On July 18 2008, I was travelling from Bangalore to Delhi. I had boarded a flight in the evening at about 7 PM. I remember boarding the aircraft and sitting on my aisle seat while a young boy came on the window seat. The center seat was vacant. Subsequent to that the stewardess came with tetrapack juice and I took it. That’s the last I remember. After which I remember the hospital ICU and 4 days had passed.

I had 12 seizures within a matter of about 30 minutes with a average length of each seizure about 40 seconds long. As per doctors I was dead for about 4 odd minutes before they could revive me. As per doctors it was a miracle that I survived and that my brain was about 40% dead because of the lack of Oxygen during those 30 minutes.

Whenever I tell this story everyone gets emotional and there are whole lot of side stories related to how my family coped with the situation and how my office colleagues were so supportive during those times.

Today I was hearing Hal Elrod’s story – yes he’s the author of the Miracle Morning series – on the I Love Marketing podcast. And he spoke about how he was dead for about 6 minutes before they were able to revive him. That discussion brought my story back to me.

Now during that phase, I am sure my family and my friends and colleagues went through a lot of turmoil. For the next 6 months there was a lot of medical visits and admission in the hospitals , MRIs etc. which I had to go through. But through all of it I was clear that I am going to be fine inspite of the doctors and my wife being scared like hell.

I found the same emotion in Hal and the story immediately resonated with me. One of the things which came out in the discussion on the podcast, was a term which Dean Jackson mentioned “Irrational Confidence”. While I always have had the belief that even if you give me a 5% chance that things will turn out well, I will take that chance and run. But this term actually explained my beliefs so well. What most people think is irrational, I have the confidence that things will work out eventually and I believe God does everything for my good…..so there must be a learning and once I get the learning, I will be on my way.

Another incident – In 2015 a complete disk came out of my spine after an accident…..I was bedridden for more than 6 months…but I was not in the mode of why did this happen to me…..again I took that time to learn a lot of things especially on the investment side. I was determined to walk again and live life. So again “Irrational Confidence….”

So why these 2 stories. Life throws curve balls all the time sometimes it’s Covid, sometimes its accidents but instead of getting depressed or the typical “why me” .

Life is meant to be lived instead of sulking get up take affirmative action and move forward. Its not going to be easy. But once you come out of that phase, you will look back and be proud of yourself.

Till next time…

Carpe Diem