I’ve wanted to start a podcast of interviews for a while now. Why? Mainly as an excuse to talk to interesting people. Not necessarily famous, mind you, just interesting. In my experience, interesting people have taken a very indirect path to success (however defined). Maybe they’ve traveled a lot, or immersed themselves in an unusual hobby, or overcome a significant handicap, or started a company or nonprofit in difficult circumstances.
I’ve had this idea for a few years but only decided to act on it recently when I heard an interview with Phillippe Petit. He’s written several books of note, but he will always be remembered as the guy who walked a high wire between the World Trade Center twin towers.
That’s an impressive feat, no doubt, but what’s even more impressive to me is… where did he even get the idea in the first place!? You don’t major in high wire walking in college. Parents don’t shuttle you to high wire practice. There aren’t Meetup groups for it.
Nonetheless, at some point in life Petit realized that he liked walking high wires, and then seized on the idea of traversing the twin towers. According to Wikipedia:
Petit conceived his “coup” when he was 17, when he first read about proposed construction of the Twin Towers and saw drawings of the project in a magazine, which he read while sitting at a dentist’s office in 1968. Petit was seized by the idea of performing there, and began collecting articles on the Towers whenever he could.
Interesting people, as a rule, are willing to go very far down the rabbit hole in pursuit of their own personal idée fixe. And oftentimes the path of life emerges from somewhere random, such as a magazine in a dentist office.
What makes Petit tick? Does he have some lessons for us? Can he show us how to lead more interesting lives, too?
I believe we all can learn something from conversations with these life innovators. Hence a podcast. We’ll interview entrepreneurs, writers, artists and anyone whose semi-random walk might inspire us.
And we won’t just talk to people who are at the top. If life is a semi-random walk, that means that a snapshot of someone’s life at any given moment is at least as likely to show them in the midst of a challenge or setback. Reaching the summit is very rare, and while the view from there is beautiful, self-actualization takes place on the climb (and sometimes the descent).
The first episode is already in the can. I just need to get it uploaded and correctly formatted. Look for it in the next few days.
Do you have a story emblematic of the semi-random nature of life? Please contact me if so.