Handling Bad News

Let’s face it. This has not been a great ten years. The internet bubble burst in 2000. Accounting scandals ended in the bankruptcy of Enron and WorldCom and the destruction of my former employer, Arthur Andersen. We endured 9/11 and the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001, the onset of war in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002. The year 2004 brought hurricanes to Florida and a tidal wave that devastated Indonesia and Thailand. Katrina and the disaster in New Orleans followed in 2005.

Today we are experiencing the aftermath of falling real estate values, the Madoff swindle, and the near collapse of our financial markets. We are dealing with a severe recession, high unemployment and a devastating disaster in Haiti. When will the bad news end?

When things go wrong it’s important to look for the silver lining. As bad as things are, life can always be worse. Ask any Haitian.

Erma Bombeck wrote a book called, “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits?” Well, guess it depends on how you look at things. Sometimes being in the pits is a plus! I became a stock broker in 1999 and was only starting to build my book of business when the tech bubble ended and stock prices collapsed. I didn’t have a lot of clients that got hurt because I didn’t have a lot of clients! The silver lining for me was that there were a lot of unhappy investors out there. That fact and a positive outlook provided me with the opportunity to gain a foothold in the market as a financial advisor. While established brokers were avoiding calls from clients, I was knocking on the door. You could say starting my career in a down market was kind of a lucky break.

Cancer patients deal with bad news and disappointment on a regular basis. It comes with the territory. The first bad news is the diagnosis itself. Then you learn if it is operable or not. Is it in the lymph nodes? Has it spread? Is there more than one tumor? Are the drug treatments working? Can you be cured? Will you still be able to work? Will your insurance pay for all the treatments you need? The list goes on and on. Where’s cancer’s silver lining? I have to say that cancer has helped me appreciate my family and friends and the blessings I have. I am much more keenly aware of my mortality and the limited time I have on earth. I have finally gotten my priorities straight and am trying to accomplish all that I would hope to do with my life. I think cancer has made me a better person and has improved the quality of my life.

I’ve been reading about the life of someone named David Welch, who, at the age of 38, was diagnosed with brain cancer. David passed away a year ago, but he created a website called 38Lemon (named after the age he was diagnosed with a tumor the size of a lemon). David’s journal is inspirational reading for anyone with cancer. He lived for 4 years 35 days from his date of diagnosis and wrote about his life and treatment nearly every day until the day he died. He was an accomplished musician, a successful entrepreneur, a writer and an artist. He had family and friends who loved him. He was courageous in facing his disease and passionate about not giving up on life. He is truly someone who knew how to turn lemons into lemonade.

Yoko and I have had our share of personal tragedy and heartache, but we have come though it all. I think we go through life, especially when we are young, pretending nothing bad can happen. When it does, we are devastated. Maybe we should just expect bad news – like biting into a cherry with a pit – and just be happy we don’t break a tooth. Focus on the fact that life is sweet and savor the moment.