A Message From Tom Portlock

I’d like to share some thoughts that really hit home for me this week. Yesterday while at AFA, I met with a friend I haven’t seen for over 20 years. We very recently reconnected on LinkedIn, and through some quick message exchanges we realized we were both going to be in Denver. So, we took the opportunity to reconnect.

I learned that my friend, Sterling Hawkins, has had an incredible journey over the last two decades that I knew nothing about. Sterling, in his mid-twenties, started an IT company in the retail industry that very quickly raised over $550M in private equity funding and was valued at over $3B. I’m sure everyone remembers in the 2009 timeframe the economy declined quickly triggered by a bank crisis. Within one year, Sterling’s company lost all its equity backers, and both Sterling and his company went bankrupt. As Sterling put it to me, he went from flying in private jets to, in his 30s, overnight, moving back into his parents’ house and sleeping in his childhood bedroom.

It took several years of reflection for Sterling to reset and find his new path. In that time of reflection, he realized that “confronting and harnessing discomfort” was a driving motivator for him to be able to move forward. Sterling wrote a book on the topic, became a New York Times best seller, and became a world recognized keynote speaker. What a story!?!

You are probably asking yourself at this point, why am I sharing this story? As I reflected on my conversation with Sterling, I quickly realized parallels between Sterling’s journey and ours.

We, Odyssey, are all going through a period of “discomfort”. We are facing new challenges, we are transforming a company, we are holding ourselves more accountable. As individuals we are feeling the pressure of our achieved success and continuing our incredible progress, knowing that the environment is getting more complex and our challenges becoming greater. Now put on top of this the political and government priority changes that are driving further impacts to our current environment. All of that, either collectively or individually, causes us to feel a level of discomfort.

First, I want to acknowledge that I understand the company transformation we are undergoing causes discomfort, and I want you to know that Tom, Kevin, and I are extremely grateful for the commitment each of you bring everyday. We recognize the incredible passion you bring that has driven our historical success and will drive our future success.

Second, I would like to share some of Sterling’s message I gained during our conversation. Feeling discomfort, whether that comes from stressful situations, facing new challenges, dealing with unknowns, and/or the volume of activity we are undertaking, is an opportunity for growth, personally, professionally and as a collective. Out of discomfort also comes the opportunity to evolve, improve, and gain confidence. The easy thing to do might be to let discomfort control you, cause you to freeze, let issues build, or simply ignore challenges or tough situations. Getting somewhere we’ve never been requires us to take chances and change familiar routines. Change feels uncomfortable.

I am incredibly proud of our team, and how far we have come. We will continue to work together to build an environment of mutual trust to handle challenges together. Trust is essential for us to succeed, as is alignment. People who operate with high trust have more energy, and their stress and risk of burnout lessens through change and uncertainty.

Thank you for all you do, thank you for letting me share.

Matt