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I came to while strapped down in a van of some sort. When I realized I was being taken, I assumed I was being arrested or abducted. I fought the restraints, but I could not break them. Then I tried to argue my way out the situation, arguing being a greater competency for me than physical strength at the time. I told my captors to release me, that I had done nothing wrong and that I knew my rights.

One of the paramedics tried to talk me down from my heightened emotional state, telling me: “You are not being taken. You are in an ambulance. You just had a Grand Mal seizure.” When you have a Grand Mal seizure, you don’t know what happened.

Being supremely pigheaded, I insisted that I knew my rights, that I could not be taken against my will. It turns out, without having any idea what I was talking about, I was right. It was the law that I could not be taken, even in an ambulance, against my will. The paramedics had to let me out of the ambulance.

Being stubborn, and just having had a Grand Mal seizure, I refused to go to the hospital, until my neighbor volunteered to drive me to UCLA with the ambulance following. I was immediately given a CAT scan and then an MRI. The first guess after seeing a massive spot on my brain was that I had cancer. That would require a lobectomy, the removal of the front right lobe of my brain. Fortunately, that diagnosis was incorrect. What I had was an arteriovenous malformation, a large group of arteries and veins that had grown into a massive knot that was filling with blood and pushing on my brain. Not great, but better than cancer.

I am reminded today that the negative events in life can be a greater blessing than you can realize at the time. Negative events can also change you in the most positive ways, acting as a catalyst for growth and becoming a better version of yourself. A negative event can help you wake up to what is real and what is important.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the day I had my Grand Mal seizure while walking up the stairs to my Brentwood, CA apartment, the start of my second life.

Tags:
Sales 2017
Post by Anthony Iannarino on October 26, 2017

Written and edited by human brains and human hands.

Anthony Iannarino
Anthony Iannarino is a writer, an international speaker, and an entrepreneur. He is the author of four books on the modern sales approach, one book on sales leadership, and his latest book called The Negativity Fast releases on 10.31.23. Anthony posts daily content here at TheSalesBlog.com.
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