"Part 2: Michel Fortin's In Search Of Heroes Inteview" by Ralph Zuranski
Michel Fortin and Sylvie Charrier found their soulmate in each other and were recently married. Just before their marriage, Sylvie discovered she had a lump in her breast that was cancerous.
She is one of the internet heroes I have yet to interveiw because both my parents are near death and on hospice. It is a full time job keeping them alive.
Sylvie and Michel are sharing Sylvie's experiences with regaining her health in her blog at: BreastCancerVictory Michel's heroes interview was so inspiring, I felt moved to publish it in the In Search Of Heroes Blog.
Michel's response to his wife's health challenges is simply amazing. When you read his interview, you will realize why I chose him as one of my heroes. When you read about Sylvie's pathway back to health, you will understand why she is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met.
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Ralph Zuranski: Well, let me go ahead and ask the questions, because I know I’m breaking into your productive time now. What is your definition of heroism?
Michel Fortin: If somebody goes out there and does one tiny little thing that makes some kind of a change in the world. It doesn’t have to be a huge legacy-type thing. It could be one tiny little thing. You go to, for example, an orphanage and you spend just ten minutes with an orphan or you go to a seniors’ home or you see somebody who’s trying to cross the street and has difficulty and whether it’s a person who has some kind of handicap or even a person who is fearful and you help them cross the street.
Michel Fortin: To me that means somebody who’s a hero. To me that means somebody who has impressed in that one person’s tiny little timeframe of their life, that little grain of dust, something that means a lot to them. You know, there’s an old proverb, an old story of a person who was walking along the beach and saw, you know, starfishes that were beached and takes one and throws it into the ocean and the other person said, you know, “How can you make a difference when there’s so many of these starfishes on the beach?”
He said, “Well, I made a difference with that one.” And that’s the point is that you don’t have to be a huge success; you don’t have to do some tremendous thing in order to be a hero. You can do something that is a blink in eternity that can mean something to someone. To me, that’s a hero.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, and boy that’s true. Gregory Alan Williams, a person that wrote the book about saving a man’s life in the L.A. riots, he says there’s a little bit of good in the worst of us and a little bit of bad in the best of us and when somebody just does something good for somebody else that they actually become a hero.
Michel Fortin: Absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: Does that fit your definition?
Michel Fortin: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. You know, one thing I do, for example, when I go to a seminar, whether I’m a speaker or just somebody in the audience and somebody comes up to me and asks me one simple question. Now, it could be something business-related but it also could be something in terms of the seminar.
It could be something as easy as what kind of, what do you think about the speakers, whatever. You know, those are things of course, but the thing is that person values my opinion and whatever I say I am going to make a difference, maybe not in that person’s entire life. I may make a difference in that person’s day or that person’s, you know, next hour or so but I made a difference and that’s what a hero is. To make a difference, how big or small.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, that’s one of the things that really impressed me about you is that you took the time. No matter how many people came up to you at the different conferences, you always drop what you’re doing and make sure you developed a relationship with that person and, you know, that’s pretty rare for somebody that’s attained the fame that you have in this industry.
Michel Fortin: Well, I have had, I mean, you know this, Ralph, specifically because it actually happened with you. There is some point where I’m about to burst. I need to take some time out, but I can tell you that I truly believe in the Will Rogers dogma where he says that he finds a little bit of something interesting in every single person he meets, and that’s true.
I, you know, I meet people where that person may be to a degree, I guess, in my business, if you want to look at it that way, insignificant, but holy geez, when you spend just five minutes talking with that person now either you’ve made a difference in that person’s life and that makes you feel good, or that person might have given you one tiny little tidbit of an idea, of some information, some feedback that will make a difference in your life and to me, I don’t want to lose those opportunities so every single person I meet I will try – I cannot guarantee, but I will try – to spend some time with each and every person and that’s why I think that that’s crucial, like you just said, is that, you know, you go to a seminar.
You don’t want to blockade yourself because the biggest amount of learning I have made in a seminar is in the hallways, in the bars, in the restaurants, outside the seminar, outside when people are chatting and smoking or whatever the case may be. Those are the opportunities for you to learn a little something that can make a dramatic difference in your business and if somebody passes you by and even if you just needed to take 30 seconds, you just miss that opportunity that could have made you either a lot of money, you know, changed your life or made you happier at least for that day.