Nearly six years ago, I had an incident with my heart that left me fighting for my life. Needless to say, it served as a wakeup call that lead to many changes in life, some I have written about in the past, some which are highly personal and thus stay within me.

However, everyday I get up and get to do what I love the most, all I can do is quietly express my gratitude towards the fine people at UCSF and its wonderful Cardiology Department who worked tirelessly to make sure I lived to see another day.

A few weeks ago when she came to speak at my Roadmap conference, Indiegogo co-founder Danae  RIngelmann suggested perhaps, I should help raise money for the hospital — after all they are doing good work, great research and are a good community member. And it would be perfect to launch this effort on December 3, that is today. Why? Because it is UN’s #GivingTuesday and Indiegogo will match by contributing a $1 for every $20 contributed to our campaign. 

Like Black Friday & Cyber Monday are about consumption. #GivingTuesday is a global movement to create a global day of giving on Tuesday, December 3rd. (There are many more worthy causes to support and you can find them here on a special page IndieGoGo set up for #GivingTuesday. 

So here we are —  launching this campaign for UCSF and its wonderful Cardiology department. Our goal, like I said, is pretty modest — raise a mere $25,000 — though more is always better. Here is the good news — we are off to flying start. Many have very generously contributed and I hope you can join them. 

But love and caring isn’t always expressed through cash — letting others know about how to take preventative measures is equally important. Spread the word out to others on perils of smoking and unhealthy lifestyle. Let people know how to value one thing we have so little of — time. And love life… it is the only one we have. If you have a minute, read how I learned to love life, value time and change — it is part of my life-resume aka my About.me profile page.