Last year he was injured on the job, very seriously. He actually passed away a couple of times during the transportation process and surgery work in the initial recovery effort. It was a tragic period of time for his wife and family. He suffered greatly from the accident. His current recovery has been absolutely remarkable. He describes how his medical expenses have exceeded the million dollar mark already. He is a paraplegic. His internal organs were crushed in the accident as well. It is nothing short of a miracle that he is still alive and well. He has some continuing serious health issues but overall, has learned how to walk again, aided. He even drives his car. It is amazing stuff to watch his recovery and especially his will. His will is off the charts. He is one very determined person. He often gives my life a new perspective.
We are traveling because we are visiting them in another major city. He had received some more incredible surgery work. They are rebuilding his intestinal region. They also removed a complicated hernia that could never be removed because his internal tissues, after the accident, were not strong enough to handle the surgery work. The current surgery stuff they performed yesterday was complicated and risky work. His body took the work very hard. We have not been able to go see him in recovery, yet. We hope he recovers well enough today so we can see him.
His wife has become very strong. Their lives have been changed forever. We have watched them grow from one set of people to a completely different set of people. These are the same people we met two years ago. They have become two examples of two people who have learned how to take a whole new approach to this life we live. They were forced to make some unbelievable adjustments to learn how to live in their future lives. The work he once did, is now gone. He is physically unable to perform that work anymore. He has had to learn how to live with reasonable degrees of constant pain and limited mobility. His digestive track does not work properly. He has had to endure some very embarrassing moments. They are part of his life now. His wife has become his routine care giver. She fills in to provide the duties he cannot perform. We sit and wait to see how he recovers from this recent set of surgical moves. The group sitting in this waiting room is somber.
I write about things that are designed to help business owners and their business leaders perform necessary improvements in their business paths. I see things that get in their way and try to warn them of the potentials for future demise. In many cases, I have walked the wrong trail as my source of evidence. I encourage the owners to consider doing the right things first. I know they read and see what things I write. I try to encourage owners to avoid doing the wrong things first. I want them to win more than they lose. Winning is so much more fun.
I am blessed to be able to leave my home, travel comfortably to another area and sit and wait for a friend to recover. I am blessed to be able to be in a life position to be able to offer this kind of friendship to someone who could use it right now. I have challenges running parallel in my life, too. I am not without my own mountains to climb. Every business owner faces these kinds of troubling things. Mountains are placed on our paths of travel. Business ownership comes with more of them than we could ever describe. Sometimes the challenges we face in our business world seem out of control and very big. As I sit waiting in this little room, I do not see my challenges as large as they were yesterday. All of the sudden, they seem miniature in size when compared to the ones others are digging to manage. I will take my mountains over these ugly challenges any day. My wrecks are minor details in my life of travel. My friend is facing a major crash. His body is fighting for its life.
Business challenges sometimes need a new perspective.
Sometimes we are not as bad off as we might first expect. I once had the wife of one of my best business mentors from the past tell a good story about perspective. We were all eating dinner at a fancy restaurant sharing our tragic stories in a funny way. Then she dropped this "perspective" bomb. She described how she approaches the problems of life. She said there are times when our outlook does not appear good. The worst view is coming close to home. All we can see is tragic loss. We become overwhelmed with the ugly possibilities. Our worst situations seem destined to destroy. She said it is at that time in life that she tries to remember this little "perspective" rule.
She said she tries to imagine how easy it would be if she could take all of her current challenges and troubles, shove them into a large bag and tie them up. Then she could hook them onto a large clothes line that is attached to the rest of the people in the world. If she did not want her troubles and challenges anymore, she could pull on the opposite return line to wheel her bagged up troubles away. That bag of troubles would go to another person sitting on the other end of that clothes line of connections. Her troubles would be finally gone and away from her life forever. Unfortunately, she continued, her life would need to accept the new troubled bag of stuff coming her way that someone else placed on the return line. She will need to accept what someone sent her way. Her troubles were removed at the expense to accept the ones someone else sent out. She may need to take on the ones my friend is dealing with at this time in his life. That might be the ugly bag that comes her way. She called this process her "perspective rule." She described how this one thing she has learned about performing good leadership work. She described how important it is to learn how to remain properly aligned with the most balanced perspectives inside the deep hallways of our most trying life challenges. Never consider them to be the bottom, regardless of how tall the mountains look.
I will eventually return back to work. I will be given a new perspective. Sometimes we need to fall a little bit more before we actually find our way to climb back up. This is not the best of news when we feel as if we have hit the bottom. The truth remains, we must learn the art of reaching deeper to begin the work on climbing out. Regardless of the challenges we face, our lives require us to grow up higher than we were today. We must put together a stronger effort to win more often. We must learn the art of overcoming. We must pull ourselves up after a tremendous fall. We must find the strength to carry on. We need to recognize how fortunate we are that the climb is only as small as it is. Our mountains are nowhere near the ones some people face in their lives. Just yesterday as I was traveling the road to see this friend, I heard a news story on the radio. It described how many children are dying each day in the war torn territories of the middle east regions, from simple frost. They live in refuge camps without enough warmth to survive the brutal winter weather that is covering the region where they camp. They are freezing to death. Hundreds of them every single day. Sometimes our business challenges need a new perspective. Sometimes we need to imagine what our clothes line could return. I do not think my business problems are that bad off. All of the sudden, my business ownership climb looks rather small when compared to my friends efforts to return back to some dignified health. His hole is a lot deeper than mine. He is still expected to dig out of his hole. Just the same as I am with mine. His is just a lot deeper and has a lot more treacherous climb to travel. I will take mine over his...any day.
Be very careful when you think your life has some unbelievable business challenges. They are not as bad off as you might first think. Be careful to keep your life and the challenges you face in some kind of proper perspective. It will help you get back to work on improving those results. I look forward to returning back to handle the problems I face. They truly are not as big as they first appeared. I am no longer as frustrated with them as I was before I sat in this waiting room. I also know that my friend has developed some incredible courage. His will is over the top. He can steer my ship any day. His wife has become remarkable, too. These two people have taught my wife and I a lot about how important these relationships are. I still maintain that a lot of our success in life comes form how well we manage the relationships we face. In the end, the relationships matter most.
Look around you. How are those relationships doing? Get them repaired if they need repaired. Your business challenges sometimes need a new perspective. A good friend may be all you need to get you by.
Until next time...
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