How A Near-Death Accident Helped Me Take Action and Change My Life

It was a cold and rainy day and I was making the drive up to Seattle from Portland for a work event.

I was in my trusty Subaru, but even that wasn’t going to be enough to stop what happened next…

3 cars ahead of me a truck came up on a traffic jam too quickly and slammed on his brakes.

It felt like the car in front of me hit a brick wall.

And I… was next. **CRASH**

It’s hard to explain what that moment felt like, but nothing really prepares you for a car accident. The seat belt cutting into your shoulder, the impact flinging you forward, and the punch of the airbag in your face.

I came out okay, thank God, albeit with some serious whiplash.

My Subaru on the other hand…TOTALED.

And, while the physical trauma may have been considered minimal, this crash shook me to my core.

I had already been dreading work, dreading the drive, dreading the event, and was already thinking a little dramatically, that this job was gonna kill me, and then it almost did..

Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever had something like this happen to you, but this moment was the jolt I needed to realize I HAD to do something and get out of this job.

I needed to find a way to have influence and make impact.

Thankfully, even during all of this, I had stayed true to a key discipline I had developed in my college years. A value that you may have heard repeated over and over at our Summits.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.

My mentor, Jim Rohn, has led me through many peaks and valleys of life and he didn’t fail me in this moment either.

One of his quotes says this…

“If you’re not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

It was that cold and rainy car crash on the way to Seattle that sparked the decision to leave my corporate job, but I still wasn’t sure how to find the impact and influence I was searching for.

I had no idea what was in store next…

Best,

The Hope Man

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