Trailblazing

Host William Forchion begins a metaphysical journey into the risks and rewards innovation.

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Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to a place where we're thinking together and thinking deeper about who we are welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 0:18

Hello, I'm William fortune. And this is bill ossify . As I step out on the inaugural podcast, I'm reminded of trailblazers finding a new way. It takes a lot of daring to trailblaze, to go where you're not sure what the destination is, or if you are sure the destination, how you're going to get there, getting through the woods, cutting through finding a way, tripping, stumbling, falling. We're not encouraged often to trip and stumble and fall. We want to be seen as succeeding. We want others to see us as succeeding. So I am stepping out on this difficult path into a new trailblazing era for myself, and hopefully encouraging those who hear this. Those who have found this out to also venture out and trailblaze and find their own uniquenesses. Cause we are all unique. I think that you listening out there have found this because you're looking for something different, something new. I hope that this is that something new for you. Something that makes you dig deeper inside, not outside to find what you're looking for. So as I trailblaze with this podcast, I'm reminded of other trailblazers who were there before me. We have Gordon parks, Geoffrey holder. There are so many others that I would have to do a lot of research to figure out. And I would really appreciate if you wouldn't drop it a comment on this and let me know some of the trailblazers that have inspired you along the way. Uh, I've done many things in my career before getting to a podcasting. And every step of that way has been , uh , not so easy has been a lot of tripping and falling has been searching through my soul to figure out if I had it to make it through all the struggles. Many of you may have found me as you have searched me up , uh , through my website, bill fortune.com or seen me on Facebook or somewhere. And you may know my past as an Acrobat with Cirque de Solei or as a clown with Ringling brothers or as a stuntman . Each of those paths, I wasn't born into any of those families. I wasn't born into a circus family or into a film and production family. My mother was a school teacher. My father did many different blue collar jobs, but what they did do was encourage me to follow my dreams. Now, of course, as a child, I didn't dream that I would a stunt man or an Acrobat or a clown or a voiceover artist. I didn't know what I wanted to be, but I did dream a lot. I wanted to do all that stuff. I wanted to be everything, not as a career, but for fun. I wanted a life that was full of fun. I never ever considered how I'd be paid or what would be the financial gain for doing the things I did for fun. I thought that the fun was, was its own reward. It's been wonderful to have a life where the reward is also paying the bills in finding my way in trailblazing a path for myself. Uh , there's a lot of times that the thing that sat on my shoulder was doubt and finding wonderful mentors that helped me with , uh , confronting that doubt and asking the big question that I think a lot of us need to ask when we trailblaze, when that doubt pops up, the you're not worthy of this. Maybe you shouldn't do this. What's the big risk you're going to fail is asking the question whose voice is that? Now that doesn't mean that it's someone else's voice in your head that there's another person there, but that voice is sometimes the voice of fear. The voice of a frustration, that voice is often taught to us by those who we looked up to who were stricken with fear, who wound up not trailblazing because of their own fears. And it's so easy without thinking to accept that, that voice as being authentic, as being there and real. And it's really, it's an imaginary voice. It's in our heads. Yes, we've created it. Yes. It's part of our imagination, but that same imagination also creates the dreams that we have, the things that we , we shy away from and need to step into and assessing whether that fear is valid, which it rarely is because fear is very different than danger. Danger is when you hear the lion's roar and you need to either hunker down and hide or run or grab your weapon and defend yourself. That's a real and present danger. Fear is confronting. The unknown is not knowing. And I mean, this gets into another deep topic of the not knowing. We know nothing. We know what we've learned, but there's no guarantee that our knowledge is always going to get us through tomorrow. And we don't even know that we have tomorrow. That's not a given. We don't know that we have a moment from now or a minute or second. And that could be very fearful, not dangerous, but fearful. And it's hard to embrace that. We don't know what's coming next, that we don't know what's happening. And that's where the trailblazing happens. When we step into the unknown. When we step forward with the knowledge that I have practiced this move, whether I'm an Acrobat or a dancer or I've, I've gone over the notes, I'm ready for this meeting. We don't know who's going to be in that room. We don't know who's not going to be in that room. We don't know who's done what other homework and is ready to confront us with their things. And we can fear that or we can embrace it. We can prepare for it. I'll tell you right now, this right here, talking to you, entering through your ear holes is, was a greatly fear inducing thing. Do I have what it takes to make this podcast happen? Yes, I do. Do I have a voice that anyone wants to listen to? Yes I do. If for no one else, my parents will listen. Mom will always be there and I could stop in fear and run without ever taking this risk or any other risk. The risk of applying for that job that I want the risk of driving to the grocery store. And we all have to face that every day for some of us, it's absolutely debilitating a trailblazing isn't easy. And if it was, it would just be called every day. Not all of us are trailblazers. And now actually it changed that we are all trailblazers. We all have to step out of our, our threshold of comfort into a zone of, of the unknown. Every single moment. We never anticipate the PaperCut from opening envelope. We also don't assess the risk right before we open that envelope. When we get the paper cut, we don't assess the risk of breaking a nail on a doorknob, really simple. And it happens quite often. And it's real easy to get stuck. Once you have stepped into that unknown to be rate yourself, get down on yourself. How many of us walk every day, thousands upon thousands of steps and you trip just once and you go, Oh, I'm so clumsy. No, you tripped once of the thousands of pound , thousands of steps you've taken day in and day out. And you trip once and you become clumsy. Why don't we do the same thing with our accomplishments? Because then we would come not fearless trailblazers, but competent , uh , daring trailblazers stepping out into the unknown boldly saying, I can do this. And then taking the chance, the risk to fall to get up to fall again, to get up. And you got it fall again. There are, there are many different cliches about being a trailblazer about pushing forward. You know, they say that falling down is , is not failing. Staying down is failing and, and that's hard. I think it's hard. Cause sometimes I fall down and it hurts and I stay there for a moment and it'll stay there forever. I get back up and I keep on walking, but I stay there for a moment and I look back and I go, how can I do that better? Can I learn from that moment? And every trailblazer, everyone who's made those amazing accomplishments who stepped forward into that, their own limelight and found their spot because they've blazed a trail to their own uniqueness. I know that most of them have had the moment of do I want to get up and continue this path? Do I want to continue trailblazing? And some of them don't even ask that question. Whether they see it as trailblazing, they know, I know I'm on a mission. There's something I have to get out there. I have words that are unique that come out of this, this strange brain of mine, that someone needs to hear that someone may need to hear it because they're going through a rough day. Like I went through yesterday or like I'm going through right now. And they need to hear someone say, you can do it. Someone that isn't their mother or father, someone who randomly, they picked up on some podcasts who said, you can do this. One of the things, one of the mantras that I have with [inaudible] is I am enough. I am enough. Now I am enough. Doesn't mean that I don't have to do anything more than I just have to show up. Well, showing up is 90% of it, but there's something I do have to do. I am enough, is saying that I was born valid, that my validity doesn't happen just because I hammered the nail. I screwed in the screw. I drove the car. I dusted off the steps. It's not about the doing that I am doing. It's about being who I am fully. It was introduced to me years ago by an acting teacher who had me stand on the stage and say, I am enough. Flat-footed facing my audience. Nothing else still. And letting that just wash over me, both saying the words and owning them. I am enough and letting the audience hear that. And the people who are there, hear that and let their response be their response. It had nothing to do with me because I had to own , I am enough each step of your journey, whatever that may be. If you're going to law school, if you're just trying to get out of high school, if you're raising your kids, going to work every day at the factory, at the gas station for the road department, whatever it is to be able to show up no . Before you even show up before, be able to get up in the morning and just be able to accept, breathe it in and breathe out. I am enough. Trailblazing doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to make the next , uh, Grammy award winning album, or you're gonna make the next , uh , Oscar winning film or that you're going to win the Nobel peace prize. It may be that you get your kids up and you get them dressed. It may be that you get your teeth brushed in the morning. It may be that you made your bed or you've made breakfast, or you got to work on time. And you know that you, the, you that did that is enough to do whatever you want to do. All trailblazers are going to look different, just like everybody out there looks different. We all look different. And our looks are only a small portion of who we are. How many times we underestimated that person we saw who was missing a limb. And we thought, Oh, I need to help them out. Not realizing they got to where they are without your help. We look at that container. We say, Oh, they need my help. Yes, you are enough to help. You also are enough to offer your help. And they're enough to say thank you or no, thank you. I am enough. Each time I stumble each time I fall Dustin off the knees, stand back up, look at my destination, enjoy the journey along the way and keep on moving. It's really hard. When I first heard I am enough in that acting class, I said it because I was told to say it, but I didn't own it. Cause I didn't believe it. I was looking at all these other people who had skills that far exceeded anything. I had. These folks were naturally talented and they had training that back that up. I had natural talent. Didn't have the training, listening to amazing voices, watching amazing movers, seeing people with presence and purpose. And there I was doubting myself the voices inside me saying, no , no, no, no, no, no. So I did the exercise. I said, I am enough. And in mean it . I didn't believe it. I couldn't sit here right now, many decades later, a couple decades later and do this without fully understanding that I am enough. Oh, I do have doubts. All the doubt will pop up every once in a while and say, Oh, you're a fool . You can't do this. Why would you do this? And they'll tell me who I am. Not that voice, the voice that I made up, it might be ego. We always think of the ego as the one that pumps us up. But ego will knock us down as well to show how strong it is. And it's our own creation. It's my own creation. My ego. I am enough. Got me into the sound booth in front of the microphone, talking to you. And I might be preaching. I'm sorry if I am. No, I'm not. I'm really not. Cause I'm not preaching. I'm just sharing with you. What I have, this is what I have to offer. And there will be more, we'll get into some of that stuff in the head. Some of the ways that I worked on me to calm that voice down that gave me doubt. I would not have traveled the world. If that voice had kept speaking to me in the way that it did, because it did not validate me. The one that said no, you're too Brown. No you're too tall. No you're too fat. No you're too weak. No, you're too strong. You can't do that. Your voices and what anybody wants to hear? Oh no, you are not James Earl Jones. You are not Denzel Washington. That voice didn't say you are William fortune. And you are enough. When that voice was stopped. When that voice was, was spoken to and said, Hey, what is it you want to tell me? What can you teach me? When I asked that voice? What can you teach me? It had nothing to say. It wasn't teaching me to lesson myself. It was teaching me to strengthen myself. It was helping me to become the trailblazer and I could have fought with that voice over and over again, giving it more power. But when I asked for the power from it and it didn't give, it just tried to take away. I found my power and each of us, each of us , if you're listening in , as you too can find your power, if you haven't found it yet. And if you have found it, you can strengthen it. It's not bragging to validate yourself. It's not boastful to say to yourself. I am enough. I am worthy. I am worth it. I am capable. I am enough for whatever it is that you dream of doing that, whatever it is you want to do step out, do it. Why not? What do you have to lose? Because if you don't have it now and you never try for it, you still won't have it. If you don't have it right now and you try for it and you don't succeed, you don't have it. But if you do, you got it. What do you got to lose? You got nothing to lose. You got everything to gain. What happens to you? If you start realizing that you are enough, if you empower yourself, if you stop waiting for others to empower you or to validate you and you start to validate yourself, you will put yourself in a situations. You will find yourself in situations. You will take yourself to situations where that validation is reinforced. Not always. There are some people who are going to see that power in you and they're going to try and take it. They can't, it's yours. It's not transferable . That's your power. Even that is trailblazing. And that's not an outward path that you're trailblazing. That's an inward path that you're trailblazing. You can step into that path. Beautifully. Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Doesn't mean it's going to be comfortable, but that's your path now, do you need to get there? No, you don't. There are many people who have not even validated themselves and they have still succeeded. Are they happy? They may have moments of happiness. I guarantee you that in the difficult times, they will have difficult times and they will also not be happy. But I guarantee you this. When you start to understand you are enough, you will recognize that the times around you, the difficulty around you is around you. It's not in you and it's not part of you. And you can still be happy here. This , you can still be happy when times are difficult. You can still find joy. Joy is happiness multiplied. You can find joy when all around you sucks. This. I know no one has to tell me that I've lived it. You can be in a miserable environment and still be happy when you validate you. So here we are at the trailblazing inaugural run of [inaudible] and we start off with, I am enough. If you like, what you hear, if you want more of what you hear, you can check out bill ossify at my YouTube channel, the dreamers station. They're one minute segments on velocity . There. You can also look at my blog bills , blob@billfortune.com. So bill fortune.com/bills , blob Bilz B L O B Bill's blob. I like to do things a little different. You can also find me on Twitter at act or bat a seat to your bat or on Instagram at B fortune , F O R C H I O N or philosophy one Oh one on Facebook. Since I don't know that I have tomorrow,

Speaker 1 20:49

I am going to make the most of today. As you go through your day, go forward with passion and purpose. I'm William fortune. And this is bill OrthoFi . Thank you for listening to the philosophy podcast. Keep checking in as we will be regularly releasing new acts . [inaudible] .