The time is now. Whatever you believe will drive your actions, and your actions will always drive the results that you get in your life. In order for you to understand the impact that that statement has had in my life, can I take you all back to a very special time of my life and introduce you to somebody very special who had that statement make a profound impact on me?

Look at this photograph. [visual] What do you see? I know you see the smile. She has beautiful brown hair. Maybe you see a disability; maybe you don’t. Maybe you see the ability in her. I went to high school with that girl. How many arms does Melanie have?

One of the powers of being a member of the MDRT family is the power of networking and collaboration. I never did exercise that with Melanie. I never did collaborate, network or simply go up and engage with her.

I never made fun of Melanie to her face. My mom and dad taught me better than that. But behind closed doors, I did talk about the girl, and I got caught. The entire team was at my home the night before a big game. I was the captain of the team. We were downstairs, and the door was closed.

And then Melanie’s name came up in a conversation. There were a few jokes cracked, and I was the instigator of a few of those jokes. Before too long, there came a knock at the door. On the other side of that door was my father. He walked into the room and did something I did not expect. He dropped to both knees.

If you ever want to get the attention or engage with people, drop to their level. That’s true engagement. My dad said, “I heard every word. I’m really disappointed. I thought you guys were better men.” Then he took it a step further: “I’m really disappointed in your team captain.” He was talking about me. Then he said, “It’s not his fault. I’m the one who raised him. Apparently, I’ve not done the job I thought I did.” Then he stood up and walked out of the room.

My dad was preparing me for the power of “The time is now.” He took ownership for everything that happened in his family’s life, for everything I said and for everything that was happening in his life. Are you willing to own everything that you’ve heard, and then take that into tangible action in the next few hours, days, weeks, months of your life? My dad owned it. The next day at school, he showed up unannounced, walked over to my table and said, “Son, sorry to interrupt your lunch with your friends. I’d like to meet the girl you were talking about last night.”

Here was my response: “Dad, please don’t embarrass me in front of all my friends. I’m really sorry about what I said. I promise I’ll never do it again.” What’s the problem with all those sentences? I made them all about me. For those of you who are long timers in MDRT, and for those of you who are new, this is not about you. The true benefactors of this entire event are those who are not here, and the influence that you have on their lives.

I said, “Yes, sir, Dad, she’s right over there. He said, “I need you and your buddies to follow me now.” We followed my dad to her table, and when we got there, he touched her arm. She wasn’t afraid. Somebody recognized her.

Recognize people for the good they bring into the world, not necessarily their weaknesses. My dad didn’t say a word. Recognition isn’t done by the spoken word; it’s done by behavior. So, recognize the good that your colleagues are doing at work, recognize the good that your children are doing in their lives, and don’t always assume that they are doing well. Recognize it by the power of a smile, the power of touch, the power of listening, the power of instilling hope, the power of acting with urgency. The time is now.

We all sat down and had lunch with Melanie, and we found out these few things about her: She lost her arm to diabetes, she loved going to the golf course, and she had a dream. She liked to watch the cheerleaders. So, even though she was confined to a wheelchair, in her mind, she had this picture of herself dancing.

Guess what happened to her eight days later? She was voted the head cheerleader of our high school because 3,000 students saw that interlude with the team, my father and Melanie.

Do you have the same vision as my father? Do you have the same ability to act now? Because the longer you wait to act, the less likely you are to implement what you’ve learned the last few days here at MDRT 2021.

To understand how I needed that repetition in my life, let me take you back 21 years. My wife, Shondell, called me up with some terrific news. She told me our little boy just took his first two steps, and she asked me to hurry home so I could play ball with him. Before stopping at the house, I stopped by the hayfield to feed the animals on our farm. I hopped onto a tractor and loaded up a bale of hay that weighed more than most vehicles. I lifted that bale 15 feet in the air, and that’s when I experienced a problem. The red light was flashing on my dashboard of the tractor.

I ignored the warning light, indicating to me that my hydraulic tank was empty. Why? Because I’d gotten away with it before, so I thought I could get away with it again. I kept pushing the lever, and the bale of hay rolled over backward because there wasn’t enough oil in the lines. That bale landed right on my head, punched my head to the steering wheel, and the shaft went through my mouth breaking everything in its path. It broke all the bones in my neck and severed 95 percent of my spinal cord. I remember waking up from a coma, and my dad said, “The time is now.” The words didn’t come from a doctor. They didn’t come from my wife. They came from this visionary man.

We don’t have a fire station where I live. We have cowboys, though, and five cowboys showed up — they’re called first responders — and three Utah State Troopers got there within 12 minutes. That’s eight men, and they did the unthinkable.

They acted with urgency. They wasted no time, and they acted on instinct and intuition. There were two cops on my left, a cowboy in the middle, another cop on my right, four more cowboys on the other side. They lifted the equivalent of 412 pounds each. My question for you is, how were eight men able to lift 412 pounds each, or lift an SUV, off my body? How is that possible? Adrenaline? Teamwork?

If somebody came into your office in your line of work right now and said, “Hey, we need some help. Will you help us?” I believe that with intuition and instinct, you would do that. But remember, sometimes the problem is that we wait for an accident to happen before we act with urgency and act as though the time is now.

Are my dreams coming true today? Yes. Sure. I’m farming with all of you, my MDRT friends and family. It’s not what I envisioned, but my dad was right. Whatever I believe will dictate my actions, and actions dictate results. The longer I wait, the less likely it is to happen. The time truly is now.

Chad Hymas is president of his own communications company, a bestselling author and a world-class wheelchair athlete. In 2003, he set a record by wheeling his chair from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas (513 miles) and continues to travel as many as 300,000 miles a year, captivating and entertaining audiences around the world with his presentations on leadership, team building, customer service and mastering change.

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Turning accountability and empathy into action

The time is now