A Little Perspective

I had lunch with a friend, and fellow PR practitioner yesterday and learned he was in a very serious accident just the day before.

Very serious in that he was driving down the freeway when he was clipped from behind, causing his car (a minivan) to flip on to the hood and careen down the freeway across all lanes of traffic, staying on the hood the whole time. All the windows were smashed out.

His kids were also in the car with him. One in the seat directly behind him (his 18 month-old), and the other all the way in the back (his 3 year-old). They all emerged uninjured except for a minor cut on his eldest child’s hand.

As he described the crash and the ensuing events where he found himself staring down traffic fast approaching his upside-down car, I could not help but think about what is really important in life.

I recognize this is not a normal post for “The Betty Factor,” but keeping work and life in perspective is good advice no matter where you find it. After learning of the accident we didn’t talk about the contingency plans needed in case a serious member of your executive team dies, or about the importance of building a solid crisis communications plan. None of that seemed to matter. What was important was that he was alive and well, as were his children.

If there is a PR lesson from this story, it’s that we should always have a communications, or contingency plan in place just in case of an emergency or disaster.

But perhaps a better lesson was summed up by my friend. After getting out of the mangled, upside down vehicle he said, “I just held my children and thanked God they were both alive and well.”

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