The regret of neglect

I neglected my health recently. I prioritised time with my family over getting help.

The painful irony here is that failure to get help actually negatively impacted my time with my family. They may not have noticed, but I did, and I regret it.

I had a sore throat and temperature, I thought I’d battle through it, I thought I would be ok. I was wrong.

The infection passed after a week. Then, my body went on the attack, an auto-immune response meant that healthy cells were being attacked. I won’t go into too much detail, but it wasn’t pretty… literally.

I eventually got help, and a simple throat infection now has me on a 3 – 12 month recovery pathway with the help of a specialist. I am in good hands… now.

I am ok by the way, nothing about this is preventing me from physically doing the things I love.

Why am I oversharing? Well, beyond the obvious lesson here about the need to take our health seriously, I couldn’t help but draw the parallel to business.

So often we ignore symptoms because we think we have dealt with them before, or worse, we think they will just go away on their own.

Things like:

• The wrong people.
• The wrong solution.
• The wrong customer.
• A system alert.
• A warning light.
• An overdue account or bill.

The list goes on, and on.

If we ignore "people" problems long enough they can spread through the company like an infection, the wrong people infecting the right people. The right people leave, the wrong people stay, and you begin to forget what the right people look like.

If we ignore solution or offering issues and shortcomings long enough clients will give up, they will work around you, go elsewhere and you risk damaging your reputation irreparably.

If we ignore wrong customer issues they can quickly become the center of your universe, they can take all of our focus away from the right customer. Consuming your time with the wrong customer can also take your time away from your own team, your family, and your friends.

Just like the above examples, an alert, a warning light, and an overdue account, can all bring your business to a halt. Sometimes, a sudden and painful halt.

Nothing good for you, worthwhile or meaningful thrives on neglect. Not your health, not your team, your family, your friends, or your business.

If there are symptoms, alerts, or discomforts in your life, do something about them. The sooner the better.