One of my team members, Nel, went swimming with friends last week when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his foot. At first, he thought he had stepped on a sea urchin, but when he looked down, he saw the black ink-like venom seeping from his wound—the mark of a lethal sea snake.

Within seconds, Nel’s body began to go numb. Frantically, he scrambled to the beach and called a friend. Fortunately, his buddy answered immediately. Within minutes, his friend was riding through the city on his motorbike to save him, zigzagging between cars and mopeds through the crowded Batangas traffic, a city near Manila.

He reached Nel in just ten minutes. By that time, my colleague was in excruciating pain, and half of his body was paralyzed from head to toe. He couldn’t even twitch his face, let alone move his right-hand fingers.

Despite the agony, Nel remembered reading somewhere that pain was an illusion of the mind—a challenge he could endure with sheer focus. But he also knew that he was at death’s door unless a miracle happened. Batangas’ roads were clogged, and he needed to reach a hospital emergency room fast. And even if he made it, the hospital would need the right antivenom on hand. The odds were stacked against him.

Why Nel Survived — and What Business Owners Can Learn

Nel is one of the most generous people I know. He’s the kind of person who would sell his bitcoins to fund his brother’s education or donate thousands in gaming winnings to help his father start a business. All this while working as an offshore contractor and bootstrapping a fish feed startup.

So it wasn’t surprising that he had a friend willing to risk everything to help him. His friend picked him up from the beach, and they sped down the promenade, Nel clinging on for dear life with his non-paralyzed left hand. They reached the hospital just minutes before the venom could reach his heart. Luckily, the hospital had…