live a normal life. Nourished by a devoted family, Robert set out on his long road to recovery. Three Quick Steps is Robert's story of overcoming the odds, staying inspired, and triumphing over adversity. Decades after contracting polio, when he's exceeded every expectation as a scientist, husband, and father, Robert thinks he finally has the key to success and an answer to the question he's wondered about for years: Can a disease make you a better person?But just when he thinks he's achieved normalcy, Robert faces a new question: What if the disease isn't quite done with him? When post-polio syndrome strikes, years after the infection has been eradicated, the hard-won peace that Robert has found is threatened. Where will an older Robert find the resolve he needs now? Told with warmth, grace, and unflinching resolve, Emmett's remarkable memoir captures how three quick steps can lead to huge strides.

Robert Emmett was born in Rochester, New York, in 1943. He now lives in Georgia and is a husband, father, grandfather and scientist. At the age of nine, he contracted the polio virus, which destroyed many of the nerves in his legs. Today, though the disease itself is long gone, he still suffers from post-polio syndrome. In 2001, he retired from a position as research director of a chemicals and minerals firm.