Happy Sunday Everyone:
Came back Thursday Night from our company sales rally in Austin. If you’re into being a human, there is no true substitute for physically being around other humans. These thoughts are not made to tow the company line, but wow. A friend of mine told me of another company doing what we just did via zoom, makes no sense in this current environment. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, including Peyton Manning being our keynote, and Nelly being our entertainment (crushed it btw), but I don’t think anyone attending would argue as to whether or not the ROI was worth it.
My ROI for the trip came from spending time with Chris Devin. You’re probably wondering, who is Chris Devin. A little over a year ago our corporate team asked if I’d interview different people on our monthly meet ups. Call/Video is obviously once a month, 60 minutes, first 30 minutes is an exec summary of how we’re doing, last 30 minutes is me interviewing someone corporate has decided on as an asset to our company. 3 months ago, Chris Devin was the chosen one. I didn’t know him, but our leadership team said I’d love and would be inspired by him and his story. He’s from Boston, sounds like a combination of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting and JFK. Part of our message was his overall mindset and attitude on life, including overcoming his battle with multiple myeloma cancer. We had a pre-call to make sure we’re on the same page for the main call. He’s 49, 4 kids, great wife. You get done talking to him and you flat out feel better. His energy is infectious. He’s kind, real, humble, strong, and encouraging. We went from speaking for the first time to feeling a legit friendship when we were done. I didn’t know he’d been on this distribution list for years. I’ll skip the details of my interview, but it included us celebrating him beating cancer.
Fast forward to last week, I was able to meet Chris in person. Better than that I sat next to him at a big dinner Tuesday Night. Everyone’s having fun, enjoying a great meal, and he leans over and whispers “the cancer is back”. I start grilling him with questions. We’re talking about how he’s feeling, we’re talking about his family, we’re talking about his energy, we’re talking about surviving, odds, treatments, and his attitude. I can’t do it justice in trying to explain to all of you the impact his conversation had on me. None of which had to do with sorrow vs. me thinking “this guy is a total badass and an inspiration”. Our CEO isn’t one to comment on people much. He shared one word with me about Chris on Thursday, “Warrior”.
Our talks had such an impact on me I wanted to try to verbalize to you what he represents. I asked him Friday if he’d be open to me writing about him. We talked for an hour yesterday, all I did was listen. I wanted to bullet some of his words I was able to capture, none of which were created with intention, or pre-screen. This was just us chatting. I just wish you all could have heard the conversation:
- On fighting cancer “I don’t see it any other way but to fight”. “Stats are made to be pushed and broken”. “I’m going to prove these guys wrong; I’m not going just give myself to this disease, it doesn’t make any sense, who would anyone do that”.
- On ever getting down “If i go dark, I recalibrate quickly”, “enough of the poor me’s”, “when you come around complainers, I kind of feel bad for them”. “Even if you’re having a bad day, get past it”.
- On mindset “You have to win the day, I don’t try to win the week or the month, if I win the day, the day will turn into a week, the week a month, the month a year, I just need to win the day”.
- Claustrophobia and tumors in his brain: Chris had to have a mask put on his face where he couldn’t move, they bolted him to the table, and put him through the MRI for 50 minutes, and he’s claustrophobic..he says to me “this might sound kind of cheesy but when they bolted my head to the table and sent me into the MRI, instead of thinking “win the day”, i started thinking “win the minute”, and I started thinking about one minute exercises, walks on the beach with my family, things like that”….I’m laughing out loud at him using the words “this might sound kind of cheesy”…like are you kidding me.
- his attitude and gratitude-“you have to fill people’s buckets, you don’t dump people’s buckets, you fill them”. “it might sound kind of weird but I’m a huge believer in morning routines” “I walk my dog every morning as the sun comes up barefoot if it’s not too cold. I want to feel connected to the earth”. “i say 3 things I’m grateful for every morning but I don’t just say it, I study them, why am I grateful”. “Favorite part of my day is having dinner with my family, talking about our wins, no phones, just talking”.
At some point I will get Chris on a video for you all to see and hear him. I’m hopeful everyone has a person or two that inspire them, Chris inspires me. With or without cancer, I believe Chris is the exact same person, the only difference is the cancer brings his strengths front and center for us all to witness. Most importantly, and the simplest words I could say is hanging around Chris makes me want to be better. And how I started this whole thing, had I not gone to Austin, had he not gone, we’d never have this, which is why humans need to be around each other.
I will get more of Chris in my life, I promise you that!