"Part 8: 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: Yeah, that’s amazing. You know, everybody has upsets, offenses and people that oppose you in their lifetimes. How important is it to forgive those that upset, offend and oppose you?
Michel Fortin: How important is to what?
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to forgive others who upset, offend or oppose you?
Michel Fortin: Ralph Zuranski, did you now that forgiveness is a very selfish thing? Did you know that actually forgiving is not because you’re doing it for the other person. You, you know, forgiveness is probably the most selfish act you could ever do and it’s a good selfish act because when you forgive you are releasing all the tension, all the bad stuff that you’re holding onto that’s gonna cause you great problems, great turmoil.
If you forgive and you let go, it’s unbelievable the release that you get in your life. I, you know, I used to be stubborn. I would look eat a person and the person who would do me wrong and I would be stubborn enough to say I hate that person and I’ll never talk to that person again. But who’s really being hurt here?
Michel Fortin: Now, I’m doing it because I’m thinking that I don’t want to give the person either the pleasure of my forgiveness or I just don’t want, I want to show the person I’m really mad at that person. Once you forgive you let go and guess whose life is going to be more enriched? Both of yours, of course, but the most important person is you. So forgiveness is extremely important because the more you forgive the more you can let go of all the nasty stuff and start working on the good stuff in your life.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Well, how important is service to others as a source of joy? Do you find joy in serving others?
Michel Fortin: Well, it’s the same idea, you know. Jim Rohn said don’t become wealthy at the expense of others; become wealthy at the service of others. Every single person who has made, for example, a lot of money in this world or even every single person who is happiest in this world is a people who are at the service of others.
Michel Fortin: Whether you’ve built wealth because you produce a product or provided a service that was at the service of others or you gave value to other people’s lives or you gave your life to charity serving others, to me that is so important because by doing that it is like forgiveness in a sense, where you can get out of that this huge feeling in yourself that you’ve accomplished something that is true to you, not something that is going to be a goal that you reach in the future, not something that is going to be true to the other people around you who you’re serving and you’re thinking that you’re just doing this for other people.
Michel Fortin: No, you’re doing it for yourself. Gosh, you know, it’s so important for you to understand and I’m speaking to the people listening to this call. It’s so important for you to understand that when you give of yourself, you know, the law of karma is there. You get back, and sometimes ten times more, what you give out and it’s the same thing in a bad way. If you are bad to the world, if you don’t serve others, if you withhold the goodness that you can put out in the world it will come back and bite you in the butt. So yeah, I believe in being at the service of others, absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to maintain a sense of humor in the face of adversity?
Michel Fortin: The greatest cure for pretty much all disease that has actually been scientifically proven, although there’s still, you know, it’s premature now, but there are more and more tests being proven that laughter, you know, laughter is the greatest immune system kicker.
Michel Fortin: They found out, and I don’t know where these tests are, this is anecdotal so I can’t back this up. I read so much about it, but there are tests that have proven in the moment of laughter that your endorphins get kicked in. The dopamine in your brain and your body gets kicked in.
Michel Fortin: Your hormone levels get, you know, kicked up a notch and those things in turn increase the immune system and those things help to fight off disease. I’m not saying that that’s true in every case. I mean, I don’t want to say a person who has cancer should laugh their way, you know, until they’re healthy again.
Michel Fortin: That’s not my point, but maybe if they’re hurting while they have cancer laughter is a good way to take their mind off of it as the most basic and fundamental, to also even being able to help cure you because laughter is the source of goodness in the world but it is also the source of goodness in your own self, body-wise as much as mind-wise.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Other than Jim Rohn, who are the other heroes in your life?
Michel Fortin: Oh, my goodness, do you have a couple of hours?
Ralph Zuranski: Sure.
Michel Fortin: I have, I have a lot of mentors in my life but I think there’s quite a few of them. I’m not a religious person. I am a very spiritual person and I read a lot on spiritual leaders because I believe they have a lot to teach us, whether it’s Jesus or the person actually I’m really referring to is the Buddha.
Michel Fortin: I’m not a Buddhist but I enjoy reading a lot about the Buddha. I’ve read the Darma Potta, the Bagabagita, for example, and other books of other spiritual leaders and they’re mentors to me because they show, you know, they lead by example.
Michel Fortin: They’re the perfect example of love and goodness in this world and what they teach is more important than, you know, I’m not going to say that you should believe in the virgin birth and the crucifixion and all that stuff in Jesus’ life but did you actually take the chance to stop and just read the words that Jesus uttered, for example, on the Mount?
Michel Fortin: The lives that they led, whether, and I don’t mean to say that from a religious perspective, of course. I’m just saying just listen to what people teach you. Listen. Don’t, you know, don’t hear. Yes, I hear what you’re saying.
Michel Fortin: No, listen and those are the mentors that mean a lot to me. Another few mentors, modern-age mentors, I’m a big fan of Brian Tracy. I’m a big fan of Jim Rohn, of course. Tony Alessandra and also the funny part about it is I have, I’ve learned a lot of things from current spiritual leaders and I do believe that Joseph Campbell, who is probably one of my biggest mentor in that realm, has taught me so much about the power of the inner self and Joseph Campbell is the one who uttered those famous words, “follow your bliss”, and he is one of them.
Michel Fortin: Florence Scobelshin is another. John Mandall Price. Those are more of the spiritual kind of guys, but I – Luis Haye – so I read a lot about that stuff. Now, you can say it’s all metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. The point is not to believe in whether it’s metaphysical or not. The fact is I just listened and learned to apply whatever I learned in the way I want to to my life and that’s the whole point of any religious, any philosophy, any thinking process, is not to believe in what people tell you. It is to make use of it.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think there are any heroes in our society that aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve?
Michel Fortin: Repeat the question again, please.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that there are any real heroes in our society today that aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve?
Michel Fortin: Absolutely, but you know, those who are the real heroes are people who don’t seek recognition in the first place. They’re not heroes for the sake of recognition. They’re heroes because they’re heroes.
Michel Fortin: You know, to answer your question by very blunt answer, yes of course there are heroes out there today in today’s world that do deserve more recognition but you ask them that question, what do you think they’ll say? I don’t care. I do what I feel is right, point, period. You know? And that’s the more important thing about that.