When Satya Nadella shared how his son's cerebral palsy taught him empathy

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and his wife Anu Nadella lost the eldest child, Zain Nadella, on Monday morning. Zain was 26 years old and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at his birth.

Satya Nadella had taken over as Microsoft’s CEO in the year 2014. He since then had focused on building products that would help people with disabilities. His son, Zain, had a huge role to play in inculcating empathy in him towards the world.

In an old interview with Bloomberg Markets and Finance, Satya Nadella had spoken about how his children, especially Zain, had taught him empathy. Recalling the time when Zain was born, Satya Nadelaa said in the interview, “I was 29 years old when Zain, our son, was born. If you would even ask me maybe even an hour before he was born, what’s going on in my head, it was all about what will happen to our weekend plans and when will Anu, my wife, get back to job. But, everything changed after that night.”

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When Zain was born, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. For a couple of years, Satya Nadella kept on questing himself as to why did it happen to them. While he was still figuring it out, the situation was naturally absorbed by his wife, Anu, who had decided to not return to her job and take care of their son.

“She said I am not going back to the job, I will take care of my son, will drive him around for therapy after therapy. I watched that. Without schooling me I got schooled that nothing happened to me, what happened was to my son. And it was time for me to realise and understand to see life through my son’s eyes and do my duty as a father,” said Nadella while speaking about Zain. Though the realisation did not come to him immediately, it did help him figure out that it had changed him both as a parent and also as a person who he is today and how he approaches everything in life, said Nadella.

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Satya Nadella further spoke about how Zain’s condition helped them understand better their youngest daughter’s learning disability. “One of the things that happened to us because of our son was we built up a tremendous community of people including therapists or other parents of children with disabilities. By the time our youngest daughter came in our lives, we had the richness of this community to support us. We recognised very early that she will need additional help. We found this school in Vancouver which was all about neuroplasticity.”

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It was after that Satya Nadella and Anu decided to move to Vancouver. While Zain was going to stay with him in Seattle, his two daughters and wife moved to Vancouver. “That is where it came all naturally to us. Zain has taught us what it takes to give people with a disability your best shot,” he further added.

“I wouldn’t claim I was born with it (empathy); if anything, life has thought me, it is my pursuit every year for growing sense of empathy for people around me,” the CEO said while signing off.

• Satya Nadella
• Microsoft CEO
• Zain Nadella
• Business