Reflections from the Former CEO of a $37 Billion Company
On the importance of meaing, death, and consciousness
If you’re new around here, welcome to Wisdom Wednesdays - where I share wisdom from history’s greatest minds.
Eugene O’Kelly is in his prime. He’s 53 years old, the chairman and CEO of KPMG one of the big four accounting firms.
But in May of 2005, Eugene is diagnosed with Grade IV Astrocytoma or Glioblastoma. He’s only given 6 months to live. Chasing Daylight is his memoir. The memoir, completed in three and a half months between his diagnosis and death in September 2005, offers a look into the mind of a person who had achieved material success but only to realise that he misunderstood the true purpose of life.
In his final months, Eugene comes to see that life is not about accumulating wealth or status, but about expanding one’s consciousness, love, and fully embracing the present moment.
So near the end of the book he writes,
“I wished I’d known then how to be and stayed in the present, the way I now knew it.”
Lessons from Eugene O’Kelly
I was blessed. I was told I had three months to live.
My experience taught me that we should all spend time thinking about our death, and what we want to do with our final days, insofar as it’s within our control.
You can call what I went through a spiritual journey, a journey of the soul. A journey that allowed me to experience what was there all along but had been hidden, thanks to the distractions of the world.
I wished I’d known then how to be and stayed in the present, the way I now knew it.
It was beyond jarring. No time frame was given, yet. But it appeared as if I’d been catapulted into the last phase of my life, the one where I was supposed to be wise—wise for my daughters, my grandchildren, those younger than me. Except I’d missed a key stretch of life and still had a lot to learn.
No more living in the future. I needed to stop living two months, a week, even a few hours ahead. Even a few minutes ahead. Sixty seconds from now is, in its ways, as elusive as 60 years from now, and always will be it is—was—exhausting to live in a world that never exists.
Before my illness, I had considered commitment king among virtues. After I was diagnosed, I came to consider consciousness king among virtues.
Till next week,
Peace!
You can support this mission of reviving beauty and wisdom by checking out the podcast, sharing this essay with a friend, or upgrading to a paid subscription on Substack.
Thank you to all those who are supporting my work!