A Retinal Retrospective
In 2023 I received what for me could be called a major “reality check”.
Whilst having dinner with friends and trying to dislodge a piece of food stuck between my teeth with a toothpick, I suffered a detached retina. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is when the layer of cells responsible for your sight literally “peels off” the back of the eyeball, releasing blood into the liquid inside the eyeball. For me, it was like somebody had poured treacle into my eyeball and my vision became blurry.
One month later I finally managed to get an appointment with an eye specialist who took one look at me and immediately called their colleagues at the local hospital to schedule a full checkup and surgery. Apparently, I was on the point of losing sight in my right eye!
The next day I was examined at the hospital, taken straight up to a ward and operated on early the following morning. The surgery was a success but they did warn me that at my age, it was highly likely that a cataract would form. This, however, could be treated with a standard lens replacement operation.
True to their word, the cataract did form and for me it was like looking through a heavily frosted glass window if I looked out of my right eye only. After the surgery, the vision in my right eye was just short of “perfect”!
The reason I describe this as a “wake up call” was that it showed me how dependent I was on having good eyesight. I drive, enjoy reading and watching films and I’m what people might call a “visual” person. It terrified me to think that all this could have disappeared if the doctors hadn’t seen me in time. Yes, it was only one eye, but losing the site in that eye (which was my “dominant” one) would have been a serious inconvenience for me.
However, the ending was a happy one, I can see almost perfectly and even now, three years after the operation for the detached retina and two years after the one for the cataract, I still sometimes forget to put on my glasses when I leave the house. This just shows the incredible skill of the surgeons who operated on me.
Yes, I’m more or less back to “normal”, but I now take my eyesight and hearing a lot more seriously and attend “religiously” all scheduled health checkups and appointments that my age requires.
Question: what would you do if you were deprived of one of your senses? How would it impact your life, family and business? Are you making sure it doesn’t happen? More to the point, apply this to your team: is there that “vital” person with whom you can’t do without? What about buyers? If you lost business from one, would that bring down your business?
I deliver change in markets ranging from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
posted by William Martin @ 09:31
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