A Tragedy, A Miracle, and the Importance of Time
By Adam Thurgood on January 20, 2026
Life is finite. Time is our most precious asset. Time can’t be stored and it can’t be purchased, yet for most of our lives we tend to move through our daily activities without acknowledging how precious each day is. Most people at some point in their lives will have an experience or two that jolts them so significantly that what matters most comes back into focus. Unfortunately for me, one of those experiences hit me like a ton of bricks on January 2nd.
After closing out 2025 on a high note, I was energized by the momentum our team had built. Business was great, clients were happy, and we recently rolled out a 3-year vision for our team. I hadn’t been this focused in years and our team was dialed in and ready to turn our vision into reality. As I closed the office for the weekend and headed for dinner with my wife and her parents, I felt a great sense of pride and appreciation to be able to lead such a fantastic group of professionals so committed to our clients’ success. Two hours later, my world came crashing down.
We ventured down to the Arts District in Las Vegas, a gentrified area bustling with an eclectic group of people enjoying the area’s restaurants and bars. Dinner started as usual with the in-laws, a lot of back and forth talk in Polish as my wife dialed in their order. With the order placed, our drinks arrived and we raised a glass to the joy we were all feeling. A few minutes later, my wife was fighting for her life from the effects of a ruptured brain aneurysm.
My mother died from a brain aneurysm so when my wife’s severe and acute headache came out of nowhere, I was on high alert. Sixty seconds later, I pleaded with the restaurant to call 911 as I frantically called one of my good friends, who happens to be a top neurosurgeon. Within seconds, I had him on the line quarterbacking the process. Fortunately, we were downtown at the First Friday event, which meant ambulances were already in position. The Arts District is also five minutes from the best ICU for brain injury in the city. Everything aligned to save her life.
While her hemorrhage was significant and the outlook was bleak, she’s made tremendous progress over the past two weeks. After seven days of intubation, the ventilator was removed and her recovery was turbo-charged. As I publish this, 18 days after the incident, she is conversing, eating on her own, moving all her extremities, and is a couple of days away from leaving the ICU. Her progress has been miraculous and her prognosis is great. I can’t express how thankful and lucky I feel.
As I have spent nearly all my waking hours in the ICU at the hospital since the incident, I’ve had a lot of time with my thoughts. I keep coming back to the importance of time. The precious time we have with loved ones and friends that is so easily taken for granted. The “time” freedom we all desire to go relax on a beach, climb a mountain, or work on a project that is meaningful. The time we’ve wasted scrolling social media or watching a sub-par TV show. The more I think about time the more intentional I want to be with the time I have left, both in my life and with the people I care most about.
I’ve also spent many hours contemplating time in the financial context. For most people, financial success requires trading a tremendous amount of time for money. We go to work each day exchanging hours and energy to earn a living and build savings, but those hours are not equally valued by society.
Certain professions, such as neurosurgery, require years of education and training, where precious time and money are intentionally invested to develop skills that help produce greater earnings potential in the future. No one reaches that level by accident. It is the result of deliberate choices and sustained sacrifice over many years.
What struck me in the ICU is just how much time is required to build meaningful wealth. Our clients have spent decades acquiring valuable skills, building businesses and careers, and working long hours. Their financial success reflects intentional sacrifices made over a lifetime. This is time they can never get back, and the wealth they entrust us to manage is the result of this effort.
Building wealth is only part of the journey. We have a saying in our office that wealth is a burden. As wealth grows, so does complexity and the responsibility that comes with managing it. Decisions multiply. Stress builds. The stakes feel higher once you’ve experienced a life without financial worry, because no one ever wants to go back to that worry. Over time, the very thing you’ve worked so hard to build can begin to demand more attention than you ever expected.
This experience has reshaped how I think about our role as wealth managers. While our team’s ultimate goal has always been to enrich the lives of the clients we serve, it’s now framed more clearly in my mind. Our job is not just about financial planning and managing portfolios, it is to be stewards of our clients’ time.
When done well, wealth management should give time back. Time that would otherwise be spent worrying about markets, navigating complexity, or stressing about financial decisions. Time that can instead be invested in family, friends, health, and experiences or pursuits that make life meaningful.
Sitting in the ICU, praying for more time with the love of my life, made me acutely aware of just how precious time is, both with the people we love and how we choose to spend it. This experience also reinforced my view that managing wealth is a profound responsibility, as wealth represents an enormous investment of our clients’ time. It is a responsibility we’ve never taken lightly and never will. We are committed to honoring that trust by helping our clients spend more of their time focused on what truly matters.
Words cannot describe how grateful I am for my wife’s recovery and the extraordinary medical professionals who helped save her life. I would also like to express gratitude to my team at Hightower Las Vegas, who rose to the occasion and made me feel at ease while I was unable to focus on work.
I will carry this experience forever as a reminder of what matters most, and how fragile and precious each moment of time truly is.
