"Part 9: 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, why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Michel Fortin: Everything that will create – actually let me rephrase that. Everything that’s going to happen in this world, even today, is molded, created, prepared by, built on by first of all people and people were once children.
Michel Fortin: They were once kids and their lives today very, very often are molded, as much as they are molded in the world today, they are molded by the things and the people and the instances and the events and the circumstances of their childhood. I was lucky. Well, I guess I’m not lucky because I believe everybody has that capacity – it’s not luck. But I was lucky. I guess a better way to say it is I was fortunate to look at my lessons in my life and look at them as the most beautiful gifts in the world, and to have mentors and heroes in my life that have helped me.
Michel Fortin: But there are so many kids out there that fail to go through this “fortunate” process that I went through so if they have an opportunity to have heroes in their lives, boy oh boy, can you imagine the goodness that we can unleash in this world? Because they will be molded and their future will be molded so that they will be the molders of the future.
Michel Fortin: So today the people that make differences in people’s lives today is because they had differences made to them in their own lives when they were, especially when they were young, because it is when you are young that your entire life is almost dictated. Now, good or bad, you can have bad stuff happen to you and it dictates your life in a good way.
Michel Fortin: You know, there’s an old story about the two sons of an alcoholic father who grew up and one became an alcoholic and one became a very successful businessman and when an interviewer asked them, you know, the question “why are you who you are today?” and they both answered the same answer, “well, I didn’t have any choice; look at my father”. You know?
Michel Fortin: One blamed his father for being the way he is. The other one looked at his father and used that as a springboard for not being like he is, and so fortunately they might have had heroes in their lives that made them go that way, especially the one that’s positive, I mean, but the thing is whether it’s not or it’s true, the thing is we all need heroes but the kids need them the most because they are the molders of the future.
Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet hero?
Michel Fortin: I would be very misleading if I said it didn’t feel good, because it does feel good. I think that’s the ego part of me. But what I feel best about, you know, I have testimonials on my website about the lives that I’ve changed and that makes me feel good, but what I put on my website, what I put out in the world as a way to prop my own self up is just the tip of the iceberg of what I get every single day.
Michel Fortin: We talked at the beginning of this call about all these emails I get every day, a good percentage of those emails are just tiny little words from somebody who I made a difference to in their lives and it doesn’t have to be this huge thing that I can actually use as a testimonial.
Michel Fortin: You know, it doesn’t have to be an actual business or a success or whatever. I had people who emailed me after the big seminar and said, you know, Michel Fortin Fortin, you’re a person that I’ve been following for so many years and it was such a huge honor and pleasure to have met you, blah, blah, blah.
Michel Fortin: That brightened up my day and to me that – I don’t need to have recognition in the other way where I actually have to put out stuff in the world to get recognized but one tiny little email made the difference in my way just as much as what we were talking at the beginning, Ralph, about spending just five minutes with somebody at a seminar somewhere, how much of a difference you made in that person’s day and that’s the kind of recognition. I enjoy that more than the actual pats on the back that I get in the public way. I prefer the small private little ones because they put a smile on my face.