15 Mindblowing Minutes!
Dear friends,
You will not regret taking 15 minutes from your day to see something so incredible, so touching, so inspirational and so moving. We often like to say we cannot do this and we cannot do that or just give up. We sometimes like to make excuses for everything we ‘can’t’ do and I am guilty of that too. Instead of focusing on learning what we ‘can’t’ do one day at time or just improving what we can do we decide to give up. We shouldn’t give up. Giving up makes no one win. No one will feel good when you give up especially yourself. Some people don’t have the luxury to give up as they have no one to fall back on or they are too compassionate to give up as what they do can make differences in others lives for the better. Whatever it is that makes us continue, we should continue.
Don’t blame others. Do accuse others. Don’t damage others. Whatever it is, you have to go on because not making it is not an alternative you will be proud of. Spend your time on making it and achieving what you already said you would. Do it without blaming anyone and without negative emotions.
Well I won’t say too much here, because this short and powerful video will speak for itself. PLEASE WATCH!
Before you read below what I posted by Tom Hallman Jr., please watch the video first.
May you be blessed because you are blessed,
Tsem Rinpoche
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Bill_Porter.mp4
September 9, 1932 – December 4, 2013
Bill Porter has died.
If you’ve lived around Portland long enough, the name means something. If not, then let me get the details of his death out of the way before I tell you about the man.
The end came Tuesday night when Porter was rushed to a hospital with severe stomach pain. By night’s end, he was gone. An infection had spread through his body. A memorial of some kind will be scheduled in the next week or so. I’ll let you know when and where.
Newspaper style requires me to use the man’s last name. But it doesn’t seem right here.
He was always Bill.
Forget the rules.
Bill was 81 and had lived in an assisted living center in Gresham. He moved there in September, finally giving up the fiercely independent life he fought so hard to maintain.
He’d lived alone in a small one-level Gresham home. But he continued to fall.
One night, his friend told me, Bill had to spend the entire night on the floor because he couldn’t reach the phone. The falls convinced him it was time to get help.
If you want to take any solace in this story, figure that Bill had to spend less than four months that way.
You see, asking for help was never his way.
And that’s what made him the man he was.
He lived in anonymity until 1995 when I wrote about him. He put me off three times when I came to his house to talk about his life.
He didn’t want the attention.
But I was persistent.
I finally wore him down when I dropped in unannounced one Saturday morning to make my final pitch. With a sigh, he motioned to a chair.
I sat.
He talked.
He wasn’t famous then, wasn’t rich and not a celebrity in the way the word is so casually tossed around these days.
He was a nobody.
He sold products door-to-door.
For more than 45 years.
Like I said, he wasn’t a big shot.
When I met him he was 63. He had cerebral palsy and spoke and walked with great difficulty. When he was a young man, the state considered him unemployable and suggested he collect disability payments. He refused.
For more than 40 years he earned a living selling Watkins products on routes that took him through Portland’s westside neighborhoods. At night, he would return to his small house. Hunched over an old typewriter and with a twisted hand, he slowly banged out orders for everything he’d sold that day.
For several years he was Watkins’ top retail salesman in all of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California. When I wrote about him, he was the only one of the company’s nearly 50,000 salespeople who sold door-to-door.
Until I wrote about him, hardly anyone really knew Bill. If anything, Portlanders recalled him only as the odd man who shuffled along the downtown transit mall, the strange man they spotted trudging through neighborhoods.
But the story about his life and his journey touched something in readers.
When it first appeared, more than 2,000 people called or wrote the newspaper.
Remember, this was back in the day before Facebook and Twitter. To say the story went viral would have made no sense back then.
But today we can say it did.
I still get calls and letters about Bill Porter.
Portlanders wrote me to confess that, as children, they’d teased Porter on the bus.
Or that they had run away to hide when he passed through their neighborhoods.
They wanted to apologize.
The outpouring stunned Bill. He never wanted sympathy. He didn’t want to be seen as disabled. But messages from readers were filled with admiration, not pity.
He told me that made him realize his life had value, that he filled a more important place in the world than he’d thought. His dead mother, he said, would have been proud of him.
The article was reprinted by Reader’s Digest.
More mail flooded in.
ABC’s news magazine “20/20” picked up the original story and broadcast its own segment. The network received more than 2,000 calls and letters, the most for any “20/20” story ever broadcast.
Here’s an excerpt from one of the letters I received:
“In today’s world we have too few heroes to look up to. Upon hearing your story, I felt humbled and look up to you as a hero and a fine man. Your tenacity, perseverance and courage set an example to your fellow men and women.”
The actor William H. Macy portrayed Porter in the television movie “Door to Door,” in 2003. It won four Emmy Awards.
“He never understood what all the fuss was about,” said Shelly Brady a longtime friend and assistant who wrote the book “Ten Things I Learned from Bill Porter.”
“The attention humbled and touched him,” she said Thursday. “I began with him as an employee and became his friend. He is part of our family.”
At the end of 1995, I did an update on Bill – right about this time of year, in the weeks before Christmas.
Here are some excerpts:
Bill touches us so profoundly, apparently, because he reminds us of who we all set out to be. And where we would like to go. He is, first of all, someone from our own branch of the human family. Almost none of us has the God-given talent or spiritual purity to become one of the remote, larger-than-life heroes who loom over our world. Who are we to measure ourselves against the great athlete, the skilled surgeon or the religious saint?
But Bill is a salesman. Each day, he puts his infirmities aside, screws up his courage, goes out into the world and asks others to accept what he has to offer.
So do we all.
Bill reminds us of what we were when we set out in life. He fights the war we call life every day, without complaining. Whatever the internal truth of Bill Porter, we perceive him, in his perseverance, as pure, untouched by the ills of society. He isn’t greedy. He doesn’t take handouts. He — of all of us — could produce a hundred excuses. But he never makes excuses.
His determination challenges us. When we see past Bill’s disabilities, we see the disabilities in ourselves.
That raises questions. Am I working hard enough in my life? Do I have that kind of integrity?
Good words to think about in this holiday season.
Bill Porter.
R.I.P.
–Tom Hallman Jr.
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/12/bill_porter_portlands_famed_do.html
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An inspiring article. I learned that Mr Bill is a very determined and independent man whom struggled everyday to live even though he has difficulty in moving. Thanks for the article, a good example for everyone to learned from him.
Dear Rinpoche
What an inspiring story. Bill Porter had so much disadvantages, but he was very persistent and never give up. He has much more determination than most of the people I know including myself. I know that being a-door-to-door salesman was a very challenging business. The little that he could do he had done so and he preferred to do it himself. He even supported and took care of his mother toward the end of her life.
He was an inspiration and a source of strength for many people. Thank you Rinpoche for this article.
Valentina
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this inspiring story.
Never give up, but most of all, i love his lovely smile that shows how positive he is despite on what he has gone through.
Thank you for sharing with us this beautiful person, Bill Porter!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such an heartwarming and inspiring story of Bill Porter. Despite his cerebral palsy caused by doctor at birth, his mother’s strong encouragement taught him perseverance and fortitude. Many does not know him when he walks down the street, door to door and often times he was turned away. Yet he went on to become the top salesman. He would remain the nondescript man if not for a reporter who saw a story to be told. And what an amazing story of strength & courage that inspired many across the nation of America. Always humble and independent, Bill Porter worked even under severe conditions. We should emulate his ways in our practise of the Dharma. Never giving up no matter the conditions as it is a necessity in our lives trapped within Samsara.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the story of Bill Porter. It is so inspiring to never give up no matter how difficult our life is. I am sure he went through a lot of challenges because of this physical state and the bully in any phase of his life.
But he continue to live his life and work to get his bills paid. Not only that, he also takes care of his mom till the last day of her life. He showed us the importance of dedication, love, care which we always take for granted.
His story reminds us to keep going and don’t give up even though we may have very challenging obstacles.
Hi mates, its wonderful article on the topic of teachingand
fully explained, keep it up all the time.
Bill Porter is just so admirable. His courage and will power to be earning with his own hands is just so strong and determined. He could have just slacked off his life and not do anything but to collect welfare money so that he could survive. However, Bill did not do so, instead he worked hard for every single penny that he earns. Everything that he earns, he earns with his hard work and sweat. It is a sense of achievement for him.
I really admire Bill, he would be a inspiration for me to always be hard working and not be put off just because situations do not turn out like what I expect it to be or even want it to be. Although he may take longer to do things, but he would always want to do it himself and not trouble others.
This is indeed a virtue that many of us should look up to and learn from.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such an inspirational story to all of us here at the blog.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing on the incredible life of Bill Porter.He was indeed a remarkable person with a strong determination to live a life without self pity and a strong will to be independent even with so many limitation.
A lot of people with even less limitation would have given up hope to leave alone and and yet be self sufficient but not Bill Porter.He could almost achieve the impossible by setting his own mind and determination to overcome his own limitation and be a normal person.
We should follow his example and never give up at the slightest obstacles.Hardship is part and parcel of life .If we could overcome that,success would not be too far to reach…
Wow… amazing story. This goes to say, persistence and positive character of never giving up will always win people’s hearts. He is a great inspiration to all of us.
One thing that truly touched my heart was when he typed out all the orders on the typewriter. Although it could have been easily done by his lady friend in 1/8th of the time he spends on typing it out, but he rather do it himself, mainly because he took her being very busy in consideration… I know people that would just drop their responsibilities on others whenever they get the chance… but Mr Porter… he has great ethics.
Another inspiring video that Rinpoche have blogged about is on Nick Vujicic… another inspiring man that never gave up. One thing that are in common with both these amazing people is that they always have someone supporting them as they grow up, someone who told them… don’t let your physical limitations limit your life. And this is true for Mr Porter, Nick Vijicic and Aimee Mullins (a famous model with prosthetic legs)
Mr Bill was a very tough and determined man. Even with his disabilities, he still never gave up on his own life. I think that he has taught us a great lesson and that is, we never give up easily and we never ever take people for granted. He could have just slacks at home and passes time, but he didn’t. His determination and strong will really amazes me, he didn’t die with nothing, I strongly believe that his story is going to inspire a lot of lives as he has inspired mine. If only we could follow Mr Bill’s footsteps, the world would be a much more better place. We can’t always be dependant, I think that it’s our responsibility to make use of our own life and live it to it’s fullest. I think that this is the least we could do, as a human being.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this inspiring video, as I watch this video I think we are lucky to born in a situation and our body has no defect we are perfect but yet sometimes we still think not good enough and our self cherishing mind keep telling us to make it better about our appearance look at Bill he is really a best example for us to learn his determination about his work is way beyond any one of us who have a perfect body no handicap , I think we can do more should not give up in doing anything in life.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this inspirational story, a much needed source of strength at time like this. Bill Porter reminds me of my late father who had stroke in the last 15 years of his life. He never gave up on himself and always remains optimistic that he will gain back his strength, still continue to lead normal life with the help from my mom until an unexpected post surgery complications that took his life this year. Thank you again and i will always remember Bill, my father and the perseverance they have showed to me.
Thank you with folded hands for sharing this inspiring story of the human spirit.
Great story and reminder to us all, Rinpoche.
Each day, we will make hundreds of excuses for not wanting to do certain things, find ways to escape from it, not facing it, complaining about life.
Bill Porter has shown us what is perseverance, what is called war with life. He clearly demonstrates that he needed no outside help and can be independent. He never made excuses and ever complained about his life or why was he born that way.
He made the full use of his life.
He really made us all look like ants beside a gigantic giant with his strong will and determination.
Thank you so much for the reminder Rinpoche.
We often feeling depress and give up easily due to small problems, pressure, not feeling great about some people etc etc. All these can be changed and overcome by just putting some efforts. We just cannot stop complaining about almost everything even though we already have a perfect life. We have everything compare to Bill but we seems to find fault in ourselves and even people around us simply because we do not have a great mind and great heart like Bill. Bill has nothing but he had live his life fully.
Bill gave me a very strong inspiration of wanting to do more, put in more effort to whatever i want to achieve. Bill showed me the value of precious human life. Bill showed me how he make people that come into his life loved him. Bill showed me that never take people who loves me for granted. Bill showed me that we can change our lives if we put in our efforts. Looking at his smile I see light and happiness.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this 15min great video. I pray for Bill’s great future life. May he reborn with a great human body and mind to meet the Dharma and achieve attainment.
Moving story of a man who challenged the ”norm” for people with cerebral palsy. His perseverance, integrity and work ethic was and is admirable. He portrayed the true meaning of going against the tides when it could have been easier to claim disability allowances. A man of great principle and worthy of being looked up to for facing and overcoming adversities. Thank you for the article, Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing with this inspiring true story of Bill Porter. His determination, never-give-up attitude and consistency to work out everything he could in order to get his job done with a smiling face, despite his retarded physical ability, has inspired me to appreciate with what I have now and to work more for others. May Bill Porter receives all the blessings and protections from the 3 Jewel always. Bill Porter is my hero for me to follow with his positive attitude and nice smile from inside out no matter sunshine or raining.
I felt this sums it all very well:
“His determination challenges us. When we see past Bill’s disabilities, we see the disabilities in ourselves.”
we will discover more of our disabilities especially when we stay in our comfort zone,
謝謝仁波切這個真棒文章共享。比爾·波特的故事如此鼓舞人心，並在同时感觉尷尬，我們可以輕鬆地步行，雙手靈活，言语發音順暢，都沒問題，但仍然抱怨生活怎麼這麼困難，幾次嘗試後便放棄。我敬佩比爾，他勇敢面对難題積極尋找出路，永不放棄。而不是停留，諸多借口，抱著否定的。這也是我们该学習處世的正面精神。
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this inspiring story. I always find strength to fight my negative habits from Rinpoche’s blog. This is one of the strength-boosting post.
People with so little things in life can show us how great a person can be with persistence, with no feeling of discouraging even when others say “no” to us. Thanks Bill for being so real to himself and everybody, no complains, no expectation to depend on others, this really put people like me in shame.
May Bill rest in peace and have a good rebirth, please come back to us with even more good qualities to teach us to be a better person.
Thanks Rinpoche.
Thank you Rinpoche for this awesome sharing. Bill Porter is so inspiring and at the same embarrassing for us who can walk easily, use our hands and mouth without issues but still complain about how life is so difficult and giving up after a few tries. I admired Bill for his courage to choose to look for the positive instead of staying, holding on the negative. He never give up after being put down by others as this about him not about others, he only stand to gain. Bill doesn’t hold to the ridicules. We as people with able body and good senses should not put down others but encourage them. In fact putting down others just show that our poor attitude of giving up even before we began doing our tasks or jobs. Bill Porter chose to listen to his lovely mum. I think this decision changes his life. If we believe what others said about our negative then it will become true. Bill’s listen to it and turn it into positive. His door of opportunity has definitely been opened after he persisted and perservered for so many years of hardship. Everyone should look to Bill Porter for his determination whether to battle worldly or spiritually goals. In a way Bill Porter is as much a spiritual journey eventhough what the life he live is worldly one.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for sharing this moving inspirational story of Bill Porter. He will live on as an inspiration, mainly because he is everyone of us, in our best moments, when we make resolutions to realize the best of ourselves. Only, many of us gave up along the way, but Bill, with his debilitating problem of celebral palsy, never gave up.
Each day, as a salesman, he resolutely puts his infirmities aside, screws up his courage, goes out into the world and asks others to accept what he has to offer.
His dogged determination is what must touch us most. We must learn from him that we too have to resolutely achieve our daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals and lifelong goals. It can happen.
Bill Porter has died but his story touches everybody’s heart tremendously, as it was so moving, inspirational and convincing. He was a disabled, but he didn’t want to be seen as one, which atracted a lot of admiration and not pity. Most excerpts sing praises of him and admired him, adding that one must have the God-given talent or spiritual purity to become one of the remote. We can see more of the disabilities in ourselves than we see in Bill Porter. What a great man you were, Bill Porter, please R.I.P.
Great story about ACCEPTENCE of what is!
Woah…..made me cry buckets….what a man indeed……thus showing how to really live your life and what you can accomplish given the mind wil tell you constantly what you cant do …Look the light in his eyes….and the smile. Its very easy to become a victim and to say poor me…i`m disabled etc….the fact he never claimed benefit……amazing tale…we need to hear more of this stuff…Unfortuantly the benefits system sometimes creates lazyness….everybody can do something….if claiming benefits why cant people help in the community etc…
Dear Rinpoche,
What a heroic example of tenacity, perseverance and hardwork and all that makes one a success, is Bill Porter.
It makes me feel so badly inadequate in doing my best to achieve what I want in life and how out of sure laziness I have compromised. A great lesson to be learnt.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing Bill Porter’s story. Like Bill, we should never give up not matter what happened, especially for things that we have promised and committed and things that benefit others
This story is really moving and brought tears seeing how someone who was born with such disability has such a great ability that is more than those of us who have no disability, except for the one’s we create in our heads to limit ourselves due to fears, laziness, insecurities etc. What Bill has done is not fighting every day life (sorry disagree with this negative statement by the writer) but what Bill has done is embraced and cherished every day life with gratitude! So much so what most of us sees as bleak, he sees as opportunities and positivity. Inspired by his beloved mother who encouraged his and spoke positive words to him, his heart beat everyday with courage, perseverance and determination to beat the odds. This also points out that it is so important to empower people positively instead of negatively and always criticising them. Positive nurturing inspires and plants seed of positivity, and is especially important for children as they are growing up and forming their character and sense of being.
Bill is a man who took his adversary and turn it into something good and useful. Bill’s story makes shows and proves, it’s not about becoming some big shot, big name, earning big money, big career, being some big “somebody”, it is being able to accept your situation, whatever it may be, turn it around and doing your best in it. It is being that somebody for yourself that you yourself can look up to that matters, not what the world thinks/sees and Bill never looked for pity not even once and instead he got admirations. He practised the 8 worldly concerns in doing a worldly job. Amazing… maybe he is some Bodhisattva teaching us something, we’ll never know. He did not even want to be interviewed and that really moved and humbled me and even when he got hit by a car he still continue to work. Really but me to shame…how many of us do one small little “good” deed and we start to blow the trumpets, social media it and basically advertise to the entire world how “good” we are. But this person Bill doesn’t want any of that attention, this to me shows a person of true greatness, definitely he is an inspiration we need to see more in today’s society, perhaps be the inspiration like Bill. No one says we cannot except ourselves. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this 15minute story of Bill, yes it is so incredible, so touching, so inspirational and so moving. May Bill be born with a perfect human body in his next life, meet the Dharma and great Dharma teacher who will teach him the path to true liberation.
Just imagine that I’m in his place, I’ll most likely thinking hundreds of reasons on why I’m caught in this situation in the first place! I’ll be depressed, miserable, bitter and lonely, where people finds me awkward or even shutting me out for most of the time. But for him, (Bill Porter)he just lived on with DIGNITY! It must have been a tough situation for him a few months back before his passing away last year. (from the above~ ‘He’d lived alone in a small one-level Gresham home. But he continued to fall.’).
This story serves as an inspirational for us all. He’s one of the examples of people who fought hard for his life, ALONE. On the other hand, we always make excuses, saying that ‘I need to survive, I can’t do this, I don’t have time’, though we’re far better than him in many ways especially with a perfect body. Will share this with my friends.Thank you Rinpoche.
This is so beautiful. I was moved to tears. Bill Porter is such a determine man who never gives up . Nothing will stop him. I hope to have his determination . Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this beautiful story of Bill Porter.
Bill Porter, incapability did not stopped him, did not deterred him. Tenacity, perseverance, consistency, determination, unwavering and never give up for answer of NO, it is an example for us to follow. Thank you, Rinpoche for sharing such inspiring true story to us. _/\_
Dear Loh Ann Leong, do share this with others as it can make a difference in another person’s life. I wish you well. Tsem Rinpoche