Don’t “Later” the people who will be there in your crisis.

It’s been a few weeks now since the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and many other good people in a helicopter crash is Calabasas, California. What a terrible tragedy and none of us would ever want to go through such a terrible experience, whether as a parent, a family member of a human being.

“Sometimes bad things have to happen before good things can.”

― Becca Fitzpatrick

Now that the media tributes have passed, the twitter outpouring subsided and the memory of both, a spectrum of thoughts on the minds of many who knew them, I thought it was a good time to highlight one of the common themes in the outpouring following their death. 

As I watched the outpouring of grief and the comments that were being made by many of his friends, it was powerful to hear the enlightenment that such a tragedy had created on each of them.  Whether it was Michael Jordan, Lebron James or Shaquille O’Neil and many others on social media, so many spoke about how much they wanted to tell him one more thing. That they would have loved to have stopped putting off getting together with him, because they were too busy or there would have been more time. Going one step further many of them mentioned the need to spend more time connecting with friends and family and less time at work, because that is truly what matters and what will support us in these trying times.

I would suggest watching the full length of these speeches to truly capture the emotion in these comments, but below I have highlighted the key time marks if you just want to see the comments I am referencing.

Michael Jordan speaking at memorial – video – 10:45 to end

Shaquille O’Neil - video – 3:50 to end

Lebron James – video – 1:35 – 2:35

If we were looking for something good to come out of such a tragedy, this might be it. That the consciousness of many people was raised by the outpouring of grief at the loss of so many good people that day. That many more people, who look up to celebrities like the gentlemen who spoke, might hear these important messages before their crisis comes.

Tragedies like this one will continue to happen around the world. At home, at the office, in the community and often when it is least expected. Remember that not all tragedies will be so visible. For many the tragedies happen alone, behind the closed doors of our homes and without the cameras and social media there to support us through the journey. Whether a death, a job loss, a divorce, an illness, struggles with a child or maybe financial pressure. We will all go through them and building your community before it happens is critical to creating the resilience that will get you to the other side.

The GenWell Project is a Human Connection Movement, launched in 2016, to be the catalyst that increases our collective consciousness about the importance of human connection in our lives, before our crisis comes. Let’s build those connections that make us happier and healthier starting today. Let’s use the inspiration from these speeches and the message and mission of The GenWell Project (www.GenWellProject.org) and GenWell Weekends (the next one being May 1-3) as the catalyst that gets us all to reach out to those we have been meaning to see, but just haven’t made the time.  

Let me finish off with the powerful words of Shaq as he was reflecting. “I’m going to try to do a better job of just reaching out and talking to the people, rather than always procrastinating, because you never know.”

Thanks for the reminder big man.