Doug Ulman speaks in Boston

Friday night, I went to listen to Doug Ulman speak at the Jimmy Fund Auditorium at the Dana-Farber. The Chief Mission Officer of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Doug is a three-time cancer survivor.

He spoke from the heart and he had a great story to tell. The message I walked away with from the talk was when Doug mentioned the fact that most people try to become successful. Then once they’re successful, they try to become significant.

Doug believes that you can be significant before you are successful. He started a foundation for young cancer survivors when he was just 28 years old. Soon after he entered the survivorship phase, his phone rang. Some guy from Europe said he was putting together a team to do a 100-mile marathon in Sweden, and he wanted Doug to join. Oh, yeah, the event was in two months.

Doug said that if he hadn’t experienced the illness, he would have hung up the phone on the guy. But instead, he said yes.

As Doug told his story, you could tell that he had the courage of his convictions. Once again, a representative of the Lance Armstrong Foundation impresses me. Doug is smart, driven, and focused.

I was not surprised one bit to learn that he is a friend of Alison Wright, the can-do specialist at the cause.