Life is short

I don't talk about work much, but I think people know I am a sort of marketer, which means, of course, that I have to market products. Most of the time, anyway. I've been working pretty hard on a bunch of launches lately, one of which is tied to a specific person. Starting this product was the beginning of a new phase of life for this guy, a culmination of years of work in the financial industry. And on Monday night, less than 12 hours before our first marketing efforts were supposed to go out, he sent me an email saying he liked what I had written, and then had a massive heart attack. The new website and the related pieces of the product were supposed to go live today, and instead, he's clinging to life on a respirator somewhere.

It's very odd, because while I like the guy, and certainly wish him well, I don't really know him. We've never met in person, and we've maybe talked on the phone two dozen times. He could walk right past me on the street and unless I heard his voice, I wouldn't recognize him. And yet his illness has really thrown me off kilter. Part of it is probably because Nora's death is so fresh. And part of it is probably that I care about what happens to him, of course. But most of it is just this notion that he was on the cusp of something new and big that he'd worked really hard for and now...who knows.

I guess I just want to say, take time for the people you love, your friends and family, and do what is important to you. And yes, doing what's important to you can be work, too, if you want it to be. Just choose it consciously. Don't waste time worrying about stuff that doesn't matter, like whether or not you got the absolute best price for something (I can't believe how much energy I put in to fretting over whether I'm paying $2.95 or $2.85 per gallon for gas) or if someone cut you off in traffic, or even whether or not you got the laundry done. In the scheme of things, who cares? Enjoy life while you've got it.