The whole of my company is together in one place today. It's an extraordinary gift to be able to fund this opportunity to be able to gather people from all over the world into one place for the purposes of getting on the same page, collaborating, and inspiring one another. Today, corny as it sounds, is somewhat magical.
Many corporate kickoffs, I am told, line of heads of business units up and they pop up presentation after presentation…death by a thousand Powerpoints. I am grateful I have yet to work at one of those companies. I have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with gifted leaders, who take the time to not only define a clear vision, but also take the time to carefully craft what they are trying to communicate. Many of my colleagues are truly skilled at this.
Being just one week away from having the 2014 Winter Olympics commence, it was a natural theme for our now global company to select. And when it came time to choose an outside keynote speaker, the default selection would appear to be an Olympic athlete. I vetoed that idea.
For anyone who has been part of a hyper growth company, you know it is not a graceful journey. You meet with a number of challenges and obstacles along the way. And it is not IF you will meet them, it is HOW you respond to them that defines your future success. As a result, I became fixated on having a Paralympic athlete speak to our group. Sometimes, we need a visual reminder of those obstacles, and how people handle them.
The question then become who to select. And the choice became obvious incredibly quickly. We found a guy so incredibly inspiring not just because of what he's overcome, but because of how he approaches life. He is funny, irreverent, intelligent, and just plain fantastic. He's a brilliant storyteller, and had the entire company paying attention. That's a pretty impressive feat with this crew.
Thank you, Josh Sundquist. Thanks for inspiring so many today. I'm glad we got to hang out. :)
Check him out at:
http://joshsundquist.com
https://www.facebook.com/JoshSundquistFans?ref=br_tf
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