News Archives - Brian Walsh

A New Addition to the Local Authors Table

Mary Ann is not only the love of my life, but she’s my chief marketing officer. She decided our local Barnes & Noble needed to know about its newest resident author. I’m signing a few copies for the Local Authors table. Thanks, Mary Ann.

Helping Others Is Time Well Spent

You’ve heard me say that my community taught us at a very young age to take care of one another. Volunteering as a firefighter at 17 was only the beginning. Today, I’m honored to be serving my greater community through the MDRT Foundation and was appointed as its fifty-fifth president. MDRT is a member-driven organization … Read more

Don’t Let It Break You

It turns out that you and I have much more in common than I thought. Sure, you may not have been burned in a fire at seventeen or worn a mask for two years while you recovered, but the overwhelming response to my book tells me that we all have masks of our own making. … Read more

My Brush with Fame

Have you ever been starstruck? I have—and quite recently. My brush with fame this summer happened in a way that I could never have anticipated. I guess that’s usually the case, which is why these surprising interactions are so exhilarating. When you’re a new author like I am, getting feedback from people who read your … Read more

I Literally Walked Through Fire

Many of you know my experience with fire. It’s had an incredible impact on my life in ways you might not expect. What you may not know is that I decided to write a book about the fire that changed my life forever—for the better. I’m pleased to announce Beyond the Mask: How My Tragedy … Read more

From Beyond the Mask

If your position is unique, then maybe don’t bother listening to people who think they’re so wise, when their experience of the world is so different.

I looked unique so why not live a unique life. Why not be myself?

You can’t hide. From yourself, sure, sometimes. But usually not from the rest of us. And in the end, not from yourself either.

When you help someone else, you help yourself in a way that can’t really be equaled by any other activity.

If you’re not betting on yourself all the time, you’re just gambling.

Make a list of all the people who believe in you, with all your many capabilities and talents. Are you number one on the list? If not, then something needs fixing.

What we understand now is so tiny compared to what we have yet to understand.

Moments happen, no matter what you think you’re going to do to stop them from happening. But either the moments define you or you define the moments.

Having expectations of your own doesn’t mean you have pressure, it means you have purpose.

You simply can’t win at all costs. It’s a logical impossibility. It’s a statement that eats itself. If you have paid all the costs—damaging relationships, breaking laws, breaking your own ethical code—they you have lost. It doesn’t matter what it says on the scoreboard or your balance sheet.

If you believe in yourself – your effort, your attention to detail, your integrity, your ultimate goals – then there’s zero risk involved in how you live your life.

When you look in the mirror, really look. If you’re just glancing, don’t waste your time (or the reflection’s).

Look in the mirror. Know yourself. Be yourself.

There are only two choices before you, at all times: Accept what happened or slowly be ruined by what happened.

You aren’t what you do once. You are what you do all the time.

Whenever you do a favor for someone, however big or small, do it all the way—not halfway or three-quarters of the way. Do it in such a way that all they have to do is sit back, enjoy and appreciate the gesture.

We all have blind spots. When you’re in a room and you’re looking around for the idiot and you can’t find him, it’s probably you.

Your job in life is to be a ‘foxhole friend’ for as many people as you can.

Believe it or not, for all the variety and choice in the world, there’s always an absolutely right way to do things.

Not many people have jarring facts about themselves, right there for everyone to see like I do. But everyone’s got something about which they’re self-conscious. Would a light-hearted comment about it help? Give expression to what you feel others might but don’t want to say.

Life is a gift, not a given.

There is always a cost to avoiding confrontation, especially if the one you’re avoiding is you.

Life is about having purpose and dignity. There. That’s pretty much it. If you can help one person, then you have a purpose, and by helping them gain dignity, you do, too.

There can be no success, no real life success, period, without attention to people.

Live your life the way you want, never mind what anyone else may think, because it’s your life.

People see the ‘worst’ of me the moment they lay eyes on me. So why not just be who I am, which is so much better than what they may think I am. Nothing holds me back.

I’ve mourned the loss of the 17-year-old Brian but celebrated the new and improved Brian who is stronger and heartier for having gone through what he did.