More and more people are frustrated and experiencing the horrible feelings of regret after far too many incidents and tragedies. These feelings of regret are for not doing more, not knowing what to do, or for ignoring pre-incident indicators (red flags, warning signs, etc.). The horrible thoughts of feeling guilty and responsible can impact a person their entire lifetime, this is called Return on Regret. 

Return on Prevention lasts a lifetime too, but the feelings are amazingly wonderful and can keep giving an entire lifetime because you played a role in intervening and preventing an incident or tragedy.

Rick’s Return on Prevention Story

My story starts when I was in 6th grade where I went to school in the same building as the special needs students.  One of the special needs girls – MJ – was constantly being bullied and teased by other students and on numerous occasions, the others would get MJ so riled up she would have a seizure.  I remember how sad it was to see MJ have a seizure and then wake up from her seizure so scared and afraid because she did not know where she was.

Now, I was a little guy back then but I decided that I needed to step up and do the right thing and prevent the other students from bullying and teasing MJ.  From that point on, whenever I saw other students bullying and teasing MJ, I would hang out with her and tell the others to move along. After a while, a couple of my friends joined in and then a teacher got involved too and MJ’s experience at school completely changed with no bullying, no teasing, and no seizures.

This was my first experience with what I now call a Return on Prevention.  The culture changed, the students were much happier, teachers were happier, and MJ was much happier.

The First Preventers Playbook describes how Rick continues to experience a Return on Prevention that began in 6th grade and is still giving to this day.