Question: What career event dramatically changed your life?

Answer: I was unexpectedly appointed to be the first Director of Hermann Hospital’s famed Life Flight helicopter ambulance program.

The Story: I was on my way to yet another meeting in my new job as Director of Community Relations.  As I approached my boss in the hallway, he was engaged in a noisy conversation with a physician. I heard the doctor yell, “You are going to waste valuable resources on that (effing) helicopter program that will probably fail, and you have no one to run it.”

As I passed the two, my boss, the CEO, responded in a loud voice, “John Self is going to run it and he will sink with it or swim with it.”

That 12 seconds changed my life.

Which version are you more likely to remember?