OK, before I start, do you remember at the start of the week of this course, that our great leader Bruno reminded us that our life with Accenture is expected to last on average 3-5 years? Keep that in mind. Now let me start with my story.



Did anyone here read Simone de Beauvoir? All men are mortal? No? I’ll sum it up for you. The gist of the book is, death makes life worth living. Death gives meaning to life. And we all die, so that’s good news; it means all our lives have meaning.

The problem is, though, that we live our lives as if we have forever. Death seems far off and we can lose sight of what’s really meaningful along the way. 

I was confronted with my own mortality recently. I was diagnosed a few months ago with ALS. You may know it as Motor Neuron Disease or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It weakens muscles, you can hear that it started in my tongue. My brain is just fine; Stephen Hawking has it, and his brain is OK. Not all ALS patients are as lucky as he is though. The average life expectancy of an ALS patient is 3-5 years. So I will work with Accenture for the rest of my life. 

So, that sucks, but it’s not that bad. There are worse ways to die and I’ve had a good run so far. I’m very grateful for everything I’ve accomplished and seen; I’d like to mention the great support Accenture is giving us. I’ve had such a happy life that I don’t even have much of a bucket list – done ‘em nearly all. I’ve eaten in the best restaurant in the world, I’m married to the best wife in the world, after 15 years I finally got the dream job I always wanted. Some regrets, but overall, I’m not even going to change that much. If this had happened five years ago I’d have died a bitter man but since joining Accenture I’ve felt at home and that’s a good place to stay. I will spend way more time with my wife and family, yes, but other than that… 

ALS is a rare disease with budget problems and PR problems. In the western world it kills more people than HIV, yet it gets less than half a percent of the research budget that AIDS gets. We don’t even know what the cause is. ALS is a pretty tough problem. Luckily, I work with a company that solves problems, no matter how tough. After my news Accenture in The Netherlands got mobilized, did a fundraiser and engaged with the best professor on ALS we could find. We learned that we can really make a difference here; if you want to talk about the big theme of our week, digital – the cure may be out there but it’s buried under paper. Among the things we’re doing is helping set up the largest big data analytics project the medical world has ever seen. The chances of finding the cure in my lifetime isn’t that great but it’s a nice fight to be engaged in. It’s meaningful to me. 

I am talking about this here today for three reasons:  one, I like to tell my story while I still can. Two, to show my gratitude to Accenture - they have been so great to me. And three, to make you think. This won't happen to you, it's too rare, but imagine: what would you do if this happened to you? Would you have regrets or be content? How would your priorities change?
  
I will let Linda take it from here, I'm available for questions later.





“closing statement”
Accenture gave me freedom, telling me I could pretty much do what I want with the rest of my life. I'm probably going to spend it kicking ALS in the balls. So I came here to Strategy College, to tell you this story, hoping to make you think.  And if you’d like to join the fight, please let me know. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening.