#inspirational — Last week when I went out of town to Sarnia, Ontario to speak at the local HR association out there, I stopped by to visit an old high school buddy I haven’t seen since the mid 1980s. With the magic of the internet, he is the second old friend from my high school days that I reunited with this year. The first was Dr. Wai Tung Ng, currently an engineering professor at the University of Toronto.
Well, this time, it was Lawrence Swift, who has actually been in Sarnia for the last 16 years. I always knew that Lawrence was headed for a very ambitious future even back in high school when he volunteered for various safety and first aid groups. My visit with him at his office and listening to how his career evolved was both entertaining and enlightening.
Lawrence has had a long successful career with the Canadian Coast Guard having served all over the country. He is currently Regional Director of Communications for the Central and Arctic for the Fisheries and Oceans ministry of Canada as well as for the Canadian Coast Guard. On top of all that, he is also the Chief of the volunteer fire department of his town, Petrolia, Ontario. Talk about an inspirational life so far!
But what really impressed me was that between his duties with the fire department and the Coast Guard, he has been credited with saving eleven human lifes so far in his impressive career. Again, talk about an inspirational life. Wow!
As a motivational speaker and author, I am inspired by other people just like Lawrence which proves that we can find inspirational life examples not only from celebrities, but also from relatively unknown individuals as well who has done in my opinion, equally impressive achievements in life. Such people make me want to do my job even better to help spread the possibilities of what we can do in life around.
My congratulations to Lawrence and what he has achieved so far!
