Meet Jesse Horton

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jesse Horton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I found my purpose as a firefighter and instructor after I realized how lost and depressed. I was due to the fact that I had no purpose prior to this. Prior to becoming a firefighter I had a job I was not passionate about. I had the attitude of work to live not live to work and I thought the words if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life was just another cliché. Through some uncomfortable self Introspection, and some somewhat forceful we’ll say encouragement from those who love me I started down the path to become a firefighter at the age of 33. Immediately I was hooked. Being a firefighter gave me passion, gave me purpose and ignited in me (pun intended) the fire to become a leader and give back to my community.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Following my brother into the professional firefighting was not an easy road. My brother Micah had been a firefighter for over 10 years when I started so I felt like I had some big shoes to fill on top of that many of my friends who would then become my mentors were also a longtime firefighters. I felt like I was starting behind the eight ball and if I didn’t put everything I had into the profession I would not only let them down, but I would let myself down as well. Luckily for me, I was able to find discipline necessary to be successful. My brother Micah Horton and I partnered with a long-term firefighter and mentor to both of us, Bryon Hunt, and with our father Curtis Horton and we formed the training company, Horton and Hunt. At Horton and Hunt we focus on firefighter training for both departments as a whole and individual firefighters looking to better their skill set. At H&H, we truly believe that advanced performance is just basic skills taken to the edge of their vast potential. We do everything from lecture to hands-on training and are now venturing into the fire conference world, teaching firefighter skills. Several years back, we also started the Undisclosed Agents FirefighterPodcast where we discuss firefighting, tactics techniques, skills, leadership, mentorship, and anything else fire service related with some of the professions most influential members. This has been yet another way for H&H to provide quality firefighter education to the masses.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think the three most important qualities are skills that were most impactful in my journey or vision, engagement, and discipline. I feel that I was able to have a vision of where I wanted to be as a firefighter and a vision of what I wanted our training company to be as well. I was engaged in this profession from day one I wanted to be a firefighter, I wanted to be a great firefighter, but I wanted to make others great as well. Being engaged in my craft helped the necessary skills develop naturally made every day on the training ground feel like a gift rather than a grind. I’m able to maintain the discipline to stay engaged in this craft, even when some of the mundane tasks become monotonous, because in the profession of firefighting, you must stay disciplined for 30 years for the possibility you will be called upon for 30 seconds of greatness. My advice to anyone early on in their journey is to dive in head first whatever you choose to do and wherever you choose to go, you should pursue that mission with educated aggressiveness, Dipping your toes in the water will do just that, get your toes wet. Diving and head first will submerge you in the process that will carry you to success.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was teach me about work ethic. Growing up as a kid my dad always had a job and it was a hard job blue collar, manual labor job. I remember my dad working late and being on call a lot. Sometimes he would make it home for dinner and sometimes he wouldn’t but he would always make it to our baseball games most of the time his work clothes because he came straight from work, but he never missed them. On the weekends, he would take side jobs pouring concrete to bring home a little extra money to help make ends meet for the family. During those weekends pouring concrete, my dad would take me and my brother to the job site with him. We would help pick up the scraps and generally get in everybody’s way until we got old enough and strong enough to run the wheel barrels full of concrete over to the pad. This taught me and my brother several good lessons. It taught us to work hard and it also taught us to finish school or finish concrete lol. Our mom was an incredibly hard worker as well. She always had a job, but because my dad worked so much overtime she had to run the household as well watching her balance career and family life with ease while trying to raise two little hellions was a valuable lesson in work ethic as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Hortonsandhunt.com
• Instagram: @hortonsandhunt
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/undisclosed-agents-firefighter-podcast/id1683335442

  https://open.spotify.com/show/0eqsiiee4Z05zO1uuGzNRa?si=592ny3znQyulVF3pl1ivmQ