It was a humid evening. I found myself talking to him and his two other friends (driver and personal assistant). We were in a hotel room in Ampang after spending almost a whole day talking and discussing about world affairs and life at the restaurant below.

I could not resist glancing to his right hand. The middle and ring fingers are actually webbed together (at birth), making it hard for him to eat with his right hand. So since he was a child, he gets disapproving stares and remarks from people when he is eating with his left hand. Being Malay especially, using the left hand to feed oneself or others is taboo. Nowadays, he just use a fork and spoon combo.

I've known Raja Shamri since 1990. We went the same boarding school. He was known to be a much-loved student by the teachers (which pisses off some of us). He was appointed as a Prefect (which pisses off even more of us). With his schema-style-tucked-in shirt (yeah, even on weekends) and a leather briefcase like those lawyers carry makes him really not cool. But he was surprisingly active in the extra-curricular activities. After the SPM, he, together with some closer friends cycled the whole Peninsular Malaysia. I'd thought the guy was nuts. He probably spent more times picking up his prosthetic leg than cycling. But he did it. And today, I know why he did what he did.

I always thought, he was one of those 17 year-old who had really good command in Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language). You can push him onto a stage and he would always come up with a great speech or a poem on the fly. Literally, he can give anyone, a good run for the money. He is that good. He is also well versed in the Malay literature, and unlike many of us teenagers then - he probably had visions and able to decipher them.

I met Raja Shamri again some 3 years ago. We last met in 1992 when we graduated from secondary school. It's been 14 years and what seemed like a long time.

He now runs his own company, 'GoldenMind Consultants'. He travels to schools everywhere giving motivational speeches and teach study skills to students. On the road. He and his trusted driver/friend: Rostam, they would travel more than 2000 kilometres in a week in their 3 year-old Proton Perdana (at the time of writing it has already clocked 250,000 kilometres) to secondary schools and local universities everywhere, to meet people and share his inspiring stories.

I followed him once, to one of his sessions, to give a talk to secondary school students in Gombak, Selangor. Like most school organized programs, kids really don't pay attention at lectures and there wasn't anyone making them toe the line - especially when it's a weekend gig and there is a big exam just around the corner. Not cool. But to my surprise, Raja Shamri managed to grab their attention from his very first Powerpoint slide. I mean, who would have guessed the guy pulling this off, is standing on stage on one leg! His subsequent slides featured his childhood, and by the time the first session finishes he had everyone's attention inside his shirt pocket.

Raja Shamri is smart. He doesn't need to brag about his achievements. He just show how painful it is, to be a one-legged kid studying in a normal school. I see students in tears when he narrates the stories (probably me inclusive but there was no one to bear witness, so perhaps I did not).

As I watched him jumping around energetically on stage sharing his adventures (and some misadventures), it dawned on me, this guy is really doing what he set out to do : To Inspire.

It was his missing leg that brought him up there. It was his painful experiences that makes his storytelling to be beautifully engaging. And his silly jokes about his right leg that makes it even more intriguingly funny (you don't know whether to laugh or sympathize). It was weird, witnessing this mixture of laughter, at something that is not supposing to be funny, made funny by a not supposed to be funny guy. Being born with one leg is not funny, bro.

And Raja Shamri delivers his jokes and witty anecdotes in their language. Think Ultraman Gaia and Doraemon.

But then, If Raja Shamri was a normal guy, walking a normal life, with a perfectly normal pair of legs – maybe those kids would not have looked up to him as much as they did on that day. No, this guy, who is just a few years older then them (well, ok - 15 years) whom they could easily call Abang Raja (instead of Encik), - was born with one leg, who obviously had a really painful childhood, whose parents tapped rubber for a living, who is less fortunate then all of them, has the will to overcome the obstacles growing-up and become this successful and entertaining person. And the fact that he can genuinely understand how students really feel, allow them to relate to him with a greater air of understanding, sometimes not evident in other motivational speakers.

At the end of the 3-part sessions (the other two sessions include methods and practical exercises that help concentration and improve studies), Raja Shamri had become an icon. The kids related to and respect him, even the so-called troublemakers (well, they're the ones he got on stage first and make them do his exercises, and made them look cool in the process. It's a win-win situation).

And the teachers, they loved him too. Even the skeptics.

In the space of a few hours, Raja Shamri leaves the school like a local hero.

His job is done here. On to the next school.

To me that day, Raja Shamri could easily be the coolest dude ever.

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Footnote :

Design flaws are not always a bad thing.

Why are stamp collectors looking for that certain misprint on a stamp ?

Why are coin collectors looking out for a stamping flaw on a coin ?

Everyone is looking for that edge, to be different, to customized oneself,

In the case of Raja Shamri, God customized him to be different, and He gave him that extra Edge instead.

Story by Latfy A Latif. Words re-engineered by James Cheuk.