PEOPLE
The Road to Health How one distribution leader’s investment in his own health carried over into his family and professional life. By Pete Mercer
At the start of every new year, millions of people make the resolution to take their health seriously and get in
better shape. Whether most of those people follow through on their resolutions or not, setting those health goals is critical to helping you take care of yourself and achieve professional success. Your health and your success are two sides of the same coin: you cannot have one without the other.
Noah Lam learned this firsthand when he realized that he needed to make a change for his family and the success of his business. Lam is the president of Connetquot West, a national home healthcare product supplier that specializes in health and wellness products based in Edgewood, New York.
“It’s so easy for business leaders to get so entrenched in the day-today stuff that they begin to neglect their personal health,” Lam said. “But what we fail to realize is that our health and our personal success are two very intertwined concepts. Without your health, you will lose your ability to make money.”
In 2007, Lam was sitting on the couch eating a pint of HäagenDazs ice cream and watching Forrest Gump run across the country when he thought, “I could do that.” He decided then and there that he wanted to run in the 2008 New York City Marathon. After that, he and his wife trained for and eventually ran in the 2009 New York City Marathon. Since that moment on the couch in 2007, Lam has been on an incredible health journey full of ups and downs that has allowed him to take back his own health and reinvest it into Connetquot West, while also investing in the lives of young athletes through a nonprofit he launched in 2017.
A healthy lifestyle Following the marathon races in 2008 and 2009, Lam continued to run and keep in shape. While training for the 2012 New York City Marathon, he herniated his back so badly that he needed surgery. He opted for treatment through acupuncture instead of surgery, and he was ready to run again in the spring of 2013, but he hit another roadblock. While putting on his running shoes one day, Lam suffered a seizure. He woke up in the hospital, disoriented and confused about what happened. 54
February 2023
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