It was early 2006. I had finished a few months with the company I had joined the previous year. The CEO – who was my manager – took me out for a lunch to my favorite dinner place. When I say my favorite dinner place, I mean the TGIF that was next to the Courtyard I stayed in because I did not want to venture out too far in the Boston cold. I lived in warm Dallas and trekked to Boston every week.

My dinner those days were two glasses of wine and some French Fries. Or as the aforementioned CEO lovingly called it “Dinner of the Champions”!!

After reviewing my performance, he dropped a big surprise on me – “I want you to move to sales and run sales. I think you will be good at it.” I was fairly taken aback. While I had run service sales before, this was the first time running product sales. And those breaks do not come too often.

I cannot speak for him how it worked out for him, it certainly worked out great for me. I can honestly say that in a big way that break made me who I am today professionally.

After many a moon, I got to meet that gentleman – Jonathan Colehower today at a Starbucks. There was a flurry of memories from the past that came back. The people, the customers, the investors and all the fun we had. I had not seen him for a very long time.

Of course, we had kept up thru phone calls in between. Thru his health crisis and his wife’s. It was heartening to see how the Colehower family trumped over the vagaries of life. It was especially encouraging to hear how his three daughters have grown up so successfully.

Jon still lives with his health crisis. And the conversation today of how he deals with it was another reminder to me about life being so much about what you make of it and not playing the victim card.

It was so good to see him doing well physically, professionally and most importantly, emotionally. He seemed happy with his lot. That, above all, is what we all strive for!

May your tribe increase, Jon!!