An Independence Day Lesson
Date Posted: July 3, 2014
Posted In: Ideas,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum St. Louis
Last weekend the least independent individual I’ve ever met taught me a powerful lesson about independence. Rick Meeks is in the last stages of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease – a disease which always kills, and for which both the cause and the cure are unknown. Rick, a man who can only move the fingers on one hand, showed me how to adapt to whatever change life throws our way.
Let’s get one thing straight. Darwin didn’t believe in the survival of the fittest. He believed in the survival of the most adaptable. In “Origin of Species,” he wrote, “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able to adapt to and to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
I’ve experienced quite a bit of change in my time – less than a lot of people, more than others, but still quite a bit. I agree with those who say attitude, persistence, and faith will carry us through changes and setbacks. But adapting to change and adjusting is also closely related to who walks alongside us through whatever life throws our way.
Last weekend, dozens of Rick Meek’s friends, family, and acquaintances walked a mile alongside him as he rode in a motorized wheelchair in the Walk to Defeat ALS in Forest Park. ALS can start in the feet and spread slowly through the body over years, until it robs an individual of all motor control and they are trapped in their body, with a working mind, but no ability to move or communicate. Rick’s ALS started in his neck, and its spread has been especially fast and cruel. Rick still has one working hand and can communicate using an electronic tablet. So when the word went out that Rick was going to “walk” in the ALS event and was asking for folks to join him, response was strong.
I was there because my friend Mark Murphy of Drilling Service Co. had put out an email to his friends and business contacts. Last Saturday the turnout was strong in Forest Park, both for Rick, and for the other moms, dads, uncles, brothers, sisters, and friends who had been or are being affected by ALS. The atmosphere was like a family reunion, but with walkers, wheelchairs and signs along the route celebrating the living and memorializing the departed.
At one crosswalk along our route was a young man whose face lit up when he saw Rick. This young man lost his grandfather to the disease. Early in the progress of Rick’s ALS he would bring meals to Rick’s house and spend hours with him, unpaid. 
Watching Rick through the day you could not help but be struck by his eyes – sometimes twinkling, sometimes sardonic, but always smiling. His profile on LinkedIn shows a smiling Rick in his days as a software consultant to nonprofits. The graphic on the official “Team Meeks” tee shirt for the walk showed a smiley face that was a caricature of Rick, with the slogan: “You Inspire Us With Every S’mile”.
Business is not a matter of life and death. But those who cope best with change in business are those who realize, as Rick does, that surviving and prospering through change is highly dependent on the relationships we build and maintain. Building relationships is a huge part of why we founded Construction Forum St. Louis.
One of my most strongly-held business beliefs is that there’s no good business with bad people. In my Dad’s day construction people shook hands over a deal. You were as good as your word. If you broke your word to someone they would definitely never do business with you again and just might do physical damage to you. Today many people in our business are looking for an angle. When you deal straight up you don’t need an angle. You need to be reliable, keep your word, and respect relationships.
Construction, like few other professions, teaches us that reliance on others is what makes us strong. It is critical in an industry where the only constant is change that we have people on whom we can count. As I say when I tell people about my longtime friend Doug, “I’d let him have my back in a knife fight any day.”
Independence Day wasn’t just about our Founding Fathers thumbing their noses at Great Britain. It was about a group of people who realized that change is inevitable, and that the most important part of Independence is people who can rely on one another… and are not afraid or ashamed to ask for help.
That’s the lesson that Rick Meeks has for all of us on this Independence Day.