One In A Million?

FossilMedic asks:

ARE YOU ONE IN A MILLION?

There are about 50 firefighters who can fill “the big room” at the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference or be a keynote speaker at the other fire service conferences. They have a unique or compelling story important to firefighters, effectively presented with emotion and drama. The FDIC rotates big room presenters after three years.

There are another 500 firefighters who are considered outstanding national instructors or subject matter experts. They have mastered a technical, conceptual, legal or political aspect of the job and they freely share their information with others. They may write articles you read in the trade journals or blogs. Some write books. You will see them at the hands-on training sessions and making presentations at regional and national conferences. Some, like The Seattle Guys [ http://firegeezer.com/2008/05/26/look-west/ ] or Dave Dodson [ http://firegeezer.com/2008/04/15/smoke-is-fuel-wind-is-bad/ ], move into the big room.

There are 5,000 firefighters who are righteous regional instructors and experts. They are the informal leader in the fire company, working as state fire instructor, and are the go-to person. If they have the credentials, they are teaching at the community college or university. These folks will have a laptop with a dozen projects somewhere between concept and completion. Some become national instructors.

ONE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

I was thinking about this while standing in a viewing line, an out-of-place fossil in a suit, surrounded by hundreds of uniformed Eastern Shore paramedics and firefighters. I was neither family nor co-worker, but the line-of-duty-death of Stephanie Callaway staggered me.

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Stephanie Callaway (center)

Sussex County Paramedic Callaway was one of my distance education students, had taken my courses and completed her bachelor’s degree. She was one of the 5,000 who could have become part of the top 500.

THE IMPACT OF ONE ON OTHERS

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Andrew Fredericks

Bill Carey set up a new blog site, Fire(fighter) Behavior [ http://firefighterbehavior.blogspot.com/ ] “To provide a point of critical thought about certain acts and events in the fire service while incorporating behavioral education and commentary in a referenced format.” When discussing the blogsite, Carey said that he was influenced by discussions he had with Andrew Fredericks. Fredericks was one of the top 50, working to improve fire attack procedures, based on his significant technical research. http://www.fireengineering.com/display_article/292629/25/ONART/none/BRNIS/Andy-Fredericks-statue-dedicated-in-Pomona,-NY

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The following description is part of the Lt. Andrew A. Fredericks Memorial Resident Scholars Chair webpage at the New York State Academy of Fire Service: Andy would regularly be found in the Fire Academy Library with books, articles and other research material spread out before him. Andy frequently encouraged other instructors to “research, research, research.”

ONE THAT CAN RAISE THE BAR

Louis CK describes how George Carlin changed his approach to the work of comedy:

Prolific, hard working… This is the way I would say George has had the most direct influence on me personally as a comedian. The guy did about seventeen full hour standup specials. Very generously, he explained how he pulled this off in a terrific interview that is available on a cd called Carlin on Carlin.

He talks about spending every year on the road, working specifically on the next special. Every show has a goal, to hone the specific set he is expecting to shoot at the end of the year. Like writing a book. When he shoots the special, it’s over. That material goes away and he starts again.

I listened to that interview one night, in my car, while coming from a show where I had just done my regular, stump speech hour that took me fifteen years to perfect … The show had gone well … It was solid material … I’d been doing comedy for almost twenty. So what? Then I heard George explaining his process and I was terrified and inspired. What balls, to just chuck out perfectly good material and start again.

My first hour of material took fifteen years to write and I did it for another five. My second hour took one year. I shot it as a special called “Shameless” and never performed that material again. After a hard year of touring I shot “Chewed Up” and now that material is gone and I’m working on another hour now, from scratch. This is something I never dreamed I’d be able to do, let alone learn to do this late in my life and career. It has given me a new lease on life as a comedian and as a person. It’s made me better, more honest and has made every single show of the last three years mean more than any shows in the previous 20.

All of that is due to George. His example, and his words in that interview, were an absolute revolution in my life. I owe him EVERYTHING. [ http://www.louisck.net/ ]

So, are you one of the 1.3 million firefighters ready to be one of the 5000, or one of the 50?