2.  In 2011, I was diagnosed with a
deadly disease ~ Pancreatic Cancer.
 The 5-year survival rate for Pancreatic
Cancer is just 6%.
 94 out of 100 patients diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer die within 5 years.
 I’m one of the lucky ones…..so far.
 These are the 12 Life Lessons I’ve
learned from pancreatic cancer that
I’d like to share with you today.

3.  Be Daring
 I was told by my oncologist, Dr Ali, about 40 days after my
surgery that I had a “daring” surgeon.
 Dr Walsh, my surgeon, pulled off one of the most
complicated surgeries of his career.
 He took 75% of my pancreas, 25% of my liver, my stomach,
my spleen, my gall bladder. I lost 21 units of blood. To put
that into perspective, you have 7 units of blood in your body
total.
 My surgeons hands were black and blue when he finished,
BUT he got it all out.
 I was later told that 95% of surgeons would have opened me
up, saw how complicated the surgery would be then closed
me back up and said there nothing they could do.
 My surgeon was daring and he saved my life.
 Life lesson #1 “BE DARING.”

4.  Expect the Best Outcome
 I expected to come out of surgery a better person than I
was when I went in.
 Besides the first two days, I never allowed myself to
think any negative thoughts.
 Have you ever seen the movie “TOP GUN”? Who hasn’t,
right? Remember this part…
 Goose:
 “Well it's bottom of the 9th, the score is tied, it's time for the big one.”
 Ice:
 “You up for this one Maverick?”
 Maverick:
 “Just a walk in the park, Kazanski….”
 Life lesson #2 “Expect the best outcome.”

5.  It Only Takes One
 While I was in the hospital I met an amazing
person. His name is Dan Weber and he was my
nurse. Dan went above and beyond the call of duty
to take care of me, listen to me, encourage me and
tell me what to expect and when.
 Because of Dan Weber, I thought very highly of the
hospital, the nurses and the staff.
 Just one man made a significant difference in my
recovery and my life as a whole.
 Life lesson #3 “It only takes one.”

6.  Time to Grind
 While I was in the hospital I couldn’t help but watch, realize and
acknowledge the sheer will my wife Lisa Marie displayed.
 We had a son who was born 2 months prior to my surgery with serious
complications. Although he’s a healthy little “moose” right now, that
wasn’t the case when I went in for surgery.
 My wife was left to take care of everything, and did that with little or no
sleep for over 60 days.
 Here’s a small list of everything she did, all by herself:
 Visiting hospital daily – 45 minute drive from our home.
 Caring for my 3 kids – all under the age of 3.
 Arranging babysitters for our 3 kids.
 Talking to doctors daily about my son and I.
 Waking up in the middle of the night, worrying.
 Prescriptions – oh man, the prescriptions.
 Medicines – giving them to my son and I whether we wanted them or not.
 Taking the kids to school.
 Going days on end with little or no sleep.
 Sometimes its “Time to Grind”

7.  Go Overboard
 Over-deliver.
 My parents sleeping on the chairs at the
Cleveland Clinic.
 My parents staying at my house to help.
 Lisa’s mom coming over and caring for the kids.
 She was very sick.
 We realized we could never move permanently to
Florida or Arizona.
 There’s nothing like family, they go overboard.

8.  Television is a Waste of Time
 I think television is the largest waste of time in
the history of man.
 When you are forced to sit in bed for days and
days on end, you realize how much TV stinks.
 You also think about other things you could be
doing with your time.

9.  Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle
 Acidic vs. alkaline diet.
 Acidic bodies create cancer.
 Check out www.naturalnews.com.
 1 out of every 2 people in the US gets cancer.
 The average American consumes 100 grams of sugar a
day – FDA. The FDA recommendation is 15 per day.
 Eat a salad 4 times a week.

10.  Prepare Like Hell
 When I was going in for my surgery I WAS
READY. I was prepared. And it just so happens
the outcome was very good. I don’t think that’s
coincidence.
 Food
 Diet
 Workouts
 Friends
 Family

11.  Only Systemize Perfect Systems
 Business owners often systemize an imperfect
system.
 When that happens, all you have is a perfect mess.
 “McDonald’s” the process.
 Remove “your color” from the to do list.
 Brian Tracy: “Being a business owner is like being a
full time problem solver.”
 “Solve a problem, then another then another then another
and THEN you get a day off from solving problems only so
you can deal with a crisis.”

12.  Pop Yourself Out the Top
 Never create a business that paints you into a
corner.
 Only work on things that can be built, systemized and
then outsourced to others.

13.  Track and Measure Everything
 The only way to know if you are winning the
game is to keep score.
 How much money do you have in the bank?
 How much did you spend?
 How much do you want?
 How many leads did you generate?
 How many of those leads turned into money?

14.  Do What You Love
 You never know when your number is going to
be called.
 I was given a second chance.
 Do you want to have regrets when that time
comes? Or do you want to say, “I did what I
loved and I did it my way?”

15.  Want to know more?
 Visit www.strategicrealestatecoach.com for
more on my battle with pancreatic cancer.
 There you can also get a bunch of free real
estate training materials worth over $4,297
dollars.

16. For More Information On Josh Cantwell,
visit
www.joshcantwellcoaching.com