If you can’t spend a week or two with your mother over the holidays, Mark, or better yet, treat her to the trip of a lifetime with you on your dime, you’re not a success in my book. Nobody ever regrets missed business opportunities on their deathbeds.

Hospice nurse Bonnie Ware wrote a book about the most common regrets her patients had. In it she noted, “All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.” She also says, “There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserve. Everyone misses their friends when they’re dying.”

It’s something to think about.