Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

This CareerJournal article about an executive who bounced back from a failure would be a whole lot more compelling if he weren't a multimillionaire!

He worked to get the Olympics for his city and didn't get it?

And how did he recover?

The losing bid also allowed him to see how supportive his wife and three teenage children could be. His absences from home had been stressful for his family. But on the plane back from Singapore, his daughter, then 14, was "so incredibly sensitive," he says. "Her affection and obvious pride were very powerful for me."

The next month, he took his wife on vacation to Elba, the Italian island where Napoleon was exiled in 1814. In December, his wife gave him "the one pass after 25 years of marriage," and allowed him to travel by himself for five days to Chile. Wanting to think through his life, and challenge himself physically, he took a 200-mile solo bike ride. On one 12-mile uphill climb, he doubted he had the strength to finish, but he did. After not reaching the Olympic finish line, this was a meaningful victory.

He gave himself another test when he traveled to Turin for the Winter Olympics. Just a spectator, he wondered if he'd feel resentful or depressed. He was relieved that he enjoyed being there.

Please.

He may be a fine fellow and I don't want to discount the sense of disappointment but in a world of grief where most people can't recover by taking a European vacation, that's barely a ripple.

How about the guy who mortgaged his house to start a pizza parlor that goes belly up?

How about the woman in New Orleans whose real estate business was plowed under by Hurricane Katrina?

How about the managers and employees who were counting on a retirement check from Enron?

I want to hear how they dealt with adversity, not from someone who rebounded on a beach.

BTW: In all fairness, I suspect that this obviously accomplished person is the sort of guy who may be embarrassed by the way the reporter played the adversity angle.