Noel Fitzpatrick: Supervet Reveals His Silent Battle with Abuse and His Most Traumatic Surgery (E332)

0:00Watch it early on the High Performance App. Available now, Roman Kemp The broadcaster opens up A powerful conversation On success and mental health I got legal action taken Against me by my own profession For doing the things that are now The accepted norm You see everyone has stuff in their life I got abused as a child And I got bullied as a child And I just decided to bring light everywhere I could I think it's much more important to know What you don't want rather than what you want. And what I did not want was to not make a difference. That is the voice of Noel Fitzpatrick, a man famous around the world for being the super vet.

0:45But this conversation goes way beyond the labels that have been attached to him, the box he's been put in, or the criticism that's been thrown at him. I'm Jay Comfrey, and alongside our high-performance expert, Damien Hughes, this show explores not what our guests have done, but how they've done it. And you're about to hear Noel explain just how love is at the centre of everything he does. What he tells us about his childhood trauma will definitely move you. How he's learnt to find hope amongst the sadness will inspire you. And his insight into the complexity of the work he does and performs on animals will amaze you.

1:20And whatever you're expecting from this conversation, forget it. Because from the tears that we shared to the laughter that we enjoyed, This is Noel at his rawest and his most vulnerable. It's a conversation about humanity, about hope, about genius. And at the centre of it all, it's about the price that he pays for his obsession. As we welcome the remarkable Noel Fitzpatrick to High Performance.

1:49Noel, welcome to the show. Thanks so much. It's an honour to be here. You once said, if I could, I ran away and hid and I've been running and hiding ever since from the past and from the pain Are you still running and hiding? You see, everyone has stuff in their life People who pretend they don't It's not true Everyone has stuff, whatever that stuff is I talked in one of the books I wrote after Mammy died I had to come to terms with some things to happen in my childhood that I had been running from because you kind of compartmentalize it in that place in your head where you don't want to go. And then every now and then when a crisis hits, you fall tumbling down into that darkness.

2:32And I had had that a few times in my life, you know, when the various crises happened in business or you borrowed several million pounds and things didn't work out. You tumble into a darkness that had nothing to do with the debt. You tumble into a darkness that had everything to do with the things that you couldn't reconcile because they're hidden inside your head and you've chosen to put them in a cupboard you don't want to open. So the answer to your question is to hit it head on. I got abused as a child and I got bullied as a child and I never came to terms with it. and I ran towards something that I thought that I could do to make that less dark and I just decided to bring light everywhere I could and I thought that light would be enough to illuminate that and it ended up not being because then I didn't form meaningful romantic relationships or I wasn't comfortable with me.

3:38I just felt solid in some way. God, you jumped right in and I'm getting quite tearful now just thinking about it because I'm still, the only therapist I can go to lives in America because he's the only one I can see at 1 a.m. And I resent, I pushed back against therapy for years and years and years and years and years because, you know, I'm an Irish bloke. I worked on a farm. Irish farm boys don't cry to quote Robert Smith if he had written that song in Ireland but I think that the most important aspect of what you asked is one of my regrets if I could say it's a regret is running away rather than inviting it in and I do think that if you want to be light you have to deal with any darkness inside yourself because otherwise it becomes a facade I think you can't just be like you said to me when I came to the studio you seem very light you seem good yeah I'm working towards it but then I realised at age 11 I couldn't read and write properly because I went from a primary school into a secondary school and all of a sudden there were boys from all over Ireland there and I'd never I mean I'd been to Dublin once with a periscope to see the Pope and even that it rained on so the cardboard got soggy so I couldn't really see the pulp because the mirror was dipping down and I was I had no realm of comprehension for what was these boys and they, one of the bullying things, they sat me in a chair, tied me down and held my eyes open while they showed me a horror movie, now I'd never seen a horror movie, I mean I'd never seen any of these things Why had they picked on you?

5:27Because I was a swat because I realised on day one I couldn't read and write couldn't add, subtract I didn't know there was subjects like biology and physics and chemistry. I didn't know they existed. And then all of a sudden I realized I'm a fool. So I went home, cried, sat at the table and didn't leave for five years apart from to get in the sheep and pull turnips and bed the sheds for the cattle because I just knew the only way out was through. and so I had to study every day and they knew that so I was always the one asking the questions and everything else so they're like, oh, he's a SWAT meaning that he's a bloke who studies and he's a nerd so they threw me in the quarry it's quite good though I need an underpants sponsor because I never had any underpants no, I'm good but, you know, that was the type of things they did and it was a different world back then they'd steal your underwear?

6:29no, they would pull it up and rip it or one will be on each arm pulling me apart and thumping my chest and ripping my clothes. The thing is I'm always very conscious. I don't want to jump into, oh, woe is me. Because I feel through what I do, you know, I see like last night I was operating on a Doberman that was paralyzed, who was the love of the life of the family. And in the middle of all of this, I'm like I'm five hours in or whatever and time just passed because you're just in the flow of life. and there are moments in that where you are, the next thing you do is either life or death, you're two millimeters away from it.

7:11If that tool doesn't go in the right spot and you hit the cord and it's the brainstem, the dog's dead. And there are moments in that where you touch the void, where you touch the thing that connects all of us. I don't think there's room to be indulgent. I think we, you and I, all of us together, are one. I do. I genuinely believe that we are all part of one thing. One, for want of a better term, universal consciousness. And that we're all connected. And I can feel it. I can touch it in that moment. And I'm not joking. I touched it last night. And that's why I came into this room full of that life.

7:56Because I touched the void where it wasn't. So it's not woe is me. If it wasn't for all of that, I wouldn't be chatting with you today. So I'm grateful because there's people in war zones. There's people who have had genocide. There's people being tortured. We're so lucky to be in a beautiful room with beautiful people. Like this minute that we're in now is so to be treasured. I love you. I love being with you. It's great. And I feel so grateful because I know what the flip side would look like.

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10:18And when did you realize that this feeling that you've got inside you, this work that you do, bringing light to other people, looking to put light into the world as much as possible. When did you have the realization that you could do that your whole life and it still wouldn't be enough to mend you? Wow. You're good. Why don't I speak to you at 1am? He is good. Normally I sleep. I'll wake up for you. You're good. That's a great question. I'll take you through two phases of that so you asked me when did you realise you wanted to share a light and then when did you realise that it was going to be empty anyway so I realised age eight that I needed to share a light wow you're really tapping into it so I'm a night owl so you're lucky I got up for you this morning but I'm a night owl because I always had the night shift with the sheep since I was eight and I had small hands so I could lamb sheep really well I was lambing sheep aged seven and a bit and I was very good at it so I knew that I had this affinity with animals and I could talk to them I talked to the lambs I talked to the calves and I felt they were sentient meaning that they had feelings and clearly from what I just told you I wasn't talking to people because I was in the middle of nowhere anyway and I didn't have friends as such.

11:49It's not like your social group like you would expect. It's a farm in the middle of wherever. And I was on the night shift. I would do the 1 to 2 a.m. check of the sheep. And we couldn't afford to have sheds for the sheep to lamb in. So I would walk out into the fields. And it's like stupid. I mean, why would you have drains full of water around sheep that are lambing? But we couldn't afford anything different. So one sheep had fallen down into this drain and was submerged and I counted the sheep and it was the brightest starry night you could ever imagine and the grass was frosted with snow and I was slipping in my little Wellington boots and I found this sheep down the drain and I clambered down the side of the drain and she was half submerged in water, her head was above and obviously the weight of her wall and I realised she was lambing and I stuck my hand in and I pulled out one lamb which was fairly straightforward and that lamb was dead and it was freezing cold and I always remember what daddy said which was always check for a second one so put my hand in again and lo and behold there was a lamb, her head was down and as I just said I had done this before so I knew how to get the head of a lamb up in front of the pelvis and I delivered a lamb and the lamb was alive and I brought the lamb up to the side of the bank and I was trying to beat life into it and sticking straw in its nose to get it to cough up mucus and pump its lungs.

13:13And the sheep got this, as mothers do, enough energy to haul up. And I pushed her up and I'm walking back up the field carrying the lamb by the legs. And the lamb is spluttering and I slip. And the lamb gets flung out in front of me and it just dies in front of my eyes. And I'm looking at this lamb and I'm lying on my back in this frosty field. I'm looking up all the stars in heaven. And at that time, it was heaven to me. I grew up in Catholic Ireland. And I looked up and I looked at the brightest star in heaven and I wish I would be stronger or brighter or braver. And at that moment, I knew that what I had to do was take that light and bring it to earth somehow.

14:02Yeah. That was the changing point. but when did you also realize that none of these things were healing the wounds that you have oh yeah not till mammy died so kira the dog who was the love of my life um had had a very bad accident and she was dying in my arms and i had to either fix her or let her go and i tried to fix her which worked for a while but then uh she had a cardiac arrest and there's very few people i suppose have felt the heart of the being they love actually stop in their finger because I cut down on her chest and my finger was on her heart when it stopped. And Mammy had died and my relationship had split up and I was rock bottom.

14:52And then I realized that no matter how hard I tried with what I do or the practice I built or whatever, it was never, ever, ever, ever going to fill the void. so I went home it was during COVID and you had to get a vaccine to get to Ireland and I knew I had to go because Mammy was dying and I sat on the side of her bed and I needed to know some questions which were? about the stuff that happened I needed to know did she know? I don't think she did and then everything changed because a robin landed on the window and mommy loved robins and she knew she was dying

15:47she said we need to say goodbye to the robin and I knew I needed to say I needed to stop the thing that was going on and on in my head so i had to talk to the robin meaning i had to find someone to help because i couldn't keep running anymore so that's when that's it's not done yet it's a process well look first of all thank you so much for sharing that stuff with us and the reason why i think it's important is um is because there are so many people who are also walking around carrying on to things right that they haven't yet worked out how to solve them and sometimes these things can never be solved right but i think what is really important is your ability to share with people that you were working so hard to try and do the things that you thought were right but it wasn't making a difference and only when you had the trauma of losing your mum in a strange way were you able to find the freedom which I'm guessing is how it kind of feels to then open up and to talk about these things well I think vulnerability is not something that we talk about enough in society we're in the midst of a world where politicians are constantly

17:16I don't think being completely honest and I don't think society and the kids, the kids, me, if the little boy inside me was not being told the truth, I can see that in the world for all the little boys and the little girls in the world and the little days in the world and I totally believe that everybody has a right to be whoever they are. Who am I to judge? Who are any of us to judge? It's nonsense, utter nonsense. What the Irish word? is wrong with us. Can we not just laugh? And I see that vulnerability, that very thing, that essence of why we're human at all on the floor of my consulting room every single day, including yesterday.

18:08Any week, you'll see an 83-year-old lady bleeding her heart out because her husband has died of cancer and Freddie is all she's got left, the dog. you'll see as I had yesterday an 8 year old child who very cheekily told me I wasn't really sick it's not half term till next week I just wanted to come see you and it was so sweet because we talked about the difference between Charlie XCX and Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift for 4 minutes but I knew she needed something this 8 year old kid and what she needed was somebody to take an interest in her. Her, what she was considering was a mixed up brain.

18:54And I just took out a book and I showed her what a cell was and I showed her how it was a building block in a house and we were all made of cells and we're not different. And we were talking about the nerve cells in her dog. I'd mended her family, Dachshund, who was going to be paralyzed. And I said, you don't have to be paralyzed by fear. We're all the same cells. You just need to find the conduit past that. So whichever of those people they are, or whether you are Taylor Swift, or whether you're singing in the shower with your brush, your hairbrush, your dog thinks you are Taylor Swift. Your dog thinks you're the king of Nairobi.

19:32Your dog thinks you're the very best thing you were telling me about Teddy, your dog. You come home and Teddy makes you feel like a king because you are a king. because if we could all be what our dog or our cat thinks we are, we wouldn't be lying to each other. We wouldn't be trying to grab the next wrong and fend off the next knife. We'd just say, you know what? If we're kind, it'll be okay. Do the right thing today and tomorrow will take care of itself. Can I speak to you about your mummy because the stories that you told there are incredibly powerful but you've also mentioned that she taught you how to dream and I think that moment when you were lying on your back looking at the stars, contemplating the light that you wanted to be, there's something very powerful that your mum taught you there.

20:22Would you tell us a little bit more about that? Mammy was a great woman, you know. She... My father was a workaholic like me. It didn't fall far from... didn't have to fall far. We were both very addictive personalities. I often say about addiction that it can go one of two ways. I mean, I'm lucky that I'm not a heroin addict because at least what I do is good. It's reasonably good. Nevertheless, I am addicted. So how can that work in a relationship sense? You both have children. I'd love to have a kid, but I haven't made that work. And you've got to accept that part of that responsibility is yours.

21:08and Mammy was this woman who my father was a hardworking Irish farmer. So he would, like, there was no Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I mean, it's not like you had working hours regulations.

21:25It's not like he had a mental health day. I mean, it is what it is. I'm not being disparaging about anything, but I'm just saying that's how it was. he would bring 12 men in after bringing in hay and she'd have to feed them but she'd have no food so she had to bake a bread and she always had a secret fish so it was very biblical you know the fish and loaves because she always had a secret I'm like mammy where did the fish come from not for you to know it was a smoked piece of cod or haddock or something and she would bake a loaf and feed 12 men with a fish and a loaf and I remember she forgot to feed me one day so I had a banana and she said it is what you make of it and all of these little things that Mammy taught me because when I was struggling to read and write I had this blue dictionary which I still have it's an Oxford English dictionary it's well tacit now but I still have it on my desk and I found a copy of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis that I couldn't understand at all but those were the two books I had so make do I mean, who can understand that for fun?

22:33I mean, Oscar Wilde, I'll go straight at the top. So I'm trying to understand these words, and I would ask her these words from the dictionary. She would always help me. And she did believe in me. You know, she didn't have the wherewithal to say, you know, you can do this. There's no money. So there was no like, we will pay for this or whatever, because that was never going to happen. I had to get a grant, had to get a scholarship, whatever. but she believed that it was possible by simply not saying it was impossible. Do you know what I'm saying? There's so many blockages put up for kids, whether they're looking at TikTok or Instagram or whatever else.

23:10It's like you can be famous in 10 seconds. Sure, yeah, good for you, mate. No longevity. But also you're not told enough that it's not impossible. You're told all this is possible. Chase that. I think it's much more important to know what you don't want rather than what you want. And what I did not want was to not make a difference. And that was very powerful for me. And she knew that. She knew that I had something in me that was, I can feel the pain of the world really deeply. And she didn't want it to destroy me, which is why it was really hard to have that conversation in the end. but she didn't tell me anything was impossible and therefore I just assumed everything was possible.

23:56So you're taking on some pretty big ideas, right, as a young boy. I mean, you're laying in that field with snow on the ground, looking up at the stars, saying to yourself, I need to be responsible for bringing light down to the earth, right? That's a big thing for an eight-year-old to take on. You're then having a conversation with your mum and deciding that you want to have a positive impact in the world. I mean, that's, again, a huge thing to decide at a young age. And I think it's around this age where you created this character, right, of Super Vet. Is that right? Yeah. He was called Vet Man.

24:28And it's very interesting we're doing the podcast at this time because Led Zeppelin have just done a film of their beginning. There were two big influences I had that changed everything with regard to how could I get that light out there. So we had no money. I had spent what Mr. Lewis had given me on quarter penny sweets they were back then you could get four sweets for a penny good days anyway we rarely were allowed sweets so we're in Mount Mellick County Leash Republic of Ireland the town that had everything specifically one shop that sold everything and it was in alphabetical order so fertilizer was next to Frosties Corn Flakes was next to Corn Flour petrol you get the gist this shop had a little fuel pump outside it and a window in which there was a cornucopia of everything one could ever wish for in life materially and in that window was a comic book and on that comic book was a man with adamantium pegs and it said on the cover I didn't know what adamantium was I just assumed it was real so there's a man and I'm like why are we not building that for the land We're putting bale or twine and twigs around the lake to mend the fire.

25:44I bet I can build an adamantium skeleton. So that was one big influence. I thought, okay, Wolverine, he's where I want to be. He's bionic stuff, and I want to do that. So the bionic work you're doing today... All came from Wolverine. Came from seeing a magazine in a tiny shop that you couldn't afford to buy in your village. Stared at it while my dad was filling up the Morris Minor with petrol, which took 10 minutes back then because the pump was crap. and I stood in front of that window more than once because the comic was there for a while. That was what I wanted. Then I found a transistor radio in a scrap heap, also in Mount Mellie County Leash, in Ward's Scrapyard and it was a Sony radio and it had no aerial and I built an aerial out of a coat hanger and I tuned in.

26:31I got a pirate radio station called Radio Luxembourg and I, the first song I heard, Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. I mean, imagine, imagine a kid hearing this. I'm like, what is this the world is holding out from me? This miraculous thing that changes everything. And then I would hide this transistor in the shed with Pirate, the farm dog who was tied up by a chain. And I felt tied up like a chain. So Pirate was my best friend. He had a patch over one eye, black, which is why he was Pirate. Hair, black. Anyway, so I'm sitting with Pirate, and I'm listening to Led Zeppelin, and I come up with this precious mineral called zeplinium, which is like adamantium.

27:15It doesn't exist, but you know. I built all in my head these endo and exoskeletons with zeplinium that I was going to go off on the stairway to heaven, which I'd already seen by then in that star. I'm like, right, Pirate. We're going to invent Vet Man, and he's going to be a superhero and he's going to go out and he's going to heal all those animals with Zeppelinium and we're going to build all of this and we're going to save the world and then we're going to show all the boys at school that there's no need to be horrible. We can all be in this together. And from those two things, Led Zeppelin and Wolverine, there was one tiny third ingredient while I think of it, I'm going to tell you and that was Brian May.

28:03because I had seen Top of the Pops just after that and I wanted to be the guy with the big hair. So I built a guitar out of a bale of hay and twines and a 10-10-20 fertilizer sack and a broom handle. And I'm supposed to be stacking hay so the rain goes down off the stacks. My father comes around the corner. He said, what are you doing? I'm guitaring. And he's like, there'll be no guitaring around here. There's enough noise around here. You'll take this saw and you'll saw horns off bullocks tomorrow. That was my first veterinary procedure. I'm 10 and I'm sawing horns off a bullock wishing I was Brian May.

28:37So I've got this in my head. Wolverine, Led Zeppelin and Brian May. And maybe later in the interview you want to ask me, how did Brian May turn you into a guitarist in your mid-50s? Because it's so funny how that came full circle. But that was how I invented Vet Man. And Vet Man is a multiverse. I can't wait for the movies. It's like Captain America, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. He's got all these characters around him and he's got the bionic bunker where he changes everything. So you'll come to the movie in five years' time. I look forward to it. Are you aware of research? There's a paper written called The Batman Effect.

29:15No, I'm not. Tell me. With young people. So what they've done is that when young people are doing a task and they say, we want you to work really hard, and then they might say, an adult wants you to work really hard. and then the third group gets old, imagine a superhero that you really admire and we want you to imagine how they would work hard and what they find is that third group, when they associate themselves with a superhero, their perseverance, their diligence, their willingness to stick at a task increases. So how did Vet Man benefit you as a young man? Brilliant question. I have a sign on my wall.

29:51I have two signs on my wall. I don't have any of my degrees or anything else because I really don't believe, I told you earlier, I don't believe in being proud. I never say the word proud of myself. You can be proud of the people around you. You can be proud of what you're trying to do, but it's just too indulgent to me. So I have no degrees or professor this or professor that. I've got a sign that says always be yourself unless you can be Batman, in which case always be Batman. That's one of the signs. The other sign is all you need is love from the Beatles. Those are the only two signs I've got in my office.

30:26and Vet Man was essential for me because when they were breaking up my bike I know I could fix it when they were breaking up my soul I know I could fix it because it's just my body when they were thumping me and beating me whatever there's a story in Vet Man 2 which I'm writing at the moment about exactly that the boy is in a quarry and metaphorically and literally and he's having stones thrown at him and they're just stones so Vetman allowed me to believe that things that were conventionally deemed impossible were entirely within the realm of possibility he allowed me to do the first thing on the you know the research questions for this show the first thing I've said on that is I haven't invented anything I've just observed everything now what does that mean?

31:17it occurred to me yesterday only during surgery because I was doing surgery on that Doberman I've told you about. And I'm going to tell you how Vetman influenced me because he allowed me to understand that most of the time we're not making something new. We're just observing what's in nature already and recreating it in the best way we possibly can. Let me give you an example of how Vetman changed everything. So it's mid-90s, about 1995. I've done my first spinal surgery on a Doberman. Bear in mind, the last one was about less than 12 hours ago. and I know I'm going to fail because the equipment sucks.

31:53It sucks. It's not good equipment. And I'm like, well, this is going to fail. And it did. And I ended up putting that doorman to sleep and I was crying. I was just telling your colleagues before I came in because of the op last night. Anyway, I was crying. I'm driving home and it's snowing. This is in Cranley in Surrey. And I'm crying and crying and crying and I have to pull in because it's snowing and I'm too upset. Pull into a lay-by. Directly opposite me is a garden centre called Santa Fir. And I see this guy with Christmas trees in his hand. He's got a horse box that's open and the horse box is down.

32:31He's filling the horse box with Christmas trees. He's got one last Christmas tree left in his hand. He's looking at the horse. I'm observing this from a distance. Looking at the horse box, looking at the Christmas tree. And then he just simply takes the tip of the Christmas tree, pushes it and pushes it into the stubs of all the other Christmas trees and in it goes. I'm like, boom! Vet Man would use a Christmas tree as an intervertebral spacer every day. And then I shortly thereafter saw a horse with saddle on that had this thing that you hold in front of the saddle. I thought, I'll make a plate out of a horse's saddle, turn it upside down, bolt it underneath, bolt the Christmas tree to that.

33:06And that is exactly how I made the Doberman that we operated on last night not paralyzed. So the life of that dog is directly attributable to Vet Man because Vet Man told me, everything's out there, you just need to notice it. And how present is Vet Man in your everyday life now? He is. The bionic bunker in the book I wrote, Vet Man 1, is my practice. You know, it's interesting because I'm a double-edged sword and I don't mind saying that anymore because I'm 57 years old and I am going to die. And if I can't hand on any of this to the next generation, well it's a problem and having created a hundred or so of those types of inventions the challenge I have is who wants to learn that because we're all so busy making profit you do a simple ops you're going to make 20-25 % profit you do the complex ops you make 5 % profit and it takes forever to design them like it's not like they come in a silver packet you have to design them at 2am because I'm busy operating all day and then you give drawings to the engineer and they make it So Vet Man is in my life every single day telling me, right, you will find people who will want to learn this because the tide is going to change and we won't always be just motivated by the next pound of profit.

34:25And I think it's critically important that the thing, like total knee replacement created from nearly turning over a load of barley, a hip replacement created from an ice cream scoop, whatever it might be, every single day he's there saying, yes, this is not only appropriate but it's the right thing to do. But the point I was getting to, that's a double-edged sword. So in my profession, there's yin and yang. Oh, he's the arrogant guy on the television and yeah, whatever. And they have an opinion. And I have done a lot of penguins and tortoises and everything else. But not everybody agrees with it.

35:08So they think, oh, he's pushing things too fast. And then I go to a conference, which I did last autumn, 18 years after I had developed it, they're like, oh, this is new and state of the art. No, it's not, mate. I did it in 2009. Like shoulder replacement or bionic legs, you know, and I was talking about this to the queen. I was like sitting next to her at lunch. All she wanted to know was, how come we invented this dermal integration module where the skin goes over trabecular titanium and sticks to it like the skin in the antler of a deer on one of her estates? Well, it's in nature. We just need to recreate it.

35:44But people get tired with a brush because they're on telly or whatever. I'm just a bloke who's trying to do his best. So what I'm saying is that if you're trying to move things forward, there's always going to be naysayers. And has that allowed you to deal with the criticism, to deal with the people that say, you should allow these dogs to die or you're playing? I mean, you've seen all of the criticism that comes your way. And I think that it's very difficult to get to a place that we would deem high performance if you're being derailed by the opinions of others. What would you share on that topic?

36:16I put in one of the things I said, are you really going to tell lies to yourself through the mouths of others? Do I believe that? What they're saying? About either my motives or my technique? Heck no. But yeah, I get depressed and sad about it. I'm going to be brutally honest because I have long since passed the point of giving an Irish word about I'm going to die. So unless I find an inheritor for this who can also deal with criticism, what I said in 1996, and I'm not saying I'm the greatest thing that ever happened, I'm just a bloke trying to do his best, but what I said in 1996, we proved in 2018 about developmental elbow disease.

37:05And I wrote a textbook last year which comes out this summer, and then it's commonplace. And yet I got legal action taken against me by my own profession on more than one occasion for doing the things that are now the accepted norm. Getting emails every day of the week, how do you do that bionic leg? Getting emails every week about a cartilage transplant, which is now in a textbook. The right thing to do is the right thing to do, no matter how people may feel about it. If you are thinking with your heart and not your head. But with this sort of freedom, I guess, that you've found from the fact that you know that you're mortal, right?

37:43And you want to tell the truth. What would you say to the people that did glibly and easily throw that criticism your way? And maybe even the following day, forgot they'd said it, but it lives with you for a lot longer. Well, I don't think they forgot they said it because some of them are still entrenched in that. Really? And I love you. I would say I love you. I believe you're a good person coming from a good place because they are. Why on earth do we immediately adopt a confrontational stance? I don't cry because I feel vilified, nor did I cry when I was being bullied other than the fact that my bruises hurt and I didn't have any underpants.

38:18It's the same thing. You're going to die. Just assume the other person doesn't quite see the world the same way as you. Choose your friends carefully, choose your enemies even more carefully, and choose your heroes wisely. the point is that they're good people, full stop, they just don't see the world the way I do. And I get that. And I understand that they might think that the only way forward is to put that tortoise to sleep and not give that tortoise three bionic legs. The only way forward is to put that dog to sleep and not give the three-legged dog a salvage for the one leg it has left on that end.

38:58I understand that. It's okay. But you haven't seen a thousand cases. Would my mind be different if I lived in Gaza or Ukraine? Sure as hell would. I've seen people with PTSD come back from Afghanistan. It's in my book that I'm here to talk about. I've seen people on the front in Ukraine, lost all their family members and they come over with a dog and the dog represents all of their family members. Have I seen that? You better bet you I have. Do I then look at those people who criticize? I'm like, dude, go to the front line. Feel that pain. Look at that animal in the eyes and tell them, I am very sorry, my friend.

39:42The only way is death. Really? We're in 2025. I felt that in 1990 when I graduated and I didn't want to feel like that when I was eight, looking up all the stars in heaven, thinking that I was completely inept and inadequate. Why the hell would I bother getting all that skill set to have you tell me that that's not the right thing to do? So in any of those scenarios, I would say, when you're in business, whatever you're doing, whatever your business is, ask in your own mind, does that person see things from the frontline you're on? No. Does that person have a right to judge? Yes, they do, because they're good people and they're judging from the outside.

40:19They can say whatever they like. But the third thing is most important. Just ask them, do you think if they were reasonable and they were in your situation, they would do something different? And if the answer is yes, completely ignore them and crack on because they're wrong. If the answer is no, they probably would come around to my point of view because they're reasonable and so on. Make them your friend. Only make your enemy your friend if they believe in the stuff that's in your heart otherwise wish them well send them on their way and carry on regardless but you need resilience right to carry on regardless yeah and i wonder whether you're able to reflect now on on the abuse you suffered as a kid both the sexual abuse and the bullying and realize that as horrendous as as they are and were and that you would never want your worst enemy to go through the experiences that you had, that actually they also did build a resilience inside you that you do rely on now.

41:19That is very true, both sides of that coin, with the exception that it ain't easy. And any bloke or person who sits here in your beautiful chair and says, you know what, I've come to terms with that, I've got this sorted out. Am I allowed to use a swear word on this? Bollocks. It's not true. I don't care who you are. It's always a working process and you're going to die. So you better, sure as hell, do the best you can to sort enough of yourself out that you can give enough that you don't be on your debt. You can't take 10 billion with you. Wealthiest man in the graveyard. Good for you, mate. Bollocks.

42:06Make the money. Kick your socks off. I've borrowed millions I've lost millions is it better to live a life in debt or is it better to not live a life I'd rather live a life in debt than not live a life you never have it all sorted I'll do the work man and everything else and I resisted therapy for years and years and years but I realized there's some things you have to do there's some pain you have to go through to deal with other pain that's bigger I have to go through the pain of a 12 hour opera the dog's gonna die and no one else wants to do the op at the moment and I'm hoping things like this will change people's minds because it's not about the 25 quid extra you make.

42:47You'll make the money anyway if you do the right thing and the only right thing to do is to care desperately because people don't care what you know until they know that you care and we live in a world that's increasingly about oh I'll do this and I'll buy that favour, I'll do this and I'll buy that vote, I'll do this And then you turn up and you're busy grabbing the next rung, fighting off. And if you indulge in the ego of the self as the pure motivator, you are Irish word. And something occurred to me last night that I'm going to share with you that I think is really important. In that op that I was doing last night, it's just because I'm doing the podcast today and I'm thinking about it yesterday and so on.

43:33And I thought, in this op, because I was that far away from death. And I saw in the wards this morning, this dog raises his head and smile. And I thought to myself, apropos all of your question, be a river in full flow. Don't go back to pick up a twig. You know, all the regrets, the relationship that went wrong, they're twigs. Keep flowing. You're much better off chasing a new invoice than chasing a bad debt. You're much better off sharing light than fighting darkness. You're much better off investing 10 minutes in you than you are crying in your own misery. You're much better off showing love to your wife, your partner, your child, and being present with them than giving them a present.

44:39The most important thing that I've learned in the whole process is the only thing that's truth is love. And everything else is misplaced. It's love of self, love of fame, love of money. You'll get all that, mate. Just love. Sorry, I don't care. How do you have so much love, though, for people when the world was so harsh to you early on? For a lot of people, what happened to you as a kid would have killed their love for other human beings. I genuinely believe in the eternal...

45:15My God. What a podcast.

45:28because I am regularly the interface between life and death I genuinely passionately believe in the power of redemption because I know that there will be a moment in that surgery when I have to make a choice to fix it or to let it go. The it being, whatever I'm operating on as an entity, the being of which that entity is part, bone, spine, brain, whatever. I did brain surgery last week. I'm looking at the piece of meat with which I worry, with which I fall in love, with which I'm on the hamster wheel of life that I cannot put a spanner in. I believe that if you're on the battlefield of life, you always pick up the fallen person and you ask questions later.

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48:29Can you take us into that interface, that moment between life and death, and explain to us how you avoid playing God at that moment? There was a time in my early career, I want to say to everybody out there, don't believe people who tell you you can't study and achieve whatever you want. You can, but it's intensely painful. The difference between success and failure equals pain. Full stop. And it's a choice. Everything's a choice. Bollocks to people who say it's not a choice. It's a choice unless you've got circumstances in your life, i.e. your social circumstances. You live in a council block.

49:09You've got a single mom. She's a drug addict. He's a drug addict. They're a drug addict. That's difficult. You don't have a lot of choices there. But you do have some choices in any circumstance. I'm trying to be as broad as I possibly can. Everything is a choice. And there's a moment when you are in between life and death where you do have an element of choice. I could have made the choice last night. I'm sorry, this is too hard. Bear in mind, I'd spent six weeks developing the implant for this case at exactly the right angle, so I would miss the heart and the lungs. there was a moment in my career when I'm busy getting all the exams bear in mind I did not sit my board specialist exams till 23 years after I graduated as a vet because I was told I would never be a surgeon you're better off with a shovel paddy that's real life I was not let take the exams because I was never good enough to be an intern I was never good enough to be a resident meaning different stages in your career certainly would never make professor and I reached the epigree which is to give the keynote address at the American Academy of Veterinary Surgery and I think wow wow and I'm nervous I give the talk and there's maybe 1800 people in this giant ballroom in Chicago and I'm the man invented all this stuff they've never even seen they're talking about problems that I've solved like that I walk up to the stage you got this believe in yourself I know you're feeling nervous believe in yourself and I give the talk of my life and I float on my cloud of ego with smoke blowing up my ass to the toilet and I sit in the toilet cubicle I go two guys also high up in the academic world had complimented me after my talk oh my god, Professor Fitzpatrick that was the best thing we've ever seen thank you so much for coming and sharing that information with us that was incredible same two guys come in at the urinals having a pee oh my god, what an asshole how dare he come here and insult us by making out we don't know anything I'm like, hang on a minute whoa, whoa I'm just sitting in the toilet having a poo and all of a sudden my whole world implodes the same two guys that are telling me I'm great have just told me I'm awful hang on, hang on they can't have changed their mind in one minute that it took us to get from the stage to the toilets they're the same guys with no external influence something's not quite right here and in that moment I realise everybody's blowing smoke up your ass when they need to when I got something and no one's going to tell you the truth if they don't have to.

52:15And my whole life changed. And I'm like, right, you chase that, you're Irish word. You chase that, that's the wrong thing to chase. And in that moment, I'm like, yeah, fine. Professor this, professor that. You're going to indulge in that for the rest of your life. You're going to lead a meaningless life, my friend. Because you are, and I sat there. I wanted to bust out of the toilet and give them what's what, but I didn't. I just sat there and I cried. best thing that ever happened to me because a punch in the face will teach you way more than all the praise in the world. What role though does inside you fear, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, what role does that play?

52:56You know, sometimes I feel inadequate. I feel a little bit misunderstood sometimes because like you're pigeonholed into professionalism. We haven't had it. I may as well not have been a vet giving this talk, giving this chat with you, having this chat with you because it could be anybody in any line of business. People forget that. It's not different. You can be the CEO of the most successful travel company in the world, CEO of the most successful manufacturing XYZ. It's the same thing. Unless you're arrogant and unless you think you're God, I mean, surgeons are more in danger of developing God complex than anything else.

53:36So those two questions combine into, I know that it's okay to feel inadequate every day because I might fail. And I know that every failure I've ever had, every success I've ever had stands on the shoulders of that failure. And don't be afraid to fail. Like as, was it Michael Jordan said, you know, you will miss 100 % of the time if you don't try. So I am so used to failure. The modern world tells people that if they're famous, they'll be more adequate. If they're rich, they'll be more adequate. If they're lauded, they'll be more adequate. You've had all of those things. God, I go mad about this.

54:11The chase for perfectionism is such nonsense. Do you really think I wouldn't want every operation I ever do to be perfect? Do you think it is perfect? God, no. Last night, I'm drilling these vertebrae, and a bit comes off I don't think is going to come off, because it's softer bone. Oopsie. Oh, I know. I'll give up. There's a bump in the road. You've got to die. That's like what Brian May... I'm going to tell you the music analogy, because I think it's brilliant as an example of this metaphor. There's nothing more humbling than trying to develop a skill set that you are completely crap at when you're mid-50s.

54:51I mean, I'm a reasonable surgeon, you know. I can use a scalpel blade. Guitar? No. So I have this bit in my show where I did a live show, and I had that scene with my father with the bale of hay and the thing. And I said, that's the thing. when I was 10 I wanted to be Brian May and the audience go whoa yeah Brian May yeah yeah yeah Brian comes to see the show because we bonded over hedgehogs because he has a wildlife centre and I really love hedgehogs I've made a lot of hedgehogs so he comes along and he goes hey Noel wouldn't it be great if you actually do pull a guitar out at that moment and I go well there's a small problem there Brian I can't play guitar and he goes it's not that difficult and I'm like well you are Sir Brian May and I am a schmuck from Ireland with a bale of hay.

55:40And he said, no, no, no, it's not that hard. And I'm like, sure. And I forgot all about it. Queen are doing their tour in North America at the end of 2023. Brian leaves. Hey, mate. Voice note, come out of surgery. Hey, mate. Just pass him by on the way home for rehearsals because he lives near me. Gonna pop in. Well, I don't have time to respond to that because he's already there. I've just come out of surgery. Up saunters Brian to my office with the two signs on the wall and the two cats creating mayhem. And he's like, and he's short, and he's going to do an actual queen. And he goes, right, what song are we going to play?

56:20And I'm like, Brian, we're not going to play anything because you'll be in Madison Square Garden and I'll be in Foxton. And he goes, no, no, no. It would be great at that bit in the show where you play guitar. I'm like, Brian, I can't play guitar. Fine, fine, fine. One vision because that'll be in keeping with the show. So Brian stands there, shows me the chords to One Vision. He said, I expect you to learn that by the time I get back. Off he saunters. I go to the producer of the show. Now this is one week before we're due to go on tour for 24 dates or whatever. And the dates are Friday, Saturday and Sunday night because I have a day job.

56:55So I get in the van, love the van, fall asleep in the van, end up in Blackpool. Yay! Go on stage. the producers do not want me to play guitar because it's supposed to be a dream sequence right? which ends with the sauce horns off cattle hence I became a vet and not a musician win for the world of music and I go on to talk about how you need to get skilled you can't be just operating on dogs for money you need to get properly skilled and that's a big bugbear of mine you have to get properly trained do you really think you've got 50 ,000 hours of guitar training? no so I'm playing guitar terribly, terribly, terribly badly and this goes on for eight nights.

57:34The producer's like, no, I'm not giving you a backing track. You're crap. We don't want you to do it. I end up in Richmond Theatre, beautiful old theatre, night eight. Go on, play guitar awfully and Dave Shaq, who's the manager of Iron Maiden, is a friend of mine. He's in the audience and he goes, no, don't ever do that again. That was God awful. Now, nothing will hurt your ego like one of your close friends telling you the truth, right? I'm talking about humility. How do you feel inadequate and break through it? This is a great example. Night nine, I am in Foxton. Brian is in Madison Square Gardens.

58:09He's doing sound check. I'm about to go on stage. Hello, dear boy. How's it going? Terrible, Brian. You've landed me in the, you know, it's awful. It gets worse. Let me give you a word of advice. He goes, there is no such thing as a bad cord. There's either a cord with attitude or without. Now you decide on the attitude and I'll see you when I get back. so that night I go out I'm still crap but I give it attitude the audience went wild sure fake it till you make it but the answer to humility is you have to do it you can't just rely on it next day I get a text on my phone saying alright mate you're booked and I'm like F off John don't take the piss you know I'm crap this guy runs the Isle of Wight Festival mate of mine and I said, what?

59:01Are you serious? On the same poster as Green Day. Now he knows I can't play. This is in June and we're in December 2023. So he says, no, I'm serious, exclamation mark. I just send him a thumbs up emoji. Six months later, turn up with a band at the Isle of Wight Festival on the same poster as Green Day because it's about attitude. So look after your attitude and your aptitude and don't seek perfectionism because it's going to come with time being better. You can't learn quality and you have to put in the effort. The difference between success and failure in business equals not just pain, but effort.

59:40Every night, I would not brush my teeth, and I do like oral hygiene, without playing guitar for one hour. Now, this is at 2 a.m. I don't care how tired I am. Anything that's worth doing, anything you really want to do, you will always have time for because you will make time. And so the band are great, and I'm a bit crap, but we do well. We do fine. And the end of that story is, Brian said, the name is terrible and all. You can't call the band that. It was called Fitz and the Fearless Dogs. And he very kindly gave me a guitar that he built the pickup on because he built a guitar with his dad when he was 10 and he wanted me to have a piece of when he was 10.

1:00:15He's such a kind, beautiful, beautiful human. He said, well, you have to change the name of the band. And I said, what, Brian? What are we going to call it? And he said, well, you have to call the band Fitzpatrick. And I said, that's a crap name, Brian. Fitzpatrick's a really common name in Ireland. it's stupid and he said funny you should say that I had this exact conversation with Eddie and Van Halen did alright what a right edge of the story but can I just jump in there because there's something like you are a renowned scientist you know like you are at the leading edge of it and yet you talk with such passion about the arts as well you went to drama school after after veterinary school you know you're a guy that seems to appreciate the art as well as the science would you explain a little bit around yeah as I said earlier I'm not a scientist I am a clinical artist and I have a deep pervasive profound love for art in its truest sense which is a reflection of the humanity that creates it the reason I went to drama school I'd already been to vet school and I was very shy I couldn't talk I couldn't do this not a chance in hell Couldn't do any of the things I had.

1:01:28Knew I needed to get a TV show in order to try and change the world a bit because I have no platform. How am I going to do that? Well, you've got to learn how to communicate. How are you going to do that? Go to drama school. So I interviewed. Didn't get in because just like not good enough to be an intern. Dude, you're never getting in here. Are you out of your mind? And so I interviewed for numerous dramas. Don't get in. Finally, get part-time course on Lambda, which was an extended like three year. You could do a part-time to get your medal in literature and your medal in... I was very lucky that I met a dear man called Philip Gilbert in a tiny theater in Farnborough.

1:02:05And I went there and immediately he could see that all I wanted was to understand Oscar Wilde, that book I had on my desk when I was a kid. What did De Profundus mean? You know, what does it mean, the love that has no name? What does that mean? and he could see that I was really searching for how I could create science into art. So I went to drama school and in the 90s I did, you know, Heartbeat and The Bill and Casualty and London's Burning and everything else. Then I did an audition for an Irish television show and there were two other people, we're down to three, and there was a beautiful boy in the audition.

1:02:48You'll never have heard of him. his name is Colin Farrell and I mean I know he's never made it never never made it I don't know what happened to him so I love this I'm sitting there thinking dude you are fucked there's no way you're getting over him it was for a show called Bally Kiss Angel which was Colin's first break and I'm like dude you better decide to be a good surgeon because this ain't never going to work and years later last year when Colin did the Penguin of which he's just won awards he sends me a note saying but for a quirk of fate mate I could have turned out to be a great vet and instead I ended up being a penguin

1:03:36so I wanted to do it to learn how to talk to learn how to communicate and then I pitched the first TV show Chris Evans radio DJ came in with his dog. I got to know Chris a bit. We've been friends for a very long time now. But again, you know, I don't become friends with people because I want to become friends with them. I become friends with them because I love being around them. And he very kindly said, well, what do you want to do? I mean, I want to make a show about love. And then he puts the, he says, well, you need a pitch. And I'm like, what's that? Is it a grass field that you play football on?

1:04:13No, it's a three-page document. Three pages? Yeah, so he helps me with the pitch while we're swimming his dog Enzo. And we put on the desk of Jay Hunt, who was the head of the BBC at the time. And Jay believed in me and we did Bionic Fet, which everybody thought was a show about bionics. Actually, it wasn't a show about bionics, it was a show about love. And then I couldn't get the show pitched again. I couldn't get a TV show after Bionic Fet. Nobody wanted it because they thought it was a show about bionics. We don't want a show about it. No, it's a show about love. Pitched everywhere, couldn't get it.

1:04:44Finally got a million emails. 2012, sent an email to National Geographic in the States. They say, yeah, well, we might be interested, but you'll have to come over and pitch it. And I thought, okay, I'm going to go to LA. I'm going to pitch it. I don't know anything about LA. I don't know anything about that world. Like, where am I going to stay? Well, Dave Gahan from the Peshmod took a speedball at the Sunset Marquee Hotel and died for nearly two minutes. That's where I'll go. What's the worst that can happen? Do you think Dave Gahan is not an artist that seeks perfection, doesn't always achieve it, doesn't have all his own demons?

1:05:21Hero of mine. I'm like, yeah, if Dave nearly died there, I'll be all right. So booked myself a room at the Sunset Marquis, sat in the waiting room, the area around reception, for a couple of hours until I saw the oldest concierge that I could possibly find. went up and tapped him on the shoulder and I said I know this is really weird but you wouldn't happen to know which room Dave Gahan, you know the rest of the story, as a matter of fact I do, you're Irish now he might have sold me a pony I have no idea when I wanted a racehorse I don't care because I believed I was in that room and that is the room I pitched Supervet in and in the end I came to Channel 4 and we've just made 19 series over 10 years I think that it's all art all of it and unless you're prepared to do your next play unless you're prepared to do your next film unless you're prepared to start all over again like Colin Farrell being the penguin when before that he's in Bruges or whatever why are you in business?

1:06:25Be an artist. Brilliant. Look we always end these conversations with what we at quickfire questions normally we write them. Yes. But we're not going to do that today because Noel turned up today you can hear that if you're listening you can hear the paper rustling if you're watching you'll see what we're doing Noel turned up today with a piece of paper and he'd written on the top of it 60 seconds with Noel Fitzpatrick now we'll we need to find something to do that's cool with this because it is 60 amazing lessons in life and what we thought we would do to finish this interview is Damien and I would just pick the two or three that really sort of matter to us and we would ask you to give us a relatively short answer well I wrote that after 2am this morning no I had I had it all I had it all, all the thoughts I had in the last three weeks since I knew I was doing this.

1:07:13I then thought, well, I can't give that to the guys. So I'll just give them the thoughts. So there's 60 thoughts. There were 61, but it didn't fit on two pages. Right, well, let's go through the few that leapt out to us. Pick a couple, yeah. These are our slightly different quickfire questions for this episode.

1:07:31I'm going to pick this one. Every day is your very first and your very last day in business. every single morning when I wake up I think to myself oh you're alive the only thing worse than having a birthday is not having a birthday right? people complain they're getting older some people don't have this privilege people complain in business because they don't realize it's their first day in business when I walk downstairs I need to raise the money for my MRI scanner today is my first day to do that and it's also my last day my colleague she won't mind me mentioning this was in the middle of surgery last week and got a gut torsion herself collapsed in surgery had to leave the room I visited her in hospital the night before last it's over like that if you're unlucky so treasure this moment because it's your first day and your last very good the cost of doing the wrong thing is always greater than the cost of doing the right thing it's always greater so the wrong thing for me personally would have been to sell the whole various practices that I built and there's another point I made in there if people want to do a different thing that's fine just wish them well invest in a future as best you can and as I said to you earlier be the hero on someone else's story and just let them get on with it but you have to be true to yourself even if you don't want to be on the journey with what other people want to do so for me there's only one right thing to do with my career give all of the animals who are family members like Teddy all of the options all of the time even if they don't make profit and believe me the op I did last night doesn't make profit we'd be lucky to wash our nose on it hopefully I'll get 5 or 6 to do and we'll pay the wages 170 people working there you gotta pay the wages I strongly believe that if you do the wrong thing that does not sit well with your moral conscience and your heart, you can sublimate it by going out and dancing, getting drunk, finding another partner, eating lovely meals, but you will never, ever regain that sense that you knew you did the right thing.

1:09:58Once it's gone, it's gone. So doing the right thing always trumps doing what doesn't feel right regardless of the consequences believe with all your heart try with all your power think with half your brain i knew you'd like that one i think you know what i mean by trying with all your heart because i i don't really think with my brain except when i need to click it in for the technical bits because i feel like an artist all the time. Never different. All my instincts, borrowing all that money, losing money, getting the money for the scanner now, all of it's from the heart. I gave it 110 % effort when I go outside of here.

1:10:41All my power, all my effort into everything. There's never anything that I do that I will not give 110%. And then, only half your brain. Because the other half is nearly always either wrong or distracted. So you should have all of your hearts in half of your brain all of the time. And I strongly believe this. People overthink stuff with half of their brain that says, no, bad idea, the pigeon on your shoulder. So you're talking trust instinct, really. Yes. So use half your brain because the other half is wrong. Very good. Greet arrogance with humility, confrontation with calm. The naysayers out there, those of you who are trying to do a business in making skirts and dresses for people, everyone will tell you that business is not going to work.

1:11:33And you'll have naysayers say, your dress looks awful. What are you doing putting that on TikTok? Are you out of your mind? But you believe it's the right thing to do. That dress is the best thing I ever created. I'm only going to get better. So you're going to give that everything. So the first half of that is? Arrogance with humility. The people who are the naysayers are arrogant. They're just being nonsense. Like, they're being stupid. Why would you hate on Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl? She didn't do anything wrong. Nonsense. Treat arrogance with humility. Carry on at your sewing machine.

1:12:05Put in the extra few stitches. And the second part. And greet confrontation with calm. As I said earlier, everybody who hits me, including the bullies, I forgive them. And I said in there in an extra one, forgive everybody who's ever done anything bad to you, but most importantly, forgive yourself. Because both of those, both of those are millstones around your neck that will sink you. Because aspiration in a vacuum is just hot air. Put in the work, forgive everybody. And when you see anger, anger, anger, anger, anger, be still. why when I was in South Africa you do not want to be around when a rhinoceros wakes up prematurely from the anesthetic but if you stick if you run oh oopsie you gotta stay calm so when I am hit with the worst tragedy that can happen in a surgery like when the bit of bone fell off last night I'm like okay it's okay be calm the greatest gift that I can give anyone in business is when the shit hits the fan remember we all have some shit in us stay calm the guts will start again and you'll be alright you must stay calm and the final question after this incredible conversation what are you doing with this exact minute which is why I call that list 60 seconds 60 thoughts that I thought I would love to share with you which I'm deeply and I don't say this lightly deeply I'm profoundly grateful to be here with you every 60 seconds of this chat we had together is not just it's not about me it's not for us to exist and be a portal for someone else's feelings on our own.

1:14:17We can't. The world is crying out for people who are allowed to be selfless enough to allow you to see through their portal, as all great artists have ever done since time in memoriam, as all great scientists have done. It wasn't and shouldn't be about them. and I would say to anybody, just take one minute, not even more than one minute, just go into the bathroom, go into a place where you can be calm. With me, I just hug ricochet, the cat I'm lucky enough to have in my life and treasure 60, six zero seconds because in those 60 seconds, it's not just that you can change the world, you will change the world because you will change yourself and you are all you need you will change your world and therefore the world around you by thinking what am I doing with this exact minute thank you so much thank you

1:15:29Damien one of the most remarkable conversations I feel we've ever had on this show Yeah, absolutely. I had no real knowledge or opinion on that before we sat down and recorded this, and that was remarkable. What stood out? It reminded me of, there's a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that said, they first ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you before they eventually copy you. And I think he's a man that's a genius in his own craft, and he's gone through all of those different stages of being ignored, being laughed at, being challenged. But a lot of what he's saying has been proven that it works, and it enhances it.

1:16:05But it's the fact that we didn't really talk about being a vet. We spoke about shining a light and he just happens to use the industry of being a veterinary surgeon to do precisely that. What stood out for you? For me, it was this constant internal turmoil and push and pull, give and take, that I think so many men are walking around with, particularly those that have had childhood trauma, like Noel has, because it takes so much to try and mend those wounds. And let's be honest, they probably are never fully healed. Certainly he has admitted in that interview that his are not healed at the moment and probably never will be.

1:16:43Yet at the same time, he's lauded for his great success. Yet at the same time as being lauded for his great success, he's criticized for playing God. Yet at the same time as being criticized for playing God, he's trying to see the best in everyone because he was injured and damaged by people at a young age. And whilst being injured and damaged and trying to see the best in people, he doesn't have a partner. and while he doesn't have a partner, he leads into his animals and while he's leaning into animals and they mean so much to him, he's having to save lives of animals in his veterinary surgery every day.

1:17:08You imagine being inside him where all these things are pulling him in so many different directions and then because the world makes us act in a certain way publicly to go, I'm fine, everything's great, I'm doing my new TV show, I've got my veterinary practice, I've got some customers. You know, you never let the world see the real you and I think this is an opportunity for Noel to allow the world to see the real him. And he did just that over that last hour, hour and a half. And it wasn't what I expected. I don't really even know now how I feel about the conversation, but I think it was really powerful for him.

1:17:44I think it would be really powerful for a lot of people that listen to it. And it's a great reminder that just because someone isn't openly struggling with a million different things, dragging them in so many different directions, it doesn't mean they're not struggling. and it also stands for me as a reminder that there is a real fine line between kind of genius and madness right and I absolutely think he's a genius but I also think that that comes at great cost from a mental perspective it's that last point there that I think is worthy of us just pausing for a moment it doesn't come for free this lifestyle you know him sleeping on the floor of his surgery working till two o 'clock in the morning on a regular basis and getting up and working again.

1:18:26None of this is for free. And I think he gave us an insight into the cost of that, both personally and professionally. Absolutely, he did. It was a pleasure to get the opportunity to speak to him in that way. And he said, what did he say? His rule about business is to be all in, to give it everything. You know, you don't achieve the things that he has unless you sacrifice so much. And obviously that comes at a cost. Yeah, yeah. But on the flip side, he does these amazing things and he has saved countless animals' lives and he has moved the veterinary profession forwards. And I loved it. Thank you so much, mate.

1:19:03Thank you, mate. That was a privilege to sit in the company of somebody that just gave us his pure, absolute attention. You know, you realise how rare it is, but how special it was. What did he say to us on the training today? I thought today's the day for truth. And I think we got the truth. Yeah, definitely. And that's it for today's episode. A huge thanks, of course, to Noel Fitzpatrick for sharing so much, so honestly and so emotionally with us. And thank you for listening to this show. Don't forget, you can watch these episodes on YouTube or you can watch them before anyone else if you download for free the High Performance app.

1:19:39Look forward to seeing you next time for another incredible conversation here on High Performance.

1:19:54Thank you.

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