Email to self: Inspiring people are all around us | Blake Dowling

Inspiration and motivation will show up at your door like kids back from college, with little notice and when you least expect it.

I have a few shows I watch late at night and those would be "Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations," "Sanford and Son" (gets funnier every year), "Expedition Unknown" (I am now obsessed with The Secret, look it up), and of course "Seinfeld."

For whatever reason the brain usually kicks into motivation mode like Bruce Lee guzzling Chocolate Martinis.

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Let’s be totally honest, most of these ideas are pedestrian at best (like Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 lame). But they seem awesome when they first hit so I grab my phone and email myself whatever “revelation” I have just had.

My Blake to Blake emails could be a new idea for the business, a customer service gesture, marketing idea (see this year’s Chamber Conference Socks giveaway to announce our SOC – security operations center) column idea or podcast guest idea.

You never know what might pop in my almost 50-year-old data corrupted infused brain.

So regardless of the goofy to awesome ratio, what I am describing is more motivation and brainstorming hour not true inspiration. That only shows its head occasionally as we all know.

Advancing independence

However, I had an inspiring moment this summer. I was 100% inspired by our Biz & Tech Podcast guest this month, Dr. JR Harding.

You can watch the show on youtube.com. JR is a legend on many fronts, and I was thrilled to have him on the show. A two-time quadriplegic, JR survived a brutal attack as a teenager, and since then he has been a two-time US Presidential appointee and seven-time Florida gubernatorial appointee.

He has made significant contributions to national, state and community public policy advancing the independence and self-sufficiency of persons with disabilities including the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (celebrating its 32nd year this summer).

JR has also put out books, he teaches at FSU, he is a motivational speaker, and he has never let anything slow him down. Besides maybe crashing his car into our Capital building here in Tallahassee. He tells that story in the podcast. He and his wife Erika just returned from what looked like on Facebook one of the most amazing journeys to South Africa.

Thank you, JR, for the work you do in our world, we salute you and collaborating with you and your class at FSU each semester is something I always look forward to.

Digital discoveries

I have also recently seen inspiration from afar, digitally for that matter’ and of all flippin places, how about while on Instagram during the pandemic. I started following a host of characters during 2020; as we all filled our time with new things that summer.

I started following: Theo Von (comedian), Slim Tender (rocker), Daily Dose of the Office (TV), James Bates (UF football alum), Kitten Lady (cat hero), Magic Mind (productivity drink who now sponsor our podcast, magicmind.com/aegis), Brittany Spears (she is awesome) and one day a young man named Pete Dankelson.

Pete was shredding on a slick looking Gibson guitar blasting some metal and I loved playing. Each day and week more videos followed and then I slowly noticed there was a lot more to this story than jamming metal tunes. There was a story of triumph and overcoming some huge challenges to become the young man blasting guitar on the internet.

Pete Dankelson was born premature in the year 2000 and diagnosed with Goldenhar Syndrome. He was in the NICU for 102 days. During this time his mom kept a journal to update family with his situation and this became known as Pete’s Diary.

'Embrace what makes you different'

What followed was a remarkable story of a young man becoming a speaker to other kids (influenced by the book and then movie Auggie). A champion of the Children’s Craniofacial Association, launching a movement called #ChooseKind which is just as it sounds, about being kind to all.

Throughout his journey he has had over 30 surgeries and during some of those brutal recoveries in 2015 he picked up the guitar as part hobby and part therapy. Peter also has a band, merch, put out a book and continues to this day to bust out awesome clips of him jamming solo with his band and on stage with huge bands like Buckcherry or backstage with LA Guns.

He inspires me every day when I see his latest content that he shares. youtube.com/watch?v=4Fohz-wRnhs. As his team told me this summer, “embrace what makes you different.” Thanks Peter (and Dede), keep on rocking.

These are two very different stories about two over the top individuals that were dealt a hand that could have had them thinking about folding. Instead, they went all in and won big on so many fronts. These men inspire me with their accomplishments and motivate me to do better in everything I do.

I invite you to follow them, reach out to them, support them and I hope today’s column in some way inspires you. Maybe you are even cranking out an email to yourself right now on the topic.

Our time is short, and I thank you for spending some of it with me today while we celebrate life and the awesome people in it.

Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies, he is the host of the Biz & Tech Podcast sponsored by Magic Mind productivity shots, try it here with a discount from me: www.magicmind.com/aegis code: AEGIS20. You can also pick up his book, Professionally Distanced, in Tallahassee at the best book store on earth, Midtown Reader.  

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Email to self: Find inspiring people all around