Isabella Strahan, a model, college student, and 19-year-old daughter of Good Morning America co-host and former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan announced to the world this week that she has medulloblastoma, a very rare type of brain cancer that mostly affects children. The cancer was discovered in October 2023, when she suffered from debilitating headaches and found she could not walk straight. A tumor the size of a golf ball was removed in an emergency surgery (medulloblastoma is notoriously fast-growing). Since then, she’s had six weeks of radiation therapy, and will begin chemotherapy next month.

Until this week, Isabella had kept her condition a secret from the general public. But she’s now launched a YouTube channel about her journey with cancer with the intent of helping others who may be facing a serious illness, and to support the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, where she is being treated. And to give the effort a great kickoff, she and her father sat side by side for a Good Morning America interview with his co-host Robin Roberts. That interview contained a lesson for all of us as parents and human beings, and for every business leader.

It was an emotional conversation, as both father and daughter described learning about the cancer, and the doctor’s instruction to head to the hospital immediately after seeing the results of her MRI. Describing the rarity of medulloblastoma, Isabella recalled finally finding one other person with the same condition. “I reached out, but…” and then she broke down.

“I told myself I wasn’t going to cry!” she said through her tears.

“It happens,” her father said. “You’re allowed to cry.”

How often, if ever, did you hear that as a child? How often, as an adult, have you said those words to anyone? The world seems mostly organized to stop you from crying–there are even lullabies about it. If you’re crying, something must be very wrong, and it has to be fixed right away.

But not everything can be fixed. Much as Michael Strahan would love to be able to make his daughter’s cancer go away–as would most anyone who watched their video–there’s no easy way to do that. She’s had to endure the pain of surgery, and the debilitating effects of radiation, and soon those of chemotherapy as well. She’s had to relearn how to walk.

Most of us will never have medulloblastoma. But we all have moments when, frankly, life sucks. We’re faced with a loss, or a medical issue. Our business struggles, or even fails. When that happens, it’s normal to feel sad about it. It’s a wonderful thing if the people we care about accept that we feel that way. As leaders, we can help the people who work with us if show them that same acceptance.

Medulloblastoma has a 70 percent 5-year survival rate.

Among cancer patients, Isabella is lucky. She got excellent care very quickly and has a very positive prognosis. The five-year survival rate for medulloblastoma in general is 70 percent, but for the specific type that she has, the survival rate is more than 90 percent, with most patients completely cured, according to neuro-oncologist David Ashley, director of Duke’s Brain Tumor Center. So there’s every reason to expect that she’ll be able to get on with her life, return to her studies at USC, as she told Roberts she was looking forward to doing, and that someday this will all be a distant, if life-changing memory.

But all of that is some time in the future. The pain of treatment, the uncertainty, and even the humiliation–especially for a model–of losing all her hair, those are all in the present. In the present, for Isabella, things are tough. Sometimes, she has to cry. And she’s lucky to have a father who’s wise enough to tell her that’s OK.

There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to learn more? Here’s some information about the texts and a special invitation to an extended free trial.) Many are entrepreneurs or business leaders who understand the ups and downs of business and life, and that we have to ride them as they come.

Recently, I texted to my subscribers that I was feeling down and unmotivated after the holidays. Many texted me back with suggestions for improving my mood, but a few also reminded me that feeling down and unmotivated is a normal part of life, and that it might help me to accept those feelings. It was essentially the same message Michael Strahan gave Isabella when he said she was allowed to cry. In both cases, it was very good advice.