Wildcards and Success


People often correlate business principles with sports analogies. Recently, events in my sporting (Ironman) and business lives took two very different directions to teach me an important lesson.

At the end of last year, I qualified to compete in the 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championships to be held in Australia. (An “Ironman 70.3” is a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run.) This was a great honor since 130,000 people competed around the world in Ironman 70.3 events for the 3,000 qualifying spots available.

However, my journey was just beginning. With over 11 months until the event, you never know what life might present. I started training in earnest in December 2015 and I logged over 260 hours of training and racing through the first half of the year.  Then “it” happened.

After completing my last long run a week before leaving for an Ironman 70.3 race in July in Muncie, IN, I stepped off a 4-inch curb and twisted my ankle.  I still don’t know how it happened, but even as I write these words three months later, my right ankle is still swollen like a gumball.  After resting a week, I took a test run to see if I could race and after a mile I realized I would be lucky to walk 13 miles let alone run.

The race in Muncie was important to me not just as preparation for Australia, but because I had hoped to translate my six months of good training into qualifying for the 2017 World Championships.

Here I was, having achieved solid fitness and race results for six months, but within three months of leaving for Australia, I couldn’t run and could barely bike.  So I worked with my coach and my doctor to re-frame my training to get me to the World Championships in September.

This is where the lesson really begins.  It didn’t matter how much hard work I put in to get to the race. The only thing that mattered now was whether I could rehab my ankle and regain my fitness.  After a very slow rebound in July and early August, my coach and I decided that I would try to race in an Ironman 70.3 in Michigan later in August.  We thought it would be a good test and confidence builder.

Every significant race I do, my coach and I put together a race plan.  He starts the plan and I sign-off on it and then expand it to become a logistics and tactical plan.  When I first read my coach’s plan for the Michigan race I noticed a curious word…”Wildcard.

I had never seen that word in my race plan before.  Certainly luck always plays a big role in a 5-hour race, but this was different. I knew I had the fitness, but had no idea whether my ankle would hold up to 13 miles of running at my normal race tempo.  That was the Wildcard!

As I thought more about the word Wildcard, I started to think a lot about how much of success is hard work and how much is timing and luck?

Recently, Lenbrook reached a milestone achievement – a crowning achievement capping off a long journey of hard work and preparation. The achievement was Lenbrook receiving an “Investment Grade” rating from Fitch.

Lenbrook has been on a journey for the past 33 years since its founding by an Atlanta businessman in 1983. In 2006, when the board of directors voted to re-position the campus for future success with a $150 million expansion, the stakes were very high.

Then the “great recession” hit in 2008 just as we opened our doors to the new facilities. Since that time, our residents, management team and board of directors have put in a lot of hard work to be the most desirable Life Plan community in the southeast.  But because of timing, Lenbrook was never in a position to receive the “investment-grade rating” distinction that only about 125 out of several thousand Life Plan Communities have reached.

Professionally, I’m proud to be a part of an excellent community that has always worked hard to reach its vision. But to the people we serve, Lenbrook’s previous unrated credit standing could have been perceived as a “wildcard.”  However, with Fitch validating Lenbrook with an Investment Grade Rating, we are clearly no longer a ”wildcard.”

In my personal situation, despite my hard work and training, an ankle injury threw a “wildcard” into my race at the World Championships in Australia.  I had a wonderful experience there, but certainly did not reach my goals as my ankle gave out on mile 67 of the 70-mile race.

Today, with a few weeks of rest under my belt and a new pair of running shoes in hand, I’m ready to start my new race plan for 2017.

Chris Keysor is President and Chief Executive Officer of Lenbrook. His passion for the senior living industry began early in his career as a CPA with KPMG Peat Marwick. Chris progressed in executive responsibilities over the years, working for a senior healthcare provider, healthcare financing organizations and senior living consulting groups. Chris is also a nationally ranked Ironman triathlete, which he says comes in handy raising his two young children with his wife here in Atlanta.