CAREENOUGH

In 2016, when I was recovering from a car accident, my story was shared more widely than I ever expected. In the middle of one of the hardest seasons of my life, I had an experience most people never get to have. I got to hear what people might have said about me at my funeral while I was still here to read it. People wrote me letters. They made scrapbooks. They wrote poems. They told me stories about moments I barely remembered that had mattered deeply to them. I saved all of it, and there were days when those words gave me strength I thought I had lost. But there was one letter that changed everything. I was not able to work at the time, and one day I walked out to the mailbox and found an envelope with a return address I did not recognize. I did not know the name. It was handwritten, and it was one of those moments when you just must tear the envelope apart right there in front of the mailbox. A check fell to the ground. It was for $1,500. I picked it up and looked at the name again, still trying to figure out who this person was. I had no idea. Then I opened the letter, and I will never forget the first line. “You don’t know me, but I know you.” What followed was a beautifully detailed account of how something his wife had learned in one of my trainings had changed the way she showed up in their marriage. He told me that what I had taught her had saved their marriage. Then he explained that he had heard I was facing unimaginable challenges. He wrote, “Here’s $1,500. It’s all I could afford right now, but I hope that it will help. What you’ve given me is priceless.” I had never met him, and still never have as far as I know. I had never trained him. I didn’t even know that anything I had taught had ever entered his home. That letter strengthened a conviction that was already deeply rooted in me, and it carried me on days when I needed a reason to keep going. We are almost never influencing only the person in front of us. What we say to an employee travels home with them. What we model for a child can shape relationships we may never see. What we say to a partner can change what becomes possible between two people. The way we show up in one relationship will certainly reach someone whose name we may never know. That is why I believe the relationships that matter most deserve more than good intentions. They deserve enough care to understand what the relationship requires from us, enough self-awareness to recognize the impact we are having, and enough courage to do what the relationship and the mission require next. The patterns do not stay in one room. Neither does our influence. CARE ENOUGH makes that application intentional. You bring the situation you’re facing at home or at work, and I bring my leadership consulting experience to help you understand what’s happening, consider a different approach, and put practical skills to work.