Mitch and Jeff Pulver at Start Up Grind Greenwich CT

Have you heard the advice that you have less than one minute to make an impression as people will size you up as soon as they see you. This is true for an interview. This is true for networking. This is true for a sales meeting. This is true for a first, second, or third date! How you look, walk into the room, shake hands, sit down and begin to speak. In less than one minute the other person has already made many determinations all of which are based upon them! Their background, their experience, their life – Nothing about you!

We all do the same thing when we hear about people or read their stories. Hence the term ‘the overnight success who has been working at their craft for over twenty years!’ 

So what would be going through your mind if you were in the audience at StartUpGrindGreenwich listening to Peter Sinkevich give the introduction of the speaker that night, Jeff Pulver, and Jeff stops Peter. Jeff simply asks the audience, “Do you use Skype or FaceTime?” Everyone raises a hand. “Have you ever, ever, ever had to pay for it?” Well no, everyone shakes their heads in unison. “You are welcome!”

Wow! Now that is an introduction!

For the next twenty minutes or more the talk is mesmerizing! Then something happens which is about to break into our assumptions and preconceived judgment. Everyone assumes life for Jeff has been amazing and filled with riches beyond belief.

Two years ago he began to workout in a way he had not done – possibly forever. He had a friend who was a marathon runner and from this influence in addition to being very overweight, Jeff began his journey. As he told the audience he ‘outsourced’ over 120 lbs.

No, he did not lose this weight as losing weight infers you will find it again or it will find you again. His words to us listening to his story were “I outsourced the weight.” From the outside looking in this was consistent with our made up viewpoint of this true internet guru.

Jeff then described how he was about to run his first Marathon. While relaxing in a chair prior to the race, he had a seizure. At least that is what he was told later as in one minute he was aware of sitting in a chair getting ready to run in his first Marathon and then the next minute he was aware of being transported in the back of an ambulance.

How could this be? He was now fit, more fit than he had been in years?

Let’s fast forward through the medical details. For the good part of the next year Jeff was laid up. Barely able to lie down to sleep, spending much of his day sitting in a chair.

The closing fifteen minutes of Jeff’s talk was about life. How precious life is for all of us.

How we must take the time to appreciate the sunrise, the sunset, even the sky. He described trips he has been taking to places where light pollution does not exist in order to take in the beauty of the night sky and all it has to offer.

Here is my question to ask. Why do we have to go through a medical or health shock to come to the realization of the importance of our time here on earth? How we must appreciate those around us? How we must take the time to appreciate what it is that surrounds us?

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified coach, speaker and trainer based in Stamford, CT.