“I’m Going to Pump You Up!”

Last year I lost a friend to heart disease. He had a stroke that eventually proved fatal. It was a friend I had lost touch with, probably from mutual neglect, not active neglect, but the passive type that the everyday events overtake. I don’t believe that either one of us noticed the drift. I didn’t until I heard the news that he was down and doing poorly. Luckily, I was working in a city very near to the hospital and I managed to go see him one evening. I am glad that I did. That night remains with me as a vivid reminder of the choices we make, actively and passively. It reminds me that choices have consequences.

When my good friend passed, he carried around excess weight, a likely contributor to his demise. This week, another dear friend had a stroke, a mild one. He may have escaped the grim reaper, but his calamity is very disturbing to all of us who treasure his friendship. My friend carries some spare weight and does not exercise much. Years ago he shared a funny story about one of his business trips. He was entering the elevator at his hotel, when a lady got in and asked him if he knew where the hotel work-out room was. His response was, smiling at the time, “Do I look like a guy who would know where the gym is?” I laughed and have shared his joke with many of our mutual friends and colleagues. But none of us are laughing today and we pray for his speedy recovery.

Getting and staying fit is hard, personally or as a business. It takes a whole bunch of stuff to make it work, and each person or business needs the program that has a chance to work for them. At a minimum, all take the three hard rules of accomplishment, focus, discipline, and follow-through. But, I believe it takes much more than those mechanics, it takes motivation, choices, and consequences. Whether it is our own health or that of our enterprise, we need transparency into the reality of where we are and what is ahead or at stake if we don’t decide to act, and then to act. To do so, we need help and we need friends and leaders.

• As friends, we must love enough to confront another and provoke someone to make choices to enrich their life and face the difficulties of change. As leaders, we must do the same for our enterprises. Love is the operating word here.
• As friends we must prod, nag, hound and put our relationships at risk, if necessary, to help our friends off denial and the path of least resistance. We must help them overcome the likelihood that they will give up and fail. As leaders, we must bring constancy of purpose to the enterprise and participate actively in the effort toward enterprise with unshakable resolve.
• As friends, we must reward every victory, small or large, with celebration, recognition, praise and a comforting reminder of what is possible and good about pushing ahead. As leaders, we must do the same, with generosity and genuine zeal.

All that said, I recognize that the journey to fitness, personal or organizational, is tough, sometimes miserable, and frequently frustrating. Those parts have to be dealt with strength from the inside. I hope that we, as individuals, care enough about our friends and loved ones to make the effort to get fit and spare them the pain of our untimely loss. As leaders, we hope that we have the right stuff and can lead from the front and carry our wounded as we move forward.

Today is a great day to start, for friends and enterprises alike. 

As Hans and Franz would say,” I’m going to pump you up!”