THE room full of businessmen and corporate professionals listened intently to the speaker on stage. They all came to learn from the conference and that day, a petite, young Filipino-American was introducing herself. Jessica Cox admitted to the group, "I haven’t any hands-on experience doing anything." Upon hearing that admission, most people would naturally wonder what business Jessica has in being a motivational speaker if she had no hands-on work experience. But instead, the whole room broke out in laughter at Jessica’s play on words. You see, Jessica has no fingers, hands, elbows. She was born without arms and yet she has achieved far more than what people born with two arms have done in their lifetimes.

Jessica fl ies airplanes, drives cars, and otherwise lives a normal life using her feet as others use their hands. She holds the title of the fi rst person without arms in the American Tae Kwon-Do Association to get a black belt and the fi rst woman pilot in aviation history to fl y with her feet. Jessica has been featured in the popular afternoon program Ellen, hosted by Ellen Degeneres, Inside Edition, and TV networks like CNN and Fox News. Videos showing her flying a plane, demonstrating martial arts stunts and replays of her television and public speaking appearances are proliferating in YouTube and the Internet. Many of the videos and inspiring emails are posted by Filipinos who are proud of her extraordinary accomplishments.