Scott Lynch is President and CEO of Massachusetts-based Colonial Systems Inc, New England’s largest resource for installing commercial and institutional interiors. Among the companies that Colonial has collaborated with under Scott’s leadership are LEGO®, MIT, Boston Children’s Hospital, Google, Harvard University, Liberty Mutual, Amazon, and Gillette Stadium to bring their diverse spaces to life.

In 2024, Scott was confronted with unfathomable news: the stomach issues he had assumed were the result of consuming contaminated water was actually testicular cancer that had metastasized into a cellphone-sized tumor in his stomach. Throughout the year-long ordeal of diagnosis and treatment, Scott chose to continue working, learning to balance leading a company with healing.

Now in remission, Scott is determined to help other leaders who are actively facing or proactively planning for the challenge of running a company while navigating illness or similar unforeseen circumstances.

I didn’t get hit by a bus. I got cancer, and there’s no handbook for when a CEO gets cancer – no one really knows what to do. Like many companies, we weren’t prepared for this event and had to navigate it day by day

Your cancer diagnosis came about in an unbelievable way, involving a water bottle and a mouse. How did you discover you were sick?

On September 3rd, 2023, I began experiencing back pain worse than anything I’d felt in my life. I took Advil and hoped it would go away – and it did…for about a month.

I knew something was wrong, but I put off going to the doctor. Then, right before Thanksgiving, I found a dead mouse at the bottom of my water bottle. When you drink water contaminated by a dead mouse, you obviously have stomach issues! So when I began to rapidly lose weight, I thought I had contracted something from the mouse.

I finally sought the advice of GI specialists in December, and they started the process of trying to determine what was wrong, so I tried to forget about it.

Throughout December and into January, I was feeling awful and still losing weight while trying to oversee Colonial’s year-end audit. The Monday after its completion, I was seriously dehydrated and with an endoscopy/colonoscopy scheduled for later in the week to help determine my stomach issues I finally told my wife I needed to go to the emergency room to get some fluids. While I was there they took a CT scan that showed an enormous mass in my stomach.

I was eventually diagnosed with an offshoot of testicular cancer called Germ cell cancer that had spread to my stomach. The mass was the size of an iPhone. Today, I’m very thankful for that mouse – without it, I may not have sought medical care for months longer.

How did you tell your employees about your diagnosis?

Frequent and honest communication was critical, but I had no time to prepare for those conversations. From my emergency room visit, I was immediately sent via ambulance to Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, where I stayed for 17 days while awaiting a diagnosis and starting my first round of chemo.

I had an initial Teams meeting with key managers to inform them I was in the hospital and then another meeting after my diagnosis where I laid it all on the line. I told them I had cancer and needed chemo, and asked everyone to step up until my return.

Those initial conversations were hard and very emotional. We’re a small company of close-knit people. Everybody was worrying about me.

I didn’t want to incite rumors or concerns about my own or the company’s wellbeing, so I decided not to tell anyone besides my key managers. And they did a remarkable job. We actually had our best year ever, so in a way this was a blessing as we proved that the company is strong and versatile enough to thrive despite challenges.

Why did you decide to continue working while undergoing treatment?

When you become a CEO or President, they always say you need a plan ‘in case you get hit by a bus.’ Well, I didn’t get hit by a bus. I got cancer, and there’s no handbook for when a CEO gets cancer – no one really knows what to do. Like many companies, we weren’t prepared for this event and had to navigate it day by day.

As far as cancer goes, I was lucky. I could still function; tasks were just more arduous and time-consuming. And when you’re in the hospital, you have a lot of downtime. It was obvious to me that I had to keep working – for my own sanity during treatment and because nobody at Colonial was trained to take over for me. It was not ideal, but it was essential. I trained a lot of people in a relatively short time through a computer screen. And the experience has made us a stronger company – when another manager was diagnosed with cancer only months after I returned to work, we didn’t miss a beat when she went on leave for treatment.

How did you balance working and recovery?

It was a difficult transition. Since I never went back to the office after my initial emergency room visit, we had to pivot to remote leadership very abruptly. I worked from my laptop at the hospital during those initial 17 days at Beth Israel. We held meetings online and people would visit me. By the time I started chemo, we had gotten used to this new system.

During chemo, every day was Groundhog Day. I got into a routine where I would work very little the week of chemo and the week after, and would catch up on work from my kitchen table on the third week. This process was repeated from February to April.

I tried not to get too nervous about the whole situation. The unknowns are what scare people, and I had a great care team who kept me apprised of the plan every step of the way. Knowing what the plan was kept my mind at ease and allowed me to focus on work. But there were times when the plan didn’t go accordingly. The day after I finally came home from my initial hospital stay in February 2024, I suffered a massive pulmonary embolism and was shipped right back. That shook my world a little more, but I bounced back.

Most importantly, I had a great support system to help me navigate the ups and downs. My personal and professional lives collided during this period. My wife was not able to take me to chemo appointments, so my managers often stepped up, picking me up and dropping me back home from Boston, where my wife would be waiting with lunch.

My first day back at the office was May 31st, 2024. I worked four to five days a week until my surgery in December 2024 to finally remove the remaining mass, which had shrunk 50% from chemo. It was a nine-hour surgery, but now I’m in remission. I was back in the office January.

What are your biggest pieces of advice for leaders who may be facing a similar situation?

1) Seek medical advice promptly. I wish I had gone to the doctor earlier than I did and I regret not advocating for myself when I felt like something was off. You are your own best health advocate, so don’t be afraid to ruffle feathers when it comes to your wellbeing.

2) Have a crisis plan before crisis hits. This was the largest crisis Colonial has ever had, and it could have been mitigated by putting backups and processes in place sooner. We’re a small company, which means everyone wears a lot of hats, myself included. When I got sick, nobody could take over my diverse responsibilities because I hadn’t trained anyone. Lack of planning made us very vulnerable to failure, and it’s because of my strong management team and good fortune in being able to work while undergoing treatment that we pulled through.

3) Promote a culture of compassion. At Colonial, we’re a tight-knit team that feels like family. My staff checked in on me, sent me care packages, and was an essential part of my recovery. Their compassion and respect made it easy to rally everyone around the same goal and push forward during the dark times.

4) Stay positive. As the CEO, you set the tone for your company – even when you’re experiencing a personal crisis. Your employees will follow your emotional lead, which means if you let negativity reign, your employees and company will suffer too. Everybody was very positive throughout my treatment, even during the scary periods. We said we were going to get through it, and we did.

How did this experience change your approach to work and impact your perspective on the future?

Despite feeling lucky to be in remission, I’m always worried about whether the cancer will return. Every ache and pain concerns me. Mental health is a huge part of getting through a crisis like I went through and I really want to focus on getting my mind straight now. I’ve finally taken a step to see someone who can help me with this process.

I never thought I would. But I realized that, if my mind is foggy and preoccupied with health anxiety, I’m not able to lead my company.

I think balancing work and life is going to be my lifelong challenge now. I tend to be someone who wants to lead by example, wants to be the last one to leave the office every day. But this experience proved that my team is more than capable. I don’t have to be working seven days a week. It’s time to enjoy life a little bit better.

I wouldn’t say I’m getting everything done as fast as I used to these days, but I would say I’m not working as many hours – and we’re doing just fine. There’s a little more ‘living’ to my life now – and for that, I’m thankful.

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