This is a bit off topic from my usual posts, but it seems to hit on business (and life) more broadly so here it goes: your personal life matters. It matters more than whatever you do in business. Some of the recent celebrity deaths got me thinking about this.
Just Saturday former NFL quarterback, Steve McNair, was killed here in Nashville. The details are still coming out, but the reports indicate he was with his girlfriend when he was shot, and she's dead too. McNair was married with four children.
McNair was an absolute stud on the football field. He's revered as one of the guys who played through pain and injury for the team. He was the kind of guy you wanted on your team. He was well regarded in the community too. People liked him on the field and off the field. He was great at all of his business, but in the end, his personal life led to his death.
Michael Jackson died a week ago. We don't know everything that happened on Jackson's final day, but it seems he had medical professionals around him who would provide him with powerful sedatives when he requested it and that appears to have been the cause of death. Jackson was known to have an addiction to pain killers in the past.
Jackson was an absolute wonder for music, videos, and live performances. He holds music industry records that may never be broken and is widely credited as being a major influence on many artists, musicians, and performers today. He was great at his business, but in the end, his personal life led to his death.
It's easy to find people saying great things about McNair and Jackson's professional lives. We're not, however, hearing too many people talking so positively about their personal lives, and I can't help but want to use this opportunity to evaluate my own personal life. Maybe you should as well. After all, we could be great at whatever we do professionally, but our personal life might not be so personal someday. Even worse, it could cut our lives shorter than they should be.
I'm convinced my personal life matters much more than business because, in the end, it's more important than anything I may do professionally. I just don't want to waste my life.