Thirty Thousand Days - Fall 2013 Vol 18 No. 1 | Page 13

Three Things I Learned While My
Plane Crashed
Continued from Page 1

The second thing I learned that day — and this is as
we clear the George Washington Bridge, which was not by
a lot — I thought about, wow, I really feel one real regret.
I’ve lived a good life. In my own humanity and mistakes,
I’ve tried to get better at everything I tried. But in my
humanity, I also allowed my ego to get in. And I regretted
the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people
that matter. And I thought about my relationship with my
wife, with my friends, with people. And after, as I reflected
on that, I decided to eliminate negative energy from my
life. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better. I’ve not had a fight
with my wife in two years. It feels great. I no longer try to
be right; I choose to be happy.
The third thing I learned — and this is as your mental
clock starts going, “15, 14, 13.” You can see the water coming.
I’m saying, “Please blow up.” I don’t want this thing to
break in 20 pieces like you’ve seen in those documentaries.
And as we’re coming down, I had a sense of, wow, dying
is not scary. It’s almost like we’ve been preparing for it our
whole lives. But it was very sad. I didn’t want to go; I love
my life. And that sadness really framed in one thought,
which is, I only wish for one thing. I only wish I could see
my kids grow up. About a month later, I was at a performance by my daughter -- first-grader, not much artistic
talent ... ... yet. And I’m balling, I’m crying, like a little kid.
And it made all the sense in the world to me. I realized at
that point, by connecting those two dots, that the only thing

that matters in my life is being a great dad. Above all,
above all, the only goal I have in life is to be a good dad.
I was given the gift of a miracle, of not dying that day.
I was given another gift, which was to be able to see into
the future and come back and live differently. I challenge
you guys that are flying today, imagine the same thing
happens on your plane — but imagine how would you
change? What would you get done that you’re waiting to
get done because you think you’ll be here forever? How
would you change your relationships and the negative
energy in them? And more than anything, are you being
the best parent you can?
Thank you.
Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed
in the Hudson River in New York in January, 2009. He is the CEO and
co-founder of Red Ventures, a firm that helps large service companies acquire
new customers online. Prior to founding Red Ventures, Ric served as president
of Spark Network Services, a promotion and data company held by Cendant.
Born in Puerto Rico, Ric Elias came to the United States for college knowing
little English. So what did he do? “I adjusted my schedule and took only
classes that dealt with numbers my entire first year,” he says. “I’d always
been decent at math, and things like calculus and accounting were non-lingual.
I was able to buy some time to improve my English skills.” This essay was
reprinted from a TED talk Ric gave in March, 2011.

Life Itself is a Gift
How easily we can forget how precious life is! So long as we can remember,
we’ve just been here, being alive. Unlike other things for which we have a comparison –
black to white, day to night, good to bad – we are so immersed in life that we can
see it only in the context of itself. We don’t see life as compared to anything, to not-being,
for example, to never having been born. Life just is.
But life itself is a gift. It’s a compliment just being born: to feel, breathe, think, play,
dance, sing, work, make love, for this particular lifetime. Today, let’s give thanks for life.
For life itself! For simply being born.
-Daphne Rose Kingma

Thirty Thousand Days

Fall 2013 • 13