It is 30 years since the accident!
When I first started writing “Time to Big Me Up” (TTBMU) in 2014, I wrote that it was nearly three decades since the car accident that changed (nearly ended my life).
Well with the time it has taken me to publish, the editor and management (my wife) have reminded me that it is now actually three decades from the accident. Well in three weeks it is.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I have had to endure a number of problems/failures throughout my recovery. However, in many cases, I have tried to use these to assist in achieving success.
On reflection, I have had three decades of success, which many people without my disabilities would dream of achieving.
Although TTBMU is based around recovery from a very negative situation, it is the recovery (the positive) which is important. This was pointed out when my first draft of Episode 2 was being edited. I was told it made Episode 1 look like a comedy – the episode containing the car accident, the coma and very near death.
Therefore I have re-written Episode 2. I have also decided to mark the three decade anniversary by concentrating on the successes…my successes…in this blog.
Firstly, my health. I do have disabilities, some of which could be visible, however I have not let these hinder me. It has often been commented on by colleagues and clients, who I have worked with for some time, that they did not know of, or recognise, my disabilities until they picked them up in casual conversation.
A couple of years ago, I attributed some of the problems I was having at work with my level of fitness. I was not visibly unfit, I just did not feel good. I tested it. Having been a competitive swimmer and runner, when I was young, I struggle to swim 200 metres and run 500 metres. So I set myself a challenge. Within 6 months, I was able to swim 2,000 metres followed by an immediate run of 10,000 metres. Being healthy does help.
Secondly my work life has progressed quite well. Prior to the accident I had started on what looked like it was going to be a successful sales career in IT. With my problems in communication and in confidence could I go back to this. I was told by professionals I shouldn’t try. Well selling to international corporates, including selling accounting software to one of the big three global accounting firms to use across Europe, Middle East and Africa isn’t bad.
Add to this opening an office in a foreign country, which is profitable in its first year. As well as growing from schoolboy ability to being business fluent in the language of the country. I extended this to selling to corporates on 4 continents (there is still hope for me to conquer Australasia).
At the millennium I was selling one of the first true web-based applications. Many people would wonder now how businesses survived without them, including people who 5 – 10 years ago would have said they will never work.
So in work I had personal success as a sales person. However I match this with my helping others have success. This wasn’t just in my management of sales teams. It included the less formal mentoring of new colleagues and clients. I have recently extended this to providing training and mentoring to young people in the use of Enterprise at work and life in general. In doing this I have reflected on how the use of Enterprise has been a major factor in my continued recovery. Something I did not necessarily acknowledge at the time.
Finally my private life. My major success. Even before the accident, my confidence with the opposite sex was not very high. So to meet, become friends with, marry, have kids with and to stay best friends with my wife is a great success.
This is extended by us having two beautiful and intelligent daughters with huge personalities, who themselves are progressing to successful lives.
So a lot of success in my life. Yes, I did have trouble at times with my Work Life Balance, including one major episode. I am not going to talk about that now. I will in TTBMU.
For now, and in my rewriting of Episode 2, I have to concentrate on the positives that come out of the negatives. An interesting three decades.
Buy Episode 1