Leadership and The Quality of Life
A friend of mine, amazing man, just sold his business for a lot of money, I mean a lot of money. Everyone is happy for him. He smiles when he talks about his pot of gold, his fabulous career, yet the smiles seem somehow vacant, somehow sad.
He invited me for late morning coffee. We sat at a cornet table, far from the maddening crowd in this busy Starbucks and I heard the story under the plastic smile.
He has the money now, and he has what he never had before, the time; all that is good. However, he told me he has been haunted by memories of years gone by and he can’t get these memories out of his mind.
Let me give you the picture. This tall, handsome man is in his early 60’s. He has been healthy and vibrant. Married, divorced, remarried; two grown children, a son and a daughter and two step sons. He has a beautiful wife, beautiful city home and a beautiful vacation home in a beautiful beach community. Got the picture?
Sounds like the model of American success? On one level it is. On another it raises a major question: what do we give up to get?
That is his struggle today. He is haunted by thoughts of how much he missed watching his kids grow up, how driven he was for success. How sad he is about the times that the office became his sanctuary and everything else was on the back burner.
Not sure what he wants to do with the remaining years. His parents and grandparents lived to their late eighties so unless hit by a truck he has many good years ahead. Yet, no preparation for what to do; there is only so much golf you can play.
He asked me to officially coach him, help him find some meaning, some new kind of quality. Most of my coaching time is spent with folks requesting leadership development and executive education. This is a new and important place for me to focus; with the boomer group searching for meaning.
We will be starting a program soon that is the result of my coaching with this man; it has been named “Total Life Connections“. It is based on our highly successful “Total Leadership Connections “program. It addresses the big question of how to give back, how to make a difference, what really matters when pinnacles of success have been reached and we stand there with vacant smiles asking “Now what?”
This program will answer that quality of life question. Call or email for more details.
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