“Are we okay?”

The place… Provo, Utah.

The Time… daytime.

The Mood… controlled chaos threatening to erupt at any moment.

I was in the middle of a presentation and from the stage, I could see that things were getting out of hand.

There was some jostling. Then the jostling turned to slight elbowing.

And then….

As one the whole audience tried to overwhelm my staff at the back of the room. Although it lasted only 2 or 3 seconds, it seemed to go on forever until we all heard a loud ‘thud!’

Suddenly, everything stopped because an attendee was on the ground, holding his arm, and not getting up.

Maybe I should backtrack a bit and let you know what happened that led up to the medical emergency.

I used to do speaking engagements for the Rich Dad Education and I was in Provo, Utah helping them out.

In my presentation, one of the key points I hammer home is about taking action. I might have gone a bit too far this time.

I was on a roll. I had people up in their seats.

Some attendees were shouting at me.

I worked them up into a fervor and then let them loose on my staff at the back of the room to get more information.

I don’t know what it was about that day, maybe there was something in the water in Utah, but there was a mad rush to the back of the room to get enrolled.

Not only did I get the audience to understand taking action, but I also got everyone to take action NOW!

It was like those Black Friday videos you see of Americans rushing into stores and fighting each other–only it was in my ballroom!

When I say everyone went for it, they really went for it, until one of the other attendees shoved that poor fellow to the ground and broke his arm. That caused everyone to stop in their tracks.

Sanity returned to the room. Everybody rushed to help the injured man who suffered a broken arm. From that moment on he could forever claim that he suffered a calamitous convention injury. He wore it like a badge of honor.

He was so into real estate that he was willing to suffer broken bones. He knew he would always have real estate street cred.

After we got him help, I gathered everyone back together. I knew I had to do something to reset the situation so I simply asked one question:

“Are we okay?” I said. “Raise your hand if we are okay.”

A hand went up. Then another. Soon the whole room was raising their hand and the show went on.

It doesn’t really matter if you don’t know anyone in Florida, or someone who broke their arm in a freak conference injury.

When you are part of a team, a group, or a family, you can always say “We are okay” and move forward. It is much easier to say ‘we’ than ‘I.”

During this time I was trying to fit in side trips to my busy speaking schedule, so I could try and meet local investors in the Sunshine state in order to make my family’s dream of investing in Florida as a U.S. foreign national a reality.

It was hard because there was no team of people supporting my family in Florida. We did not know anyone.

If you don’t already know a lot of people in a place, trying to make connections can be kind of like constantly going to new housewarming parties where you don’t live in the neighborhood…

And your kids don’t go to the local school…

And the weather in Florida is always the same (gorgeous!), so you can’t talk about that either..

So, you always end up talking about off-the-wall stuff. I know this sounds weird, but if you can’t talk about your home, the kids, or the weather, someone always brings up how they locked themselves out of the house…

Or, how they forgot the paper towels in the self-checkout aisle at the grocery store and how they had to go back because paper towels are really expensive now.

Then the conservation drifts into a paper towel debate.

Or that time when someone broke their arm at one of my speaking events (that story is always a good one for parties and emails).

I eventually made the connections I needed to in Florida, because I was always part of a team with my wife and kids. I always had a reason to be okay.

It does not matter what gets put in your path, you can overcome it.

You can take action right now, in complete safety, and …

Two things I can tell you for sure.

No more broken arms because lightning does not strike twice,

And, teams always win.

With a Sincere Desire to Be of Service,

Coach Roel