Everything that happens in life is neutral until you put a label on them. Listen in as today’s guest shares how he was able to turn a near-death experience into a catalyst that shaped his life’s purpose: to help corporate leaders and their people build resiliency.

We have interviewed Michael O’Brien, executive business coach, TEDx speaker, author, and Chief Shift Officer at Peloton Executive Coaching. His mission? To help leaders prevent bad moments from turning into a bad day.

1) Can you recall your worst day as a leader and entrepreneur?

A couple of stories come to mind. My “last bad day” was when I got hit head-on by an SUV when I was out on a bike training ride. Another one was early on in my entrepreneurial life.

I spent 22 years in corporate America. The last job I held was General Manager for sales and marketing operations for a global pharmaceuticals company. I was doing pretty well, but I decided to follow my purpose and passion by starting my executive coaching career. In 2016 I was a year and a half into it. I was preparing a talk one day but didn’t have a lot of prep time due to family reasons. The talk was an absolute disaster. 15 minutes into it, I just lost my way, and for the first time in my professional life, I had to say, “Can we stop?” I just wanted the whole day to be over. Later, I was in my car and called my wife to tell her that I stunk up the joint. She told me that I was probably making a bigger deal out of it than it really was. I thought that my whole career as an entrepreneur was over. When I got home, I wrote a blog post and recorded a podcast in order to turn my experience into a teaching moment that I could share with others.

That day taught me about resilience and using lessons from my setbacks to lead me down a better direction. By the way, that company stayed as one of my clients because it was such an authentic moment for them.

2) You talk about another story on your website that really set the stage for how you view resiliency today. Can you tell me about that?

This is my origin story. It was July 11, 2001. I was out for a company offsite in New Mexico. I decided to bring my bike since I had a goal to cycle through all 50 states. That morning, I came around a bend, and a Ford Explorer was fully in my lane, traveling around 40 miles an hour. I didn’t have enough time to avoid him. I remember hitting his grill, into the windshield I went and came to the asphalt below as he came to a halting stop.

I regained consciousness surrounded by EMTs, and I knew that my life was in the balance. Throughout my whole life, I thought I was following the script, adhering to the letter of the law. In reality, I was chasing happiness by comparing myself to others and keeping up with the Joneses. And now, here I was, on the cold, desert asphalt of New Mexico fighting for my life. As they brought me to Albuquerque, I told myself that, if I got through this, I would change how I lived my life. When my doctor told me that my future was uncertain, I thought I’d never been happy again.

I stayed in that funk until a mentor told me that everything in my life is neutral until I label them. Nothing has meaning unless I give it meaning. I could stay a victim, or decide to rise up. That, to me, was a big “ah-ha” moment. I believe that an accident happened to me, not to me. It helped me lead in a different way that allowed me to get into the executive suite at a very young age. I credit my recovery as a big driver in helping me reshape my life—shifting my life if you will.

3) What exactly were those new paradigms that helped you climb the ladder in the corporate world?

One of the big ones was spending some time each day just being quiet and being present. Some people can call it “meditation” or “mindfulness”. I didn’t think of it that way. I grew up doing sports and knew that the mind was very important; so I knew that if I could get my mind right, I could get my body right.