“The best thing that ever happened to me is being born without arms. It brought me circumstances I never thought possible.”

In the early 1960’s, over 13,000 babies around the world were born with deformities as a direct result of Thalidomide – a drug prescribed to relieve morning sickness. Alvin Law was one of them. In his case, just a couple of the tiny pills were enough to cause him to be born without arms.

Facing what they thought was a hopeless situation, Alvin’s birth family courageously gave him up for adoption. They hoped and prayed that their sickly, deformed newborn would somehow find a family more capable of caring for his needs. Luckily, their prayers were answered. Hilda Law was a fifty-five year old foster mother who, along with her husband, Jack, took in Alvin, nursed him back to health and have stood as his pillar of support ever since.

If you ever saw Alvin in person, one of your first reactions might be to feel a sense of pity. But don’t be fooled by his appearance. As an international speaker and bestselling author, Alvin not only travels the world to speak to crowds of captivated audiences, he has worked with over 7,500 organizations on five continents for corporate training purposes. Such companies include Merck & Company, ConocoPhillips, Kosmos Energy, Caribbean Association of Banks, Alberta Energy Regulators and GolfTec, just to name a handful.

In addition, he has appeared on over a hundred telethons and media features, and was the subject of two award winning television documentaries. Alvin was also featured on The Joan Rivers Show, CBS’s How’d They Do That, CBC’s What On Earth and ABC’s Frontrunners. To top it all off, he has played a direct role in raising over USD 225 million dollars for charity to date.

Alvin shares his life with his wife and business partner, Darlene, and Murphy, a rescue dog, in beautiful Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We caught up with him to hear more about his inspiring story, admire his positive attitude and find out how he has overcome major obstacles in his life with complete optimism.

EARLY LIFE

Tell us more about what it is like growing up with your foster parents – how did they contribute to your life and shape your perspectives?

I believe that my experience of being abandoned at five days of age by my birth parents and then a few weeks later, being placed in a foster home illustrates the power of “Nature vs Nurture”! I have no ill will towards my birth family at all. In fact, I’ve always been amazed that anyone would even want a baby like me. I’m not overly “religious” but am highly “spiritual”, convinced that this was the essence of fate.

My foster parents, “Mom & Dad”, were somewhat religious – so having a foster home was akin to doing mission work. But our home life wasn’t about bible reading or constant religious discussion. My mom’s biological children aka my brothers, John and Terry, had already left home to start their own families and lives by the time I was adopted. Mom & Dad were in their fifties when they adopted me so they had the experience and wisdom to deal with an armless child like me.

This was 1960 and deformed people like me were seen by many as freaks and outcasts, not human beings. I grew up in a community of around 10,000 people. It was a rural area where farming was the main economy.

Contrary to what people might think, I didn’t spend my childhood hidden in our home at all. In fact, I went everywhere and soon became “The Law Boy”! Furthermore, I was not only accepted, but embraced by people in the community. But I did not live an entitled life where people helped me with everything – a lot of self-reliance was emphasised during my childhood.

Describe to us the daily challenges you encountered while growing up and how you overcame them.

I had a spectacular childhood. I knew most of the other kids in my neighbourhood because we grew up together. I wasn’t excluded at all until adolescence but that wasn’t about having no arms. It was about different interests then but my early youth was also about the era for another reason. We were “free range children”! We didn’t have our parents hovering over us, not even mine.

The biggest challenges of my early years came with some irony. I was seen as a ‘medical curiosity’, so I went to countless clinics so doctors and rehabilitation experts could examine me. What really sticks out for me was the language they used. It was like I was a mistake and they needed to fix me!

Another bigger issue was my education. In 1966, handicapped children were relegated to special schools, not like the social integration we see today. My parents knew that I needed a real education as they believed that my intelligence would make up for my lack of arms. After many hurdles, I was allowed to go through a regular education. I even graduated from high school with honours!

How would you sum up your childhood?

My childhood is easy to sum up…the best!

JOURNEY

Could you share with us the moments/encounters when you first discovered your musical talents? And how did your music career flourished from there?

I lived in a home where we practiced Christianity and went to church every Sunday, that was where I started to love singing. I was also put in tap dancing classes where I learned to dance.

Although we didn’t have a piano at home, my mom took me to see a lady who gave piano lessons and while she admired my “courage”, she simply believed my toes were too short to play piano properly – it made me lose interest. But this was not the end of my music journey.

The next year, I was invited to join the school band! At first the new band director was hesitant and was unsure that I could handle the trombone, let alone play with an entire band. But eventually they came up with a solution – they mounted the trombone on the side of a wooden chair with metal rods and clamps. I used the slide with my right foot. It worked. So in 1978, I was chosen to play First Chair Trombone in Canada’s National All Star High School Jazz Band!

As a teenager, I got to go to Summer Band Camp for Jazz and that’s when I learned to play a drum set (Which I still do). After going to college, I taught myself to play the piano too! But the real highlight of it all, was the people I played music with. I have an expression I created for this: “Musicians don’t care what you look like. All they care about is, can you play? The answer…Yes I Can”!

Why did you choose to become a professional speaker?

I had no plans to become a professional speaker. But in 1976, I was asked to be an “Ambassador” for handicapped children in my home province of Saskatchewan, Canada. I started out speaking at several charity events and then at telethons to talk about how it was like to live without arms.

Back then I couldn’t see much of a financially stable future doing talks on stage. Thus I went to college to study Broadcasting. Upon graduating in 1980, I got a job as a disc jockey at an FM radio station in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Soon I became very popular and well known.

It was an opportune time, because the United Nations (UN) declared in 1981, The International Year of Disabled Persons. Being invited to be a guest speaker at such UN events saw my popularity rise overnight!

It didn’t take me long to realize that not only could I get paid to be a speaker, but it was really my true destiny. All the learning I did to be a broadcaster gave me the right skillset to be a speaker. And if I may humbly mention, I do have a remarkable story to tell about myself! I am proud to say that I still speak on stage today, just as I did forty years back!

What were some important lessons or things you have learnt along the way?

I am a “student of life” and an observer of people, or another way to put it – I’ve been privileged to be enlightened this way.

I didn’t realize it but I had been living a cliche. I have been “living outside the box” my whole life and constantly asked my audiences to do the same. I’d accepted my role as an advocate for people with special needs, so I had to embrace the whole notion of diversity and inclusion – action speaks louder than words.

I’ve seen the world move from so many taboos – mixed race relationships, gay marriage, LGBTQ+ and racial segregation…we’ve come so far. It’s true that “character” can’t be purchased, self esteem doesn’t start by looking in a mirror and resilience can’t exist in a bump free life. More importantly, I’ve learned that love is blind and we only get one life – so we need to make the best of it.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Which achievements are you most proud of and why?

In music

I vividly recall my first “achievement” – I got to tap dance with my troupe on local television in 1970. Then, I won my first solo competition on trombone at a local music festival and in 1978, I was chosen Lead Chair Trombone for Canada’s All Star High School Jazz band.

In 1977, I and two other Canadians represented our country at an International Red Cross Youth Camp in Norway.

I won a few other music awards too such as – ‘Saskatchewan Junior Citizen of the Year’ in 1978, ‘Canadian Junior Citizen of the Year’ in 1982 and I was named the first ever ‘Mount Royal College Most Distinguished Alumni’ in 1983.

In 2016, I got to play drums for an awesome promotional video for the Rio Paralympics, “The Real Superhumans”! The highlight? We recorded the soundtrack at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.

In speaking

In 2009, I received my Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, an honour where less than 10% of all professional speakers in the entire world are able to attain.

In 2013, I was inducted into the Canadian Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. In 2018, I was also inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall as well.

In acting

In 1996, I played a character on the hit television series, “X-Files”.

In relationship

To top it all off, one of my biggest achievements was meeting my wife and business partner, Darlene in 1991. I convinced her to marry me two years later…that’s a huge achievement!

How do you usually connect with your audience as a speaker?

It’s difficult to pick one thing that I do to connect with my audience. But I could share my experience connecting with kids as a speaker.

Back in 1981, after I quit my radio job to become a speaker, I was going to schools to give talks where 90% of the time, my audience were children. And if you know kids well enough, they are very observant and curious – they can spot a phoney person from a mile away.

During that time, I used a technique to coincide with the topic I was speaking about, on ‘Disability awareness’. Walking onto a stage or gymnasium floor with 500 kids’ eyes on you can be intimidating. But remember that I was also a musician.

So I would walk out and ask the students and teachers to close their eyes and not look at me for 30 seconds while I played a single snare drum. After 20 seconds or so, I’d tell them they could open their eyes to watch while I played a bit more. Then I helped them to realise that when they closed their eyes, they most probably didn’t think of a disabled person producing those sounds on the drums. In essence, the perception of a handicap person in front of them is simply a visual illusion! It’s always about the attitude and mindset rather than the physical circumstances of someone. It worked, they understood what I meant immediately.

While my unusual body form naturally attracts people’s attention, my wife Darlene also believes that my greatest strength is my voice. I am a trained broadcaster and have a very resonant voice that commands attention without being aggressive. Over the years, I’ve learned stagecraft, pacing and inducing humour in my content. Sharing funny stories does two things – 1) It engages my audience and 2) It makes me ‘human’ enough to connect with them.

What do you think are the key ingredients to your success?

The key to my success is mostly a mystery to me. The answer is more boring than anyone would expect but very profound as well.

It all comes down to having a support system (In this case my wife), turning my passion for speaking into a business, spending a great deal of time and money on professional development and getting access to as many international speaking gigs as possible.

Philosophically, I’ve lived my words, tried to remain humble but most importantly, I remained authentic by focusing on just being a good person.

PERSONAL (LIFE)

What do you do when you find yourself feeling down on certain days?

I owe my parents a great deal but I believe the most significant lesson I learnt was to possess gratitude.

My folks lived through “The Depression” in the 1930’s and my Dad fought in World War Two. We were a decent middle-class family so I wasn’t spoiled with stuff. And honestly, having no arms means you learn to appreciate what you have. I have experienced depression and struggled with my mental health like everyone.

On a very personal note, I had an unplanned child. Me and a girl were barely dating but somehow I got her pregnant unintentionally. We got married and stayed together but it was a disastrous one where she struggled with mental health issues and her friends were negative and mean-spirited toward me. So in 1988, we split. I actually raised my son, born in 1985, mostly on my own.

But the key to my rejuvenation was reconnecting with my old friends, avoiding my ex-wife or her friends and making a commitment to only spend time with people who made me better, not worse. That still works today especially whenever I am feeling down.

Share with us some memorable letters/gifts you receive from fans.

It’s so difficult to choose an encounter that’s memorable as I’ve had so many. I attribute that to my involvement in telethons for television. Using my talents but also my commitment to giving back has seen me on countless shows since 1977. I’ve met major celebrities like Ray Charles and David Foster.

But here is one of my favourites. I was speaking in Singapore for over 2,500 CEO’s of Young Professionals Organization (YPO) a few years ago and the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak happened to be one of the speakers as well. We met backstage and while it wasn’t like I was meeting my hero and I don’t describe myself as a computer geek, he remains a pretty significant figure.

I got my picture with him, of course and he even signed the back of my iPad. But then, we had a coffee together because he was so intrigued with how I used my feet to work my iPad. He even took pictures and video of me doing it so he could send it back to his people in the U.S. who were as he described them, “computer nerds” who would just love to see how I use technology. That was cool.

How do strangers usually react when they see you in public and what is your response?

My whole life I’ve been stared at by strangers. That is another lesson learned from my parents – accept it, acknowledge it and move on! It’s not that easy. I tell a story about being a precocious adolescent who struggled with my own self esteem.

One day, my Dad and I were having a hamburger lunch at a local fast food place and it happened again. Some rude stranger stared at me trying to eat a hamburger with my right foot. I should have shown a more restrained behaviour but I admit that I threw a wee tantrum and made my Dad take me home right away.

I ran downstairs to our basement, slammed the door and raged! Dad let me cool down then he came downstairs to have a serious discussion. He reminded me that this was just human nature – people do not mean to be rude, they just can’t help themselves.

So Dad basically said I had two options: 1) Stay home for the rest of my life and never leave. That way, nobody could stare. I could live in the basement and Mom could throw toast down the stairs so I didn’t starve. Or 2) Accept my circumstances and face the world bravely.

I replied by saying…”The first option is stupid”! He responded…”Yes it is stupid and people can be stupid. But Alvin, people will always look at you. It’s not fair but that’s the way it is. Maybe you could help them by acknowledging their curiosity and not being rude back. You can only choose what you do, not what they do.”

So, that short conversation changed everything and I started actually waving at people with my foot! It took away the tension immediately.

Why do you do what you do? (What drives you everyday)

That’s a good question and my answer may seem predictable. But let me just directly quote my Mom here: “Honey, someday the reason you were born without arms will make sense but you do not have a curse, you have a blessing”!

Most speakers have a very personal reason for what drives them individually. However we all have one thing in common – We want to make the world a better place.

There’s no denying ego is involved but I say again, my real dream was to be a “Rock Star”, entertaining huge crowds with my music and to bring some joy and celebration into people’s lives, even if it’s just for a while. I guess I got my wish!

Who are the role models and influences in your life?

I can directly credit three people with my early inspirations for my life – my Mom and Dad and my band director, Blaine McClary.

My parents are obvious but if I may add something very deep for me. I was able to meet and get to know my birth family in 1993. I was able to see what my life might have been. I would have grown up on a very poor farm with no power, running water, or access to activities in town. I would have likely been resented by my siblings for being useless on the farm. Blaine McClary put a trombone on a wooden chair with metal rods and clamps that held it, like hands, so I could play in a band. Who does that? What kind of person thinks; “No arms…Trombone”! It altered my entire life path.

Because of my public life later on, I was fortunate to meet many people I consider to be my role models and mentors as well. For example, in the telethons I participated in, there were many prominent speakers who challenged me to up my game rather than patronize me because I had no arms.

Most importantly, in the last 30 years, my wife and business partner, Darlene, has literally changed me. The connection with her beliefs about living life with a purpose has brought us together in so many ways. It has allowed me to grow farther than I ever could have predicted. I am humbled every single day!

To you, what are the most important things in life?

For me it’s all about:

1) Gratitude; because we need to be thankful for what we have, not what we don’t.

2) Purpose; because everyone needs a reason to get out of bed every day.

3) Relationships; whether it’s a romantic partner, family friends, co-workers, or even pets, all of which can give us a unity of being. Be a “giver” not a “taker”; because that is the essence of balance.

4) Simplicity; the internet was supposed to make life easier and no question, it’s given our culture so much but it has led to device addiction, mental health issues for people who can’t “live without their phone”, the effects of cyberbullying and I won’t even mention Donald Trump and Twitter! We claim to “have no time” because we create a busy life that’s the opposite of ‘simple’.

5) Love; The world has enough hate. We need more love!

VIEWPOINTS

You mentioned in your bio that “how you look at life and make choices is a skill”. Could you elaborate on this?

Ultimately our perspectives of life is a learned behaviour that leads us to make decisions.

Consider this formula created by Jack Canfield in his best selling book, “Success Principles” – E +/- R = O To expand; “Event”, positive or negative “Response” equals “Outcome”!

If you learn this formula, practice it like a skill every day and it becomes a great habit that will make us experts at dealing with our circumstances, whatever they may be. This notion can seem naive but it really works and I have been practicing Canfield’s formula my whole life without even knowing it. I never read the book until later on!

What would be your advice to someone who is currently facing a crisis in his or her life?

In my bestselling book, “Alvin’s Laws of Life”, I have five laws – Attitude, Learn, Value, Imagination and Never Give Up. The “V” is this; “Value your life and spirit. Too many people live another ‘V’ in their lives and that is: ‘Victim’. It’s true. Bad things happen to good people and unfortunately there are sometimes victims. The trouble is, as a victim, there’s no answer to the question – “Why me?”

Even worse, victims often get stuck in their past, when what they need to do is live for today and look forward to the future. When you focus on moving forward, you never know what you’ll discover. Everyone has value. Finding it, that’s the trick”!

In what ways do you hope the world can change to accomodate to more people with some form of disability?

If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that human beings are vulnerable. We are not statues that can withstand centuries of conflict. The price of being human is that we experience pain, loss, failure, rejection and so on. Clearly, our choices dictate our circumstances. If you choose a life of crime, be prepared to spend the rest of it in prison. But if you have proper moral code, ethics and values, you can live freely.

We are all up against something at some point in our lives, not just handicapped people. But with faith, belief, resilience and courage, I believe we can get through it all. Our reaction to our circumstances is a choice.

In 1977, I was very fortunate to be chosen to attend an International Red Cross Retreat at a camp in Norway. The King of Norway built it after his nephew became paralyzed in a skiing accident. It was the first completely “accessible” outdoor camp in the world. The experience was simply amazing and so welcoming even for people with disabilities. The next year, I went to Mount Royal College to study Broadcasting and it was also completely accessible for the handicapped.

We have come a long way to accommodate people with special needs. But we should continue to make every design of every new building as accessible as possible. This way, we all can truly feel equal in society.

To be really honest though, most people do not know what “accommodation, inclusion, diversity and equality’ means in practical terms. I often joke that the lack of consideration for handicap people is an evil conspiracy by human resource departments around the world to justify their existence. The point is, when we can learn these ideals aren’t about “special treatment” but to provide equality to everyone.

The post Best Thing That Happened: Bad Circumstances – Alvin Law appeared first on My Story Lounge.

“My inspiration is to beautify the world. I always found myself having more ideas than companies could ever produce.”

Visualising an entirely different world where design shapes culture, is something Karim Rashid is good at and passionate about. Borned in Egypt and raised in Canada, Karim is one of the most recognised industrial designers in America and around the world.

His accolades speak for themselves – with over 4000 designs produced, 300 awards and design works in 40 countries, making him one of the most prolific designers of his generation.

Based in New York City, with a second office in Shenzhen, China, Karim creates and delivers design works to the world that both solve problems and beautify spaces. A handful of his works are featured in 20 permanent collections and he exhibits art in galleries worldwide. Some award-winning design examples include:

• Luxury goods – Christofle, Veuve Clicquot, and Alessi
• Furniture & lighting – Bonaldo, Vondom and Artemide
• Technology products – Asus and Samsung
• Brand identity – Citibank and Sony Ericsson
• Packaging – Paris Baguette, Kenzo and Hugo Boss

Bringing together a world full of contemporary inspiring objects, spaces, places, worlds, spirits and experiences, is an artistic endeavour that only Karim knows best.

EARLY LIFE

Tell us more about your family background and share with us on what it was like growing up.

I was born in 1960 in Cairo, and after a year, we moved for a short time to Rome. My father was working with an Egyptian television as a designer. Then we moved to Paris for a short time. My father had an exhibition and then he decided to move on. My mother’s British and she wanted to go to England to be near her family after five years abroad. So, then we moved to London, and I was young, about two and a half. My first formative years were in London.

I was very young, about six when we moved to Canada, which was very different from England despite their linguistic similarities. I remember my first experiences from then on. We have differences in how much we remember our childhoods. I remember very little of mine. It’s strange. My first really strong memory was on the ship going from London to Montreal. We were on the Queen Elizabeth and there was a drawing competition.

How did your upbringing shape the person you are today?

My father encouraged me to explore the arts and be a pluralist! He was a creative renaissance man – I saw him create furniture, make dresses for my mother, paint canvases, design sets for television and film, etc. We were brought up in an extremely inspiring context that gave me great respect for all of the arts including costume design.

There were pens, markers, colored pencils and paper everywhere, so drawing and creating were a natural process for both of us. He took us to his office where he designed film and television sets. We would spend the weekend making models, drawing, playing in the costume department and on the TV sets.

Karim with his dad in Canada as a kid

JOURNEY

How and why did you get into the design of physical spaces and objects as a profession?

I realized my life’s mission at the age of 5 in London. I went sketching with my father drawing churches on Sundays. He taught me to see – he taught me perspective at that age – he taught me that I could design anything and touch all aspects of our physical landscape. I remember drawing a cathedral facade and deciding I did not like the shape of the gothic windows (the pointed tops seemed dangerous) so I redesigned them. I drew them as ovals.

I also remember winning a drawing competition for children on the ‘Queen Elizabeth’, when we sailed from London to Montreal in 1966 – I drew a luggage since I was really perplexed at how we packed up our entire belongings into some suitcases to go to the new world.

What were some hard decisions you had to make and challenges faced along the way?

My career really started in 1992 (I was 32) when I moved to New York City. I was penniless but started drawing objects, romanticizing about the beautiful world I always wanted to shape. I found a rundown loft without a kitchen or bathroom and struggled to survive.

After approaching about 100 companies from ‘Lazy Boy’ to Gillette, I only managed to clinch one client. At the same time, I started teaching at Pratt Institute and worked alone for a few years before hiring some staff. I was determined to create a successful practice. That was 29 years ago!

Share with us some stories/experiences that you think are significant to your journey.

After college, I went for a one-year graduate program in ‘Industrial Design’ in Italy, studying with Gaetano Pesce and Ettore Sottsass. Sottsass taught me that there are many beautiful design objects, but that you have to ask yourself – “what do they do for us?”

In the sense of human, inspiring objects, Memphis was a revelation. There are many imposing design objects who need to stand by themselves to impress. I always ask myself, what is left, if you take the design away? If it’s style, it is a thing of the past.

Later on, I was a full-time professor in Toronto at OCAD, and then moved to teach at the Rhode Island school of Design (RISD). I was going to quit the design profession in 1992 when I was fired from RISD. I was told I was teaching ‘philosophy and theory’, not design. I loved academia but I’m grateful to have been let go because it prompted me to start my own firm.

Karim in 1984 while working for a Canadian industrial design firm called ‘KAN’

ACHIEVEMENTS

Which achievements/milestones are you most proud of and why?

My most challenging project was probably my design for Naples Metro. It is my longest project to date! I started in 2004 and it wasn’t completed until 2011. But I am very proud of the finished product.

They selected various famous architects to design each station. The stations in Naples are referred to as ‘Art Stations’. Gae Aulenti’s art station had work by artists Michelangelo Pistoletto and Joseph Kosuth. Some stations had art from artists Sol Lewitt to Sandro Chia. The late Italian design maestro, Alessandro Mendini, liked my sensibility, which was really flattering considering that I aspired to his vision when I was in university and always saw him as a mentor.

So since the art stations were under the auspices of art, this afforded me to rather than design an art station that is somewhat conservative and ‘accent’ it with art, I just did the whole station as my digital art. So I sunk the art budget into the interior walls and spaces instead of selecting art. I will always love the impact and challenge that was the Naples Metro. It is the epitome of democratic design.

But if I must choose products then I am proud of the Garbo can for Umbra that I designed in 1994 since it is 20 years old and is still so successful.

What do you think are the key ingredients to your success?

Digital tools inspire me to make forms as sensual, as human, as evocative, as sculptural as possible, but through new shapes that were historically impossible to make without new technologies. The humanized and organic language of ‘Sensual Minimalism’ is very appealing to our natural sensibilities.

Also, I usually work with the strengths of the client based on the different materials – such as glass, fiberglass, 3D printing, wood, rotomolding or injection molding. Because these are the cultures of the company – and design is about this collaboration. A designer must understand completely the culture and history of a company, their vision and their market.

What lies ahead in terms of your goals and ambitions?

– Open an art gallery and coffee shop.

– Design more private homes, a hospital, museum, mosque, and small appliances like humidifiers, coffee machines, blenders, toasters, irons, etc.

– Design sets for contemporary theatre and dance, ships, and a fashion line in my own name.

– Design an electric car, a really good digital wireless music system, a moped, a bicycle, and digital camera (sorry to say that they are all very ugly!), and many more hotels (one in each city that I travel to).

Karim – AZ Awards 2014

PERSONAL (LIFE)

What is your life motto (Or core values) if any?

To be is to create.

To you, what are the most important things in life?

Every life is different, but the most important point is that you are on the earth for a reason and you need to find that reason. Your reason is your passion and the most luxurious life you can possibly have, is that you are pursuing your passion.

Why do you do what you do? (What drives you everyday)

My inspiration is to beautify the world. I always found myself having more ideas than companies could ever produce. I perpetually observe, analyze and dissect everything around me in our built environments.

I am most creative when I meet and talk to a client that is determined to do something new or original or inspiring. I’m all about contributing as much as I can while I am on this planet.

Who are the role models and influences in your life?

When I was younger I was obsessed with designers such as George Nelson (who started the GOOD DESIGN AWARDS in 1950), Charles Eames, Achille Castilioni, Sottsass, and so many other designers. I had a feeling deep inside that I possessed the talent, focus, and perseverance to one day become as successful as they were.

I ended up studying with Ettore Sottsass and Gaetano Pesce, working in Milano with Rodolfo Bonetto. I also studied from hundreds of lectures from Buckminster Fuller to George Nelson to Mario Bellini to Alessandro Mendini.

What are some things that many people don’t know about you?

I love sketching with my daughter. She beautifully draws and designs her own objects and hotels. She has all the great qualities of a designer – creative yet scientific, disciplined and focused. We visit museums / galleries / architecture landmarks around the world which has really sparked her curiosity.

What are your passions in life?

I love to work out and run, cook and work on my mental and spiritual health by going to lots of museums and galleries and embracing creativity on every level. I love sketching, painting, listening to music, reading about technology and materials.

Adding to that list – lying by a pool, sleeping, thinking about the world, about love, about social human behavior, about peace, about beauty, and about one romantic engaging fulgent energetic seductive inspiring place we call ‘Earth’.

What kind of legacy do you hope to leave behind?

I preach about how design shapes the future and culture. I believe that design is extremely consequential to our daily lives and can positively change behaviors of humans. Good design can touch you and embrace you. I hope my legacy will help the public understand that good design can shift and change human behavior, creating new social conditions for the benefit of mankind.

VIEWPOINTS

How do you think the advancement of new technologies like AR/VR and AI, will impact and influence design (In general) moving forward?

People like to assume that design moves with more superficial trends, but it is technology and humanity that drives us. Industrial design and Interior design are driven by designers embracing new technologies, whether it is material chemistry, production method, or mechanical invention.

It’s amazing what kind of spaces, images, artwork you can create in digital spaces, renderings, VR, etc. We need to make the physical world as beautiful and seductive as those AR images.

You mentioned that for a long time, design existed only for the elite and that for the last 20 years you have been striving to make design a public subject. Could you elaborate on that?

My enduring philosophy is that anything we touch, enjoy, or engage should give us a better experience. I was educated on the philosophy of universal design – a good object, furniture or space should work for both an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old alike. The big challenge of design is to create something that, although accessible to all consumers, touches people’s lives and gives them some sense of an elevated experience, pleasure and is original.

A bit more pleasurable. A bit more positive. In other words, it makes your life feel better. I think there needs to be some sort of engagement – be it visual engagement or aesthetic function – that you enjoy that just makes life better.

What is your advice to someone who may want to become a professional designer?

For young designers I always give the advice: be smart, be patient, learn to learn, learn to be really practical but imbue poetics, aesthetics, and new paradigms of our changing product landscape. You must find new languages, new semantics, new aesthetics, experiment with new material, and behavioral approaches.

Also always remember obvious HUMAN issues in the product like emotion, ease of use, technological advances, product methods, humor, meaning, positive energy and incorporate a proud spirit in the product.

The post Where Design Shapes Culture – Karim Rashid appeared first on My Story Lounge.

“Remember that every successful person you’ve heard about, read about, or know has been told before that they are not good enough or their work is subpar in some way.”

If you are someone who wants to lead and motivate a team of people within an organisation effectively, Jamie Mason Cohen is the go-to guy to look for. As a leadership development and resilience expert, Cohen uses a tool kit of unconventional virtual approaches to cultivate resilience through unique performance assessment, the science of positive psychology, and proven leadership strategies through an engaging and entertaining cinematic format.

Some of his interesting methodology for training corporate employees include ‘Saturday Night Leaders’ Framework, ‘Living Your Values’ 7-Step Process and Action Plan, the ultimate team alignment and appreciation session in ‘What Your Signature Says About You’, as well as his ‘Virtual Storytelling’ online training.

He is also a frequent media commentator on CNN, Forbes and The Morning Show. His TEDx talk on leadership has been viewed 2.2 million times. Furthermore, he is a ‘Dale Carnegie Business Training Award’ recipient and a certified leadership coach with ‘The Leadership Circle’.

As unrelatable, mundane and dry as his accomplishments may sound to someone not interested in such organisational matters, we surprisingly found an insightful life journey filled with anecdotes, life lessons and personal experiences.

EARLY LIFE 

Tell us more about your family background and share with us on what it was like growing up. 

I grew up in Toronto, Canada. My father was a lawyer, and my mother was an educator and regional manager of a large school board. I have a young sister, who became an educator, entrepreneur, and dance choreographer. The place I lived in was a safe, middle-class community where we attended public schools during the year and actively played competitive sports like baseball, hockey, and basketball.

I had parents who instilled in us the values of being kind to others, family first and an openness to creative goals. My grandparents were also an important part of my life growing up.  My grandmother, Gertrude, would come to our house regularly armed with her delicious soups and matzah balls.  The smell of her banana muffins would fill the house the moment she entered.

My grandparents were from Poland and Canada.  My grandmother, Gertrude, played an extraordinary influence on my life. She was always supportive and warm.  I used to confide in her about my fears and doubts, and she’d always have the right thing to say or just be there for me like a best friend.  

We had dogs as pets – a Shih-Tzu named Suki and then a bulldog named Wendel.  We also had a pet budgie bird named Fred.  Growing up with pets added an energy and playfulness to our days.  

In the summers, I often spent my time at the baseball park.  Toronto had a vibrant summer sports culture and I used to love going to the ballpark.  The smell of the fresh cut grass, the cloudless days, hearing the sounds of the bat hitting the ball and seeing multiple games going on in the different fields energized me to be a part of this community.

During December holiday seasons, we usually would take a family trip to Ft. Lauderdale Florida to visit our grandparents or resorts in Mexico or the Dominican Republic.  My dad was a master at finding good deals for us to travel.

How did your upbringing shape the person you are today? 

When I look back now as a father of two, I realize that one unique aspect that shaped my childhood was experiences.  My parents worked hard to create family experiences and to provide both my sister, Carly, and I with different types of opportunities to be in the world.  

We had an NHL hockey player named Luke Richardson, live in our home (billeting in our basement) for his first year in the league. Naturally, we became the envy of the other kids in the neighborhood and at school.

In my family, meeting people of different backgrounds was always encouraged. Canada is multicultural and my mother was ‘Head of English’ as a second language, overseeing about thirty adult learning schools. Not surprisingly, we were exposed to different cultures and met many people from all over the world who travelled to Canada as a result.

It includes trying different types of art and learning to play a variety of sports. Even though at the time I might not have appreciated taking art classes or the challenges of being on a sports team, I realize now that it instilled in me a love of the arts.  It also ingrained in me resilience in overcoming rejection, discipline and led me to live an interesting life.

I’ve also reinvented myself professionally many times as an adult and I believe that this exposure and gentle push to experiment with different skill sets and experiences led me to the different creative streams that make up my days today.   

How would you sum up your childhood?

Fortunate. Supportive. Creative. Full of unique and memorable experiences and moments.

JOURNEY 

Why did you choose to become a leadership development and resilience expert? 

The career advice I give myself as well as others is to find out what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about and what’s relevant to others to learn.  In my case, I was good at creating curriculum and teaching, I had a passion for learning about how to develop my own leadership and resilience attributes and researched that there was a growing niche to provide practical training that combined the two areas.   

I tested this hypothesis out in 2014, where I gave a TEDx Talk: ‘How to Spot a Leader in Their Handwriting’.  It was an unconventional way to look at leadership, but it’s garnered over 2 million views though probably 2.1 million of those views were by my mom 

The point is that if you are looking to reinvent your career, or develop a new professional path, you might want to start with those three questions, as I have done and have continued to do: 

1. What are my strengths?
2. What are my passions?
3. What is relevant to a specific audience who has problems in this area that I can help solve?

Then look for a topic or a combination of topics that answer all three of those questions.

Along the way, what were some hard decisions you faced and challenges you had to overcome?

I had to ask myself – what areas should I focus my attention on in developing my career?

There are hundreds of different paths or approaches a speaker or trainer can take in developing a talk or a training session.  At some point, I looked within more than I looked outward. I fully trusted my own cumulative decision-making processes and professional taste to boldly create what I thought was the best I could offer specific audiences in the corporate world.

It was also a challenge to start an uncertain, financially up-and-down career path with no contacts in a field that was much more abstract. Totally different from my prio career I had been in for 12 years – as a teacher. Being a teacher is relatively stable financially.

When you start a new path, with a young family at home, it’s a real challenge to not put too much pressure on yourself to succeed right away. I had to build self-imposed limits and boundaries as to how much I worked, because it started to feel like I was experiencing burn-out.

There was a constant push-pull between wanting to give my wife, Karen and our two kids, Koby and Maya my best energy versus the tension of moving from where I was starting out to where I wanted to get to.

Share with us some experiences/memories/stories that you think are significant to your journey so far. 

1998 – 2000: Working for Saturday Night Live Founder, Lorne Michaels, and the show in New York.

After cold calling Executive Producer, Lorne Michaels, twenty-five times over three months while living in my parents’ basement after graduating university, I got a call back from his assistant. I talked my way into an interview with Lorne several months later.

After meeting the late legendary comedian, Chris Farley, in the writer’s room while nervously waiting for my interview, he calmed me down by kindly asking me questions about my story. We shared a mutual contact – my former baseball coach – who was in a movie with him.  I then walked into my interview with Lorne Michaels feeling calm and self-assured and was offered an entry level job.   

The journey was the destination because my time in New York was brief but the experience of living and working in New York in one of the most renowned entertainment companies in the world was amazing. It planted the seeds that are coming to fruition now in my speaking career and in developing my own reality TV series for a Canadian network.

2008: Traveling to Siem Reap, Cambodia: I won a Canadian Ambassador of the Arts Grant from the Canadian Government to premiere my short film, ‘The Barber of Kigali’, based on a true story of a survivor in the Rwandan genocide, who was living in Canada at that time.  

It reinforced in my mind that the journey is the destination. I realized that I didn’t travel from Canada to Cambodia to show a short film. Rather it was to connect with people from a different culture, to contribute to a local school and to expand my view of the world.  

2014: On a professional level, my TEDx talk in Luxembourg was a pivotal moment where I knew that being on a global stage and moving people emotionally, adding value to their lives, was what I wanted to pursue.  

I didn’t know how but this was a powerful boost of inner confidence that I could rise to the challenge and strive to become one of the best in the world in this type of speaking and training.  

2018: Being on the same stage as a speaker with my childhood idol, Nando Parrado, was memorable.  After both our talks, he asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him.To sit down with him for a meal and hear him share his story of how he survived one of the most extraordinary plane crashes in history, made me feel grateful for being able to have such amazing encounters while I am still living.

2021: Giving a live virtual training to physicians in 21 countries made me realize how grateful I was to serve, to teach, to connect with professionals all over the world. It also made me pause to appreciate how far my speaking journey has taken me over the past four years. 

ACHIEVEMENTS 

Which achievements are you most proud of and why?

2020/2021 Speaker of the Year Nomination (Meeting Planners International NY)

Starting from scratch and building a thriving keynote speaking and training career, working with leading clients like Sun Life Financial, Assante, Novo Nordisk, Canadian Public Relations Society, Broadway Video Entertainment, The Terry Fox Foundation, TEDx, Baker Tilly, and top speaking agencies around the world. 

TEDx Talk: How to Spot a Leader in Their Handwriting = over 2 million views

My goal was to give a TEDx talk to spread my message about the limitless possibilities that exist within us if only we take a moment to look in our handwriting and in ourselves.  It took two years of planning, visualizing and goal setting. This includes creating a vision board dedicated to bringing this goal to fruition.  

After winning a TED Education Award, I connected with an organizer for a TEDx event in Luxembourg. The talk was set in a castle, which gave me the confidence to pursue a speaking career.  

TED-Huffington Post International Educators Award

I applied for this award but totally forgot about it later on.  A few months later, I got an email, which I thought was a potential scam, saying that I was the only Canadian educator to win the award. I happened to be at a conference with a friend, a professor and former police detective focused on fraud!

He checked out the e-mail and concluded that it was real.  We called the TED offices in New York, and they verified that I did indeed win and was invited for an all-expenses paid trip to New Orleans to be honored for my work in creating innovative learning environments.

Wrote #1 Amazon best-selling book: LIVE FROM YOUR CLASS: Everything I Learned About Teaching, I Learned from Working at SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

I wrote this book by getting up at 4:30 am every day for over a year before teaching and before my two kids (babies at the time) were up.  The book is about more than teaching, it’s about how to create learning environments in school and work that truly engage and inspire students and employees.  I’m very proud of this book as it is a culmination of my work as a teacher for 12 years and incorporates stories and experiences I had up to that point in the world of media and film. 

Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Award Winner

Winning this award while still in university at the Western, University in London, Ontario, Canada, made me believe that one day I would pursue a path that involved adding values to people’s lives through speaking professionally.

Granted Ambassador of the Arts Grant by the Canadian Government

I won a grant and acknowledgment by the Canadian government for a short film that I directed about an incident in the life of a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who immigrated to Canada. The grant was for me to represent Canada as a filmmaker in Cambodia for the Cambodian International Film Festival and to teach Cambodian children film-making skills 

Best Film Director, London, England based Film Festival for The Barber of Kigali

My short film about a Rwandan genocide survivor who meets his father’s murderer in Canada and must decide whether to kill him or walk away was inspired by true events. The film was accepted in 9 film festivals around the world from California to Cambodia to Boston to London England and gave me the chance to travel to several of them.

Cambodia was particularly memorable because I not only showed my film on the anniversary of The Killing Fields, but got to work with local children and teach them film-making skills. 

Website ranked #26th best leadership speaker & coach website by wpblogs.com

I’ve been working on my website for years so when a reputable website that reviews websites reviewed and ranked my website as one of the best on the internet in my speaking and group coaching niche, I was honoured. 

What do you think are the key ingredients to your success?

If you’re not invited to the party, throw your own party so that the right people will want to attend. 

In other words, be a magnet for opportunity by showing your value to others, working on your skillset and being so good at what you do that eventually the people who you want to connect with will show up in your life in unexpected ways. Instead of forcing your way through the front door where everyone is trying to get into, look for the side and back doors that others have overlooked.

Turning crisis into opportunity. 

For example, when Covid-19 hit, I looked for ways to serve pre-existing clients and created a new media project to help small-to-midsize businesses that wouldn’t have been possible in pre-covid.  

Working smart and working hard. 

I wrote working hard first because focusing on outputs instead of outcomes can make us feel like we’re working hard yet progressive can feel elusive. Focusing on what the outcomes I wanted and then reverse engineering what steps I need to take was helpful in making small yet substantial progress in achieving my goals.  

Showing up daily by working hard and being disciplined and consistent in focusing on the 1% that makes the biggest difference and then iterating along the way has been essential for my success. 

Surrounding myself with one close speaking buddy who I could learn from, and he could learn from me has been a revelation. 

The commonly repeated expression is that you are a reflection of, or your income is based on the five people who you surround yourself with.  I’ve come to the realization that 1 – 2 people is what you should be aiming for. 

I define and refine what it means to be successful.  

Success means different things to every person you know. My success starts with asking myself what my values are. Some of my core values are: long-term orientation (professional) and family first (personal).  I want to make sure that my daily decisions in service of my highest vision for my life are rooted in my values.  Then I know that the success I achieve is in alignment with who and what I value most.

Resilience.

I have continued to bounce back from rejection and continually put myself out there. This trait is key for anyone trying to become successful in their field. It is never about how you fall, how you get turned down, ignored or rejected – rather it’s about getting back up with confidence and taking one more step forward instead of giving up.

Throughout countless rejections and failures, I push through my sensitivity, my ego, my sadness and simply ask: what’s the best next step? And then I take that step, and continually adjust until I get closer to my goals.

It’s not always about setting goals.  

Some experts believe setting goals can be harmful to the spirit because when you reach a goal, it never seems enough.  I set goals but I also focus on the process, on positive habits like working at the same time each day, even if I don’t feel like doing the work, on constantly researching new concepts and ideas and taking action even when I don’t have all the answers.  

Share some successful case studies with us – people who have been successfully transformed under your guidance. 

 A med-tech entrepreneur in Canada was awarded first-round financing for his company, EasyLabs in an Amsterdam-based worldwide tech.start-up contest, with my help in creating a pitch for his product.   

One business owner took my advice on creating a plan to tell his company’s story through a purpose-based video, which has reinvigorated the organization and its direction. 

Based on my coaching suggestions on how to make his excellent talk even better for his audience, one of the top business speakers in Canada has credited my feedback with growing his business.  

`Dozens of people have reached out to thank me to say that my coaching, which includes a speed handwriting analysis session, has given them the courage to mend broken relationships, follow their goals, pursue previously out-of-reach dreams and to discover their strengths. 

One of Canada’s top parenting experts, Alyson Schafer said that three minutes with Jamie’s unique graphotherapy coaching process is better than 3 therapy sessions. 

What lies ahead in terms of your goals and ambitions? 

I’m a believer in not sharing your goals or ambitions publicly.  I believe that you should write down your goals and ambitions on paper regularly.  Then review those written goals daily.  Then take one small step each day towards that goal.  

My process on this point is supported by verified studies that show that when people put their energy into revealing their goals and ambitions before first putting their energy into putting them in motion, they can easily be derailed or discouraged from strangers, friends and even family.

I’m happy to share my goals and ambitions once they are about to be completed or launched to the world.  But until then, I’ll be busy working on them, not discussing them.  

A quote I love that further amplifies how I feel about the importance of writing down, visualizing, and taking action but not talking about your goals, here’s an excerpt from a famous American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist, Bob Dylan:

“DESTINY is a feeling you have that you know something about yourself nobody else does. The picture you have in your own mind of what you’re about WILL COME TRUE. It’s a kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it’s a fragile feeling, and you put it out there, then someone will kill it. It’s best to keep that all inside.”
― Bob Dylan, The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966

PERSONAL (LIFE) 

How does a typical day look like to you now? 

Wake-up: 5:30 am

530am – 8:00 am:  Drink lemon water. Walk 3 km. Meditate on my front porch. Coffee. Write down my goals, top 3 areas I will focus on that day and write down a daily gratitude practice.  I then help get my two kids, Koby, 9 and Maya, 8, ready for school or camp, with my wife, Karen. 

9:00 am – 1:00 pm: Do creative work on speeches or media projects 

1:00 pm – Workout (yoga stretches, weights, trampoline in the backyard, lunch

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Business tasks related to speaking, scheduled meetings

After 4:00 pm is more flexible with family time, hobbies like abstract painting, reading and watching Netflix! 

To you, what are the most important things in life?

My wife and kids are the most important thing in my life.  It’s most important to me to live a life that balances the priorities of health, happiness of my family with my greater purpose of positively impacting lives around the world. 

For my children and my wife, I want to live as long as possible in order to ensure that I provide them (in partnership with my wife, Karen) a healthy + loving home.

What’s worth mentioning on your life’s bucket list that you have not done? 

• There are many countries I want to travel to with my family including Rwanda, much of Europe, and South-east Asia. I lived for 8 months in Malaysia teaching at a university but I worked so much that I didn’t have a chance to visit surrounding countries. 
• Singapore is a country on my bucket list! I’ve heard it’s a flawless country in many ways – the city design, the people, the food and the sights.
• Professionally, I have a major bucket list media project in development. When it’s ready to launch to the world, I’ll let you know.
• I’d like to also do a world speaking tour in south-east Asia and Asia.
• Learn a martial art.
• Attend a meditation retreat (there are several on my list)
• Attend a World Cup game and F1 race in-person.
• Have my abstract art accepted and shown in an international gallery.
• Live in another country with my wife and two children for a period between 2 months and 1 year before they are 18 years old.
• Learn to speak another language.

Why do you do what you do? (What drives you everyday)

~ To progress by being a little better than I was yesterday

~ To be a ‘learn-it-all’ not a ‘know-it-all’

~ To be a role model for my kids and give them an example of a father who goes after his goals with intention and deliberate focus yet is always there and present for them.

~ Ultimately, I want to help and serve other people by helping them reach their professional and personal goals.

What are some things that many people don’t know about you? 

~ I stuttered as a child.

~ My mother, who did handwriting analysis as a hobby, saw traits in my handwriting that revealed the potential for me to become a writer and a speaker.  

~ I was skeptical but eventually it came true. I became a speaker and wrote a #1 Amazon best-selling book. 

What kind of legacy do you hope to leave behind? 

~ I want to be the best, most present and engaged father I can be to my children. So that they are equipped with life lessons and the belief in themselves, which I taught them with regards to being able to accomplish anything and overcome any adversity when they set their minds to it.

~ To become the best husband and partner I can be to my wife and help her achieve all of her dreams, both in our family and her own life goals

~ To be the friend to my friends that they could always count on, be vulnerable with and know that I always had their backs and believed in them.

~ To have added transformational value to people’s lives in my professional roles as a teacher, speaker, trainer, coach and media producer.

VIEWPOINTS 

In your opinion, what steps can individuals take to discover and fully realise their full potential and develop their talents?

1. Find out your strengths — what you’re naturally good at. This might be a subject in school that came easy to you or a skill that you were quick to pick up.

2. Find out what you love to do. What makes your heartbeat fast with anticipation, joy and delight when you do it? What makes time fly by because you are so engaged?

3. Research on accomplished individuals who have combined these two areas in a profession.

4. Take an online course (Coursera, for example) to see if you feel a spark inside during learning, even if it’s hard work and prove to be a steep learning curve.

5. If you do like it after doing some additional research, see if there is a market for this service or talent, then invest more time, schooling and coaching into taking steps in this direction.

6. Get a coach to help you eliminate unnecessary mistakes in pursuit of your goal.  The key here is the coach should have been successful in this career recently, if not still doing it. Such a coach will also have valuable contacts that could potentially help you if they see that you’ve made progress and have the potential to excel.

7. Find an online or in-person peer group of other people who share the same interests in this field. You only need to find one other peer, with whom you can encourage each other and help each other along the way. 

What makes a good leader and how can one lead effectively? 

What makes a good leader is someone who creates a safe space for their team so that each team member feels heard, acknowledged, and understood. A good leader creates a space where their team feels that they have permission to make mistakes in order to grow.  A good leader ultimately has the goal, either expressed directly or in their actions, of making others better.  

A person can lead effectively by being a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all. I think the Head of Microsoft said something to that effect once.  Be accessible, show-up so that your team sees you on the front lines with them and not hiding in an office somewhere out of sight.  Be humble and open to new ideas from any member of your team.  

Focus on defining and bringing a purpose-led, value-driven vision into your leadership every single day.  Be the change that you want to see in your team.  Culture starts at the top, which means that everything that you do, say, and don’t do or don’t say, will be seen and interpreted by your team.  

When you have integrity – in which your actions match your words, you will build an unspoken trust and bond with your team that will not just make for a better work environment but a better world. 

To you, what does it mean to be resilient in the face of adversity? And how can people build up this quality in themselves? 

Being resilient in the face of adversity means to find strength in difficult moments or situations. It’s about how fast you bounce back from a temporary setback. You can build up this quality in yourself to truly grasp that in any situation, the one thing in your control is your attitude. 

I learned this from Victor Frankl, who wrote the book that influenced me most in my life called: ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’. Frankl overcame the most difficult imaginable situation, being in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two. He reflected on what survivors had in common, based on his position as a leading psychiatrist .

Even though it was often luck that separated those who lived and those who were killed, the ones who lived (1 out of 28 to be exact), had an attitude that they wanted desperately to survive for another person, for a higher purpose – such as to finish their life’s work or to find purpose in their suffering.  

Each of these perspectives or attitudes to their predicaments gave them strength in the most extreme hardships.  As you go through your most challenging obstacles, you can ask yourself questions like:

• Who am I doing this for?
• What is a higher purpose that is essential that I carry on in pursuit of this goal?
• What meaning can I find in this challenge or setback that can make me even better?  

You can build up resilience by taking care of both your mind and body.  Some examples include: going on daily walks, doing yoga or practicing mindful meditation for just ten minutes a day. Those activities have been shown in a validated thirty-year study to build resilience in people who experienced trauma in their lives.

Open yourself up to the support of a friend.  A good friend who encourages you, who pulls you up from a failure, who believes in you even when you don’t believe in yourself can help you to see your worth in vulnerable moments.  

Cultivate a hobby that you do just for you. Make date days with yourself to allow yourself to get lost in an activity that challenges you and that makes you feel joy.  Hobbies have been shown to calm the mind, put you in a positive and creative state and help create balance between our professional and personal lives.

Take nothing personally. Be independent of the good or bad opinion of others – said Wayne Dyer.  Sometimes negative feedback or indifference relating to our plans by people we want approval from can derail our enthusiasm and focus on our goals. 

Remember that every successful person you’ve heard about, read about, or know has been told that they are not good enough or their work is subpar in some way. Don’t be defined by another person’s careless comments that reflect where they are and what their opinions are, not who you are and what you are capable of. I suggest listening to a podcast called, “We Regret to Inform You”. Each episode tells a story of a well-known personality who persevered through years of rejection and failure to become international successes.  

Finally, ask: What’s in my control and what’s not moving forward? Whatever happened in the past, is in the past. What you have control over is the present. What can you do right now to take a step forward towards your goal? The Serenity Prayer reads: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” 

If you internalise this quote and focus only on what is in your control to turn a moment of crisis into an opportunity to grow, you’ll be on your way to building resilience in your journey through life!

The post Leadership And Resilience – Jamie Mason Cohen appeared first on My Story Lounge.

“Some people are repelled by the darkness of an underwater cave, but for me it’s an invitation into the unknown”

These are the words Jill Heinerth, a Canadian world-renowned cave diver and explorer, uses to describe her passion and profession. More than that, she is also a writer, photographer and an award-winning film-maker. Her accolades include being named a “Living Legend” by Sport Diver Magazine and getting inducted into the exclusive New York Explorers Club.

In the film-making space, Heinerth has worked on a number of TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel and the BBC, consulted on movies for directors including James Cameron, written several books and produced documentaries. Furthermore, she advises on training programmes for diving agencies, publishes photojournalism in a range of magazines and speaks around the world.

In 1998, Heinerth was part of the team that made the first 3D map of an underwater cave. She became the first person to dive the ice caves of Antarctica, going further into an underwater cave system than any woman has ever gone before.

Whether we are intrigued or petrified at the prospect of cave-diving, we can’t help but marvel at the adventurous spirit of this brave woman, whose job it is to explore near-freezing waterways under a few hundred feet of ice; and travel to places so remote that just getting there is treacherous.

EARLY LIFE

Tell us more about your family background and share with us on what it was like growing up.

I grew up in a small town in Canada, the daughter of an engineer and English teacher. My Mom gave up her early career aspirations to raise our family. We lived frugally and loved outdoor adventures, picnics, hikes, and canoeing trips.

How did your upbringing shape the person you are today?

My parents instilled in me a love of learning, encouraging me to pursue my interests with passion and integrity. I did not feel like there were any bounds to what was possible for me. They taught me that I could do anything I wanted if I worked hard.

How would you sum up your childhood?

I was adventurous, curious and loved learning.

JOURNEY

How did you get started as an underwater explorer and filmmaker respectively?

I studied Fine Arts at York University in Toronto and worked as a graphic designer at the same time. I also taught scuba-diving in the evenings and on weekends. I was drawn to scuba-diving and decided to find a way to be a creative professional in the underwater world.

As much as I loved being a graphic designer, working indoors felt stifling to me. I saw a career path in becoming a full-time diver and thus I decided to sell everything I owned in Toronto, Canada, and moved to the Cayman Islands to pursue my love for diving.

To support myself financially, I also assembled a hybrid work-life that included writing, photography, cinematography, consulting, instruction, and public speaking.

What were some significant challenges you faced, lessons learnt and hard decisions you had to make along the way?

When I first started out, I faced both sexism and unintentional biases while working in a male-dominated vocation. It was fairly difficult to jumpstart a career as an independent diving professional, and I always had to find new ways to sustain my income streams.

I had discovered that when someone is financially challenged, not being busy enough or being too busy, can both be stressful situations! So I built my confidence, patience, and tenacity. If one income stream wasn’t producing, I pitched new ideas to secure paid projects and developed lasting income streams from creative assets that I produced.

Jill photographs the National Geographic team in Abaco, Bahamas.

Share with us some experiences/stories that you think are significant to your journey so far.

As a young woman who was quickly rising to the top in the world of professional cave-diving, I was subjected to online bullies. Nasty commentary, death threats and cruel insults were just some of the attacks directed at me from people whom I have never even met before in my life.

At one point, a man sent me a package with body bags in it. He told me to “clean up the cave” after my project, insinuating that someone would die under my watch. I was deeply shaken.

At first, I felt deeply hurt by those personal attacks but then I realised that the reason they did that was more about themselves rather than personally targeting me.

The truth is that cave diving is incredibly dangerous. I have known more than 100 people that have lost their lives in cave diving and technical diving accidents. These were friends and colleagues. Each loss takes its psychological toll on me.

I have since learned that all I can do is bring my best self to work every day. My desire is to live with integrity and mentor the next generation of cave-divers with the same dedication to safety that I have learnt for over 30 years in the business.

Some of my early diving projects and expeditions were catalysts for great lessons. They include being trapped inside an iceberg in Antarctica and recovering from severe injuries due to a deep-diving accident. Having said that, I felt that I have achieved things that I initially thought were impossible. In the end, I learned that we are all capable of much more than we can imagine.

The search for deep caves in Bermuda, led Heinerth and her team to make the deepest manned dives in the island nation’s history. Photo: Jill Heinerth

ACHIEVEMENTS

Which achievements/milestones are you most proud of and why?

I am proud of being a Fellow of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, Women Divers Hall of Fame, and the Explorers Club, which awarded me with the ‘William Beebe Award’ for ocean exploration.

These were incredible milestones in my career, but the most special recognition of all – was being named the first Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. With this platform, I have been able to reach tens of thousands of children around the world to conduct presentations and workshops that I hope can help them spark an interest in science, geography, and exploration.

I also take pride in completing two books so far, namely:

1) My memoir, ‘Into the planet’, which has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and the New York Times.

2) My new children’s book, ‘The Aquanaut’, is a Blue Ribbon Selection for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. That program has helped to distribute close to 8000 copies to underprivileged kids.

What do you think are the key ingredients to your success?

They say that nobody will work harder for you than yourself. I know that to be true. Hard work, tenacity, and humility are important traits that I embrace.

Multi-tasking, learning new skills and being willing to do whatever needs to be done for a given situation, plays a significant part in my success too. I do my very best to be a team player to lead and manage people, no matter how difficult the role or how minor the task is. For example, I would not leave a sink full of dishes on a research boat for someone else to clean up. I also consider it to be important to contribute to the well-being of the team, knowing that we are all equals.

What lies ahead in terms of your goals and ambitions?

There are some very ambitious research and exploration initiatives as well as documentary and education programs that are in the pipeline. It includes diving in Canada’s longest underwater cave system and some delayed expeditions including documenting WWII shipwrecks off Newfoundland.

I am also working on a once-in-a-lifetime educational initiative that aims to teach people about ‘The Great Lakes’, which are the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth. Using exciting augmented reality technology, we are creating an immersive experience with global impact.

Jill Heinerth briefing James Cameron before his first cave dive. Photo: Jackie Windh

PERSONAL (LIFE)

What is your life motto if any?

I suppose “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is an important creed. I always try to put myself in someone else’s shoes. It is through recognition that empathy can solve the largest problems.

To you, what are the most important things in life?

I believe in continuous life-long learning and thus I am never bored.

Another aspect I find important is to take on risks in life and do the things that may seem terrifying. Don’t get me wrong, I am not fearless. But when I am scared, it is because I recognise that I am taking on a risk where I deeply care about the outcome.

Fear is a driver for exploration and discovery, so I will continue to take calculated risks in the interest of expanding my horizons and being part of important scientific discoveries that can make the world a better place.

What’s worth mentioning on your bucket list that you have not done?

If I had the funds, I would pursue training in an atmospheric diving suit to enable me to dive deep enough to reach places never documented before. I’d love to go to space to see the big blue marble of our Earth, but I still want to reach even more remote places on this planet. The ‘Exosuit’ (a one-piece atmosphere hard diving suit) could help me to document new species and lost cultural assets in the ocean’s greatest depths.

Jill Heinerth drives the Wakulla2 Digital Wapper on a 1997-98 project with the U.S. Deep Caving Team. On this project, the team created the first accurate 3D map of subterranean space and pushed the bounds of human performance.

Why do you do what you do? (What drives you everyday)

I love the challenge of pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as possible. It’s a joy to learn new skills and then apply that knowledge toward communicating about critical issues such as water literacy and climate change to people. My hope is that through my unique perspectives of the Earth from deep within the planet, people can get excited to learn more and become more aware about important global issues.

Who are the role models and influences in your life?

Dr. Sylvia Earle is a key influencer of mine. Me and my colleagues refer to her as “Her Deepness!” But seriously, she is an inspiration who shares the truth about difficult issues while empowering and inspiring others to act.

What are some things that many people don’t know about you?

I love cycling and once rode my bicycle on a 7000 km journey across the country, unsupported. Few people know that I am also a painter.

What are some life lessons worth mentioning?

Chase fear or you will spend your life running from it.

VIEWPOINTS

Do you think females are underrepresented in underwater exploring professionally?

Yes, absolutely. Diving, exploring and filmmaking are all male-dominated fields. The good news is, that is slowly changing. When I first launched my career, there were few women in any of those areas.

As more female talents entered the sectors mentioned, more women could better visualise themselves in these roles. There is no reason why women can’t excel in all these activities. Moreover, women make great team players. We are extremely resilient in difficult situations and given the opportunity, can rise to achieve our full potential.

When I started diving, there were many barriers to overcome. Beyond sexism and unintentional bias, technical diving gear designed to fit a woman simply did not exist. That is not merely an issue of appearance. When diving equipment doesn’t fit, it is a safety and comfort issue.

Jill drives the 3D Digital Wall Mapper at Wakulla Springs during the Wakulla2 Project. Photo: Wes Skiles, Courtesy of the U.S. Deep Caving Team Inc.

You acknowledged that underwater exploring is a risky endeavour and said it yourself that “more people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mt. Everest”. How should individuals with little to no experience weigh the risks vs rewards even before they decide to embark on such diving trips?

Risk assessment and acceptance is a balancing act. A poor decision at work could cost me my life, but if I don’t take risks, I will not make any new discoveries – for myself or for humanity. Whether you are a diver or a salesperson, taking risks leads to an opportunity.

Sure, I might fail. But that failure is never a negative in my mind. Failure is simply ‘discovery learning’. If I have taken steps to mitigate the risks, then I will become better each time at minimising my downside without affecting my pursuit of new discoveries or opportunities.

Little Devil Spring. Photo: Jill Heinerth

What advice would you give to aspiring underwater explorers who are looking to turn their passion into a career?

Work hard. There are some classes and mentors that help you learn new skills, but understand that your path to becoming a world-class explorer is personal. You will need to adopt a tenacious spirit, set learning objectives and master your craft by being hands-on – education can only take you so far, the rest requires you to learn through practical experiences. Look forward a decade to where you want to be, then plot a relentless path in that direction.

How does your general view of the world differ from someone who does not have the privilege to experience firsthand another facet of the like you do?

I don’t sweat the ‘small stuff’ or get embroiled in the drama of personal opinions. I love a diversity of viewpoints, recognizing that getting outside of my own head and outside of my comfort zone yields new opportunities for collaborations.

The post An Invitation Into The Unknown – Jill Heinerth appeared first on My Story Lounge.