Do You Have the Hardware to Win?

Just in case you don’t know, the picture above is of my hip replacement… that went horribly wrong. March 10, 2010, I went to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for what was described as a routine hip replacement. They had done thousands before. “No problem” seemed to be the quote of the day. Well, needless to say, there was a problem.

The specifics of the botched surgery and who is to blame is in dispute, but what isn’t in dispute is that this episode changed me and my view on winning forever. In the past, I loved pushing people around from a business perspective. I was a corporate bully of the highest degree. I lost deals just because I was arrogant, angry and wanted to show everyone the massive chip on my shoulder.

Silly little boy I was. The only battle that was going on was in my head. The victim was me. But I was too stupid to see what I was doing to my career. I built a strong business with a global client base and millions in revenue a year, but unfortunately in one fell swoop of a surgeon’s scalpel, everything changed forever. Forget about losing some of the things I loved forever like running or even playing with my kids in the backyard; I was facing the potential of something far graver. I almost lost my life.

Did I need to go to such extremes to have this life lesson? No, I don’t think so, but sometimes stubborn people don’t hear the cries of those loved ones around them with sage advice and concern. I was a casualty of my own ego and that probably hurts more then anything.

What have I learned from this experience of being in a rehab center for 6 weeks, bed ridden for 6 months and currently living on Lyrica to handle the massive nerve damage to fix the damaged artery that was “nixed” that faithful day? I have learned a little humility, appreciation for the small things and that I love what I do as much as I have ever loved anything in my whole life.

So, do I have the hardware to win? I am not sure. In fact like most things in life I am a work in process. But what I do know is, I will never stop trying. I have so many people that depend on me including my family, employees and clients. It’s for them I wake up everyday feeling like shit and endure another physically draining day. I am not looking for sympathy. I just wanted to share  a simple fact: your worst day could be worse. Go out and kick some ass. Never give up. You deserve the best of you. Don’t let yourself or others down.