We’ve all been to conferences.
You get there, check into the hotel, go to your room and put down your bags. You refreshen up, grab a stack of business cards, your hotel key, and then set off to explore.
Stopping by the conference registration table, you get signed in and pick up your badge and goodie bag, then scan the itinerary to see what breakout session you want to attend first.
You make causal conversation with other conference goers as you mingle in the lounge sponsored by Fortune 500 companies and grab all the free stuff you can carry.
Then it’s time for the kickoff luncheon. You settle down in front of the standard pre-made salad, and wait for the program to start. You fidget as you wait on them to bring the salad dressing around while the warm up speakers make announcements.
Then comes the chicken. Baked with cappers and cream sauce, with a side of green beans and rice. Predictable but better than airplane food – so you dig in.
Suddenly, on stage, appears a proud woman, with a cast on one arm and a dog walking by the other, wheeling herself into position to address the crowd.
The half-eaten chicken is forgotten because as this women, with strong arms, dawning a pink blouse and flowery skirt, who looks ten feet tall though she’s sitting in a wheel chair, captivates you with her story of a spectacular rise in competitive skiing as a teen, only to have her hopes shattered like her back was when she hit a tree, traveling 45mph, with such impact that it cracked her top of the line helmet.
And who had to tell her that she’d lost her ability to move from chest down, lost her chance for Olympic glory? Her dad – the radiologist on duty in their small ski town.
But, Muffy Davis didn’t stand (and I say that intentionally) before us broken and bitter. She stood before us – all 500+ conference goers with businesses that were just getting started, businesses that have thrived, and those that are barely hanging on – to tell us the good news.
To tell us that when one way of doing this business thing looks impossible, find another way to accomplish your goals. Because that’s what she did. No longer able to ski race in the Olympics, she sought out the Paralympics. This Stanford University graduate has medals from the 1998 and 2002 Winter Paralympic games and has been inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. And then she switched events and won World Titles in Hand Cycling.
She has a total of THREE gold medals (She let me hold them and boy are they heavy … and pretty!) and is set to compete in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. And the most rewarding of all, she married the love of her life and has a beautiful daughter.
All the conference speakers at WBC 2014 were awesome, but Muffy’s story was powerful and impactful, not only for business, but for life. And it captured the essence of this year’s conference theme, The Power of You, because there is power in each of us to build the life that we want.