Tuesday, [11:13] AM

Dear Friend,

I’ve been in a few tough situations over the years.

In every single case, by the grace of God (and with a little preparation on my part), I wound up being the victor.

Here’s just a small sample:

• I’ve faced down several homicidal armed attackers…

• Survived two nasty divorces…

• Experienced 10 straight years of consecutive business failures…

• Been legally bankrupt once and technically bankrupt 4 other times…

• Lived without any kind of safety net in two different foreign countries (one was the most dangerous country in the world at that time)… AND…

• I even stripped down to my skivvies in front of 300 drunk horny women to raise money for charity!

In addition to all that, I just added another entry to my list of accomplishments…

Cancer Survivor!

The Colombiana asked me not to share this with you. She thought it was too personal.

She also said you were sick of me. After all, you heard from me every single day for the past 30 days during my YouTube 30-Day Challenge.

She’s right… this IS personal stuff… and you probably ARE sick of me… but I have a feeling somebody might need to hear this.

Anyhoo… I’ve alluded to a health issue here on the blog before. It all started at the end of last year.

Let me give you the “Readers Digest” version of my ordeal.

A week ago at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida I had a large and rapidly growing tumor removed from my thyroid, along with half of my thyroid and some lymph nodes.

By the way, I’d like to answer the numerous questions I received about alternative treatments.

YES, I did explore (and am still exploring) alternative treatment options. I’ve seen numerous success stories from alternative treatments and believe traditional allopathic options such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation should be a last resort.

Unfortunately, in my case, the tumor was growing quite rapidly and causing some blockage of my airway so I needed a pretty urgent remedy.

Also, the surgeon knew my vocal nerve was involved to some degree and the longer I waited for my miracle cure, the more likely I would lose my vocal nerve.

Now to some people that would be GOOD news since losing my vocal nerve means I can never speak again… but it’s kinda important to me.

So after exploring all my options, I opted for the surgery.

I’m REALLY glad I didn’t wait any longer.

Once they had me cut open, the surgeon discovered things were worse than expected.

My vocal nerve went right up through the center of the tumor. He had never seen a case like that before. It made the surgery a lot trickier… and the chance of saving my vocal nerve plunged down to the single digits.

I think a lesser skilled surgeon would have said, “What’s the use. The chance of saving this guy’s vocal nerve is so small, why should I bother.”

But not my surgeon.

Even though it took twice as long as expected, he took his time and did everything he knew to save the vocal nerve.

My voice is still a little weak but coming back quickly.

Once again, with all the odds against me I’ve come out victorious.

I’m going to celebrate that every day.

Moffitt Cancer Center has these cool little buttons.

They’re color coded according to what kind of cancer you have.

Mine is blue for thyroid cancer.

It’s kinda like we’re all in this exclusive little club with our own secret codes.

We nod to each other in the hallway thinking, “Poor sick bastard. Thank God I’m not sick like him.”

Or at least that’s what I think. 🙂

I’m glad to say, I’m leaving the club.

Can’t say that I enjoyed my brief stay. In fact, I don’t EVER plan on returning.

It’s been an emotional roller coaster the past several months… and that’s been a GOOD thing.

Most people coast through life without ever really thinking about their own mortality. They act as if they have all the time in the world… and because of that, they’re always putting off their goals and dreams until “tomorrow”.

The sad fact is most people choose to fritter away their days in mindless grunt work, never even taking the first step toward all the things they claim they’re going to do some day.

Tomorrow is a promissory note guaranteed to no one.

The time to start is TODAY.

I’m truly grateful I got my wake up call.

Hopefully it will serve as your wake up call, too.

Make your days count NOW. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

All the best,

P.S. Thanks to everybody who sent me your positive thoughts, prayers and encouragement. I really appreciate it.