The little town in the south of France where my mother-in-law lives has this amazing tennis club with five outdoor courts surrounded by mountains. 
 

And each summer the town rents the Turon, an old stone barn that’s been converted into a rustic court-side café, to a man named Terry.

 

Locals as wells as vacanciers like us swing by the Turon to have lunch, grab a drink, catch up on local gossip, and watch the action on the courts. 

 

But to be honest, the real reason we all regularly visit the Turon is Terry. 

 

Terry is the glue that makes the community stick. The grease that makes his famous home-cut fries crisp. 

 

Terry knows everyone. He knows what they do for a living, where they live, what they drink, the way they like their steak cooked, what music they listen to, who they’re dating, married to, living with, divorced from, etc. 

 

In coaching speak, Terry’s “super power” is knowing people, also referred to as shmoozing in New York speak. 

 

It’s not his job, but it’s what comes to him without effort and what he does better than anyone else. 

 

People rarely know what their super powers are. And even when they do, they can’t understand what makes them so special and valuable because they do it as naturally and easily as breathing.

 

But one evening this August I saw something I’ll never, ever forget: I saw Terry’s super power save someone’s life. 

 

Minutes after a visiting player in the local tennis tournament finished a match, he sank into the couch in Terry’s Turon, slumped over, lost consciousness and stopped breathing. 

 

Luckily, one of the other players milling about moved him onto the ground, ripped off his shirt and starting giving him CPR.


I saw Terry outside pacing, his eyes in a panic and his face pale as a sheet. 

 

All then he suddenly broke into a sprint, running across all five tennis courts to the farthest end of the field. “Where the hell is he going?” I wondered. 

 

Seconds later a women came running out of nowhere. 

 

Anaïs, I later found out, was the new doctor in town. She rarely came to the Turon but her husband was playing mine that evening and she decided to take their two-year-old daughter out to the courts to watch them play. 

 

As soon as she arrived on the scene Anaïs took over the CPR, ordered for the defibrillator and briefed the pompiers who quickly arrived. 

 

Each of her moves had the ferocity and focus of a wild animal on the hunt. She was fast and instinctive. And when the man started breathing again, she let out a dramatic victorious sigh that rippled through the air. 

 

While Anaïs saved the man’s life in an absolutely stunning way, the subtle hero of this story is Terry’s natural genius. 

 

Had Terry not known that Anaïs was a doctor and that she was randomly on the courts that day, this story would have ended tragically. Terry’s superior schmoozing saved someone’s life. 

 

What a powerful reminder of how unexpectedly valuable your natural genius can be, and how the human chain of knowledge and action can produce miracles. 

 

Sending you lots of love today.

 

PS. I highly recommend taking a first responder’s course if you haven’t already. I found it to be incredibly empowering because it demystifies worst case scenarios and gives you some actual tools and protocols to follow if danger strikes. Here’s where I took mine: https://www.protectioncivile.org/

PPS. Do you know what your super powers are and how to make sure you’re taking advantage of them daily? If not book a discovery call with me so we can discuss.