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Comment by Justin Lewis on February 16, 2011 at 10:18pm

Thanks for the response and thank you for signing up for the web site...it means a lot to me! I understand your frustration and trust me we have all been there. While you can't always make somebody "get it"; it doesn't mean that we can't stay positive! I do agree that you must always tell people the truth...I understand that not everyone is "Chief" material as well...and that is also a good thing for the fire service, otherwise we would have no one to drag the hose around! We need people who are willing to do the work...that is what the fire service was built on...and yes I've seen the people come into the service that want to jump straight to the Chief position and no that doesn't work either! Please understand that my videos are only 5-10 mins long and usually speak in general terms in both the fire service and also your personal life. So if watching my video someone is a little more positive with their kid and encourages them instead of crushing their dreams then I'm all for it! I do the videos to try and stimulate some thought from people! They are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the topics! Thanks for the response...I enjoyed it!

Comment by FETC on February 15, 2011 at 1:51pm

Sorry Jason, you simply can't be positive with everyone. The fire service has seen a dramatic cultural change, for which we now have many well educated idiots being hired. (non-vocational type) and this job needs people who can think on there own, operate and work with their hands efficiently. Especially now in these poor economic times, "positive thoughts" while holding your breath might not be the best service delivery model.

Lifting up a guy that simply doesn't "get it" after many years of trying to better them is tiring. If you are the last guy, that says "yeah go ahead, you can do that" are you really doing him justice knowing deep down he will never get it. Not everyone in the fire service is officer material, not everyone in the world can be a firefighter either. Your comparison of the black person who went on to start school's, is not apples for apples. He was most likely a brillant person to begin with, education was the perfect storm for him and was being held down by society / culture. It wasn't an idiot that you molded into a professor with a PHD.

Sometimes the best enouragement is being honest with a person.