It was a beautiful day in June of 1993
Kindergarten had just finished, and I have big plans for the summer: riding my bike, street hockey, swimming, and playing manhunt at my friend’s house, who lives across the street.
I crossed this street hundreds of times.
My parents taught me how to cross the street safely.
Stop. Look to the left, look to the right, look to the left again, and quickly cross.
On this beautiful day, I followed the rules.
I stop, look to the left, and see the mail truck approaching. It’s the standard white & blue mail truck.
I freeze and let him pass. He stops at my house to deliver the mail.
Again, I look to the left, all clear, look to the right, just the stopped mail truck that just passed, look to the left again, all clear, and cross.
Then, within the blink of an eye, I get crushed.
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A car was just past the mail truck in my blind spot.
They slam on the brakes but it’s too late.
The car runs over both of my legs, breaking them instantly.
I’m only 6 years old and barely 4 feet tall.
Blood is everywhere.
My friend’s mom was unloading groceries from her car. She was standing in the driveway and witnessed the whole thing.
She scooped me off the ground and ran to my parent’s house.
I was in the hospital for the next 8 weeks
I made friends with all the nurses. I collected every single Flintstones Happy Meal character from the McDonalds across the hospital.
Instead of riding my bike, I got 7 surgeries to repair broken bones and perform multiple skin grafts from my left thigh to my left foot
Instead of manhunt, my parents were changed gooey bandages every few hours
Instead of kicking butt in street hockey, I learned how to walk again.
In life, you can do everything right.
You follow all the rules. You can practice hundreds of times. You look both ways
But still get crushed.
In business, you lose big accounts, run out of cash, have a trusted employee betray you, or feel everything is going wrong.
You will get knocked down.
What matters is how you respond.
I’ve been learning how to be resilient since I was 6 years old.
It comes in handy when it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders as a business owner.
Everything happens for a reason
The key is to never give up
Cheers!
Brian
P.S. Tomorrow I’m hosting a live “Talent Acquisition” workshop going over a few of my best strategies for job posts, interviewing, hiring & onboarding
