When a friend shared his dream of becoming a speaker with me, he was alive with possibilities.

He didn’t just want to speak—he wanted to move people. To shake up rooms that had flatlined from too many bullet points and bar charts.

I believed in him. So I introduced him to an industry insider—someone who could help take things to the next level.

I got sick last week.

Not a little sniffle-sick. The full-body shutdown kind.

In the past, I would’ve gone into battle mode: Fever? Ibuprofen. Stuffy nose? Decongestant. Whatever it took to restore the illusion of “normal.”