Lessons From Three Health Crises

BusinessLessons From Three Health CrisesByGary Jacobs,Forbes Books Author.for Forbes BooksAUTHOR POSTExpertise and opinions of authors published by ForbesBooks. Imprint operated under license. | Paid ProgramJun 11, 2026, 11:46am EDTJust as stress can lead to health crises in people, it’s creating a crisis in our health systems. getty“Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.”I’ve always been fascinated by Henry David Thoreau, who wrote those words in his journal on January 10, 1851. I appreciate his belief in the inherent goodness of people and his work as a reformer. During the two years he spent at Walden Pond, he became one of the earliest Western pioneers of mindfulness. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” he wrote in Walden; or Life in the Woods. His daily walks were a form of meditation, and he intentionally stripped away distractions to become more fully present.I’ve had three significant health crises in my lifetime, and I can now see the wisdom in Thoreau’s recognition that there can be purpose and meaning in experiences of physical frailty. My first health challenge was triggered by a middle-of-the-night call notifying me that an FBI investigation into fraudulent healthcare billing practices (in which I had been serving as an unpaid advisor on billing practices) was about to become public. My determination to expose the illegal practices had triggered a deep stress-induced fear that I did nothing to stop. It reached the point where I couldn’t drive and couldn’t function. The second significant health event happened several years later, when I was on a road trip that involved lots of driving. I was running on the hotel’s treadmill after we’d settled, and I noticed a constant pain around my groin. When I got home, my doctor did an immediate ultrasound, which revealed a significant blood clot that, if untreated, could end my life at any moment. The third event happened during my second month in a new job. I’d traveled by train to Philadelphia...