CORPORATE MESSAGE - Max International Virtual Office

INSPIRATION
Impacting others
Change that happens for the right reasons also tends to positively impact those around us. Dan told the poignant story of the
day his dad died. He was in Seattle preparing to give two speeches on back to back days with different trade associations. He
woke up in his hotel room at the Seattle Airport Marriott Hotel, preparing to leave for his first speech, when the phone rang.
Thinking it was his driver, he almost said, “I’ll be right down” but was met with 15 seconds of silence that was finally pierced
by the voice of his brother breaking the news of their dad’s death.
Dan sat on his bed and wept. His dad was his hero and had battled cancer for six and half years. Dan always wanted to be
at his dad’s bedside when he took his last breath but he wasn’t, and it broke his heart. He loved his dad, whom he described
as understanding the power of the one. This was the man that always told him, “Dan, be yourself. You’d be a lousy someone
else, so be the best you you can be.”
Dan became, at times, accustomed to coming up short in a gene pool consisting of siblings with ultra-successful business
careers and grade to grad school valedictorian honors. He recalled bringing home a report card one day consisting of four Fs
and one D. His dad’s response? “Son, it looks like you’re spending too much time on one subject.”
His dad was himself an extremely successful business man and a tremendous example of rising to the top while remaining a
good and exemplary person, with his integrity intact.
As Dan sat crying on his bed, with memories of his dad racing through his mind, the phone rang again. This time it was his
ride. He gathered himself together, splashed water on his face and went downstairs. He would rather have been hopping on
an airplane to go home to give his mom a hug and offer support to his grieving siblings, but Dan’s parents had always taught
him to stay true to his commitments. How could he not show up when 3500 people and a 90-minute time slot were waiting
on him?
The ride down on the elevator would have been thankfully alone if it weren’t for the bellboy catching the edge of his cart’s
wheel in the door just before it closed. Dan was backed to the rear wall of the elevator behind the cart, where he assumed his
elevator position to avoid the need to socialize. But the psychotically overzealous bellboy would have none of it.
“Whoooo weee,” he quipped. “You see that beautiful sunshine? I been living in Seattle 15 years and it has rained every day.
You must have brought the good weather with you. Wooo doggies. How you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Dan said, hoping the small talk would end there, but no such luck. Though he was avoiding all eye contact, Dan
could sense the bellhop staring at him.
He finally said, ‘Mister you’re not fine. You’ve been crying.”
Dan replied, “Yeah my dad died this morning and I’m really sad.”
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