The American Venous Forum and the lessons learned from the battle of Thermopolae.

f m s R a a a a n a n o For 18 of the past 20 years, I have sat in the audience and listened to every American Venous Forum (AVF) Presidential Address. The majority of the addresses were well written, thoughtful, inspiring, and captivating. As a member sitting in the audience, I listened intently, hoping to glean some pearls of wisdom from the men and women who had the privilege of being president of this great organization. I asked myself if given the opportunity, what would I say when standing at this podium? I have asked myself this question countless times this year and had difficulty deciding on a topic. A presidential address is the one time in an academician’s or practitioner’s career where a presentation is not based on one’s personal research. No data were gathered, no statistical analysis occurred, and the validity of my conclusions cannot be debated based on the flaws of my scientific design. A presidential address is the one time where you can share your life’s experiences and openly discuss personal perspectives. I therefore spoke to previous past presidents and asked them how they chose their topics. One past president from the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) told me to write my conclusions first and work backward. The AVF past presidents told me to discuss my passions in life and share this with the audience. I therefore asked myself what are my passions in life? The answer I gave myself was that I am passionate about my wife and children, I love resident education, I love golf and the NY Giants despite their poor performance this year, I love my cultural heritage, and I love the American Venous Forum. I did not think an exposition on my family, resident education, golf, or football would make a good presenta-