FROM HOMELESS TO HOLLYWOOD – MIRACLE MAN

In life our paths cross with certain people who have a massive positive impact on our lives and one of those for me was Glenn Gannon.

Last week I had the honour of attending his book launch “Miracle Man – From Homeless to Hollywood” a book based on his life.

I knew Glenn as an actor & playwright; we trained at The National Performing Arts School at the Factory every Thursday night the school ran by Jill Doyle & Eamon Farrell.

But sharing a stage with Glenn and chatting in the dressing rooms I never knew about a life he once lived on the streets of Dublin. Until he was on the Pat Kenny Show one night on RTE and he was telling his story. The next day I just gave him a big hug. We chatted for hours over a coffee.

He loved the fact I knew him as an actor & playwright and not as a man who was once homeless. People will always ask him questions about his experience and the same happens to me when people find out I was hit by lightning and survived. We as humans are always inquisitive, it’s in our nature. But like me he doesn’t mind talking about it now. In fairness you can’t shut us up.

But at the darkest point in Glenn’s life he was homeless on the streets of Dublin for years. Now he is an ambassador for the Simon Community. Travelling around Ireland talking to school children throughout the country and raising much needed finances for the homeless crisis in Ireland.

He went on to lead a successful career in the arts & moving over to Hollywood to train as an actor. You could listen all day to his stories & passion for the arts & Simon Community. But I urge you to buy his book “Miracle Man – From Homeless to Hollywood”.

Glenn believes in the power of a positive outlook can overcome the darkest of shadows. Glenn is one of many reasons why I still battle on through everyday life. He picked himself up off the ground, off the streets & now he is an author with a book that will stand the test of time.

He often tells me on days of misfortune, or bad luck that “David at the moment you have nothing but you are not minus nothing, you have a bed and a roof over your head tonight” when projects fail, or funding is pulled I beat myself up but then I think of Glenn and “minus nothing” so I shake it off, leave the bad news and misfortune on the ground and I move forward.

Glenn Gannon has overcome the darkest parts of our society being a faceless man fighting for survival on the mean streets of Dublin fighting to live another day.

Now he is a beacon of light, a bundle of love & energy. Now the book is not all doom & gloom but full of Dublin wit and banter with warmth & heart.

So in life we can overcome the shadows and the darkness and achieve our wildest dreams. Like GG living his right now, an author of a book about turning a negative into positive. Shine On Brother – Shine On – So proud of you.

You embrace every meaning of Lightning Positivity.