I owe my career success to three traits
the first is a love of strategy the
second is a bias for action and the
third is what friends and colleagues
would describe as an approach to work
that’s calm cool and collected
in the early morning hours of June 14th
of this year all three of those traits
would be tested like never before while
on a business retreat at a rented home
straight out of Architectural Digest I
was brutally attacked by drug-crazed
intruder I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and
at roughly 12:30 in the morning the door
opened up I saw a flood of light from a
hallway I looked at a shadowy figure a
man and all I could process at 12:30 in
the morning was that it must be one of
the colleagues who was with me on this
trip because there were four in the
house so I thought surely this is
somebody pranking me so I turned to the
man and I said cut it out
that’s not funny and he replied in a
cold
monotone voice I’m not joking I’m going
to kill you so I jumped on my bed with
my feet Sherly intimidating in my
j-cruise snowflake boxer shorts and
t-shirt
and then he came around the bed so I
jumped to the floor and get myself in a
ready position ready for I don’t know
quite what because I had no weapons as
he came around the bed he began to poke
at me he poked and I danced he jabbed
and I danced he struck me on the upper
chest but the wounds were not severe he
then began to slash at me and he slashed
me on two sides of my face I wasn’t so
fortunate I looked at him and I said
what the f are you doing I think it was
quite clear what he was doing he was
trying to kill me
he had already told me that at that
point he raised his arm to the sky and
he hit me as hard as he could with all
his drug-induced might with a knife
sharpener they held in one hand I fell
to the floor six feet below and I was
bleeding profusely out of my head into
my eyes and I had a do-or-die moment as
in do-or-die right now or else so I
stood up and I took the closest thing I
had to a weapon which was my forearm I
stuck my forearm out and I charged my
attacker
I hit him under the chin and we both
fell about eight feet into the adjoining
master bathroom I landed on his legs I
pinned him to the ground and his legs
were incapacitated but the bad news was
his torso and his arms or not so again
he reached to the sky this time with a
carving knife where he hit me in the
calf again with all his drug-induced
might the pain was unlike anything I’ve
ever felt he struck me pure I later
found out the knife snapped in half
at that point I stood up and I screamed
for help with all my might the good news
was that a colleague had heard the thud
when the bathroom when we landed in the
bathroom and he began to run and so when
I screamed for help I heard the two most
comforting words I’ve ever heard I’m
coming and with that I darted out of the
room
luckily my attacker was on the other
side of me and I uh I went in the
opposite direction he was unable to stop
me we went down the stairs I met my
colleague outside the stairs we went
down the stairs and my attacker chased
us down the stairs we fled outside a
sliding glass window onto the patio we
ran up a set of stairs outside and we
fleed into the front of the home to a
grove of tall pine trees where we waited
for two minutes constantly thinking yet
the attacker would be right around the
corner at that point my colleague said
we need to try to get to the other house
to get help so we escaped the woods we
went toward a dirt road and he looked at
me and he said I need you to run because
I’m afraid he’s gonna see us so what did
I do
I began to run how I ran with my calf
sliced in half I have no idea I made it
up the hill we got to the other home
it’s now 12:45 in the morning and we
rang the doorbell but nobody awoke we
went to the back of the house banged on
windows nobody awoke we went to the
front of the house and banged and
screamed until somebody awoke I went to
the home they took a dish towel and a
belt I created a tourniquet on my leg
raised my leg we called 9-1-1 and within
about 20 minutes an ambulance was there
I was brought to the hospital where I
was stabilized prior to surgery and the
good news is I’ve recovered fully
I wish this real-life horror story on no
one no one should have to go through
that but I think there’s some lessons to
be learned in adversity and I’d like to
share them with you the first is that
relationships are everything and the
moments after my attack as I was sitting
in that hospital bed I never thought of
my four bedroom house I never thought of
my supercharged OD I never thought of my
Titleist driver or any of my material
possessions I thought of my wife of 24
years I thought of my kids I thought of
all the loved ones that my overbooked
life didn’t allow me to spend time with
so my advice to you is this spend more
time on your relationships find time
where it doesn’t exist go on more
vacations with your families and loved
ones hug your kids more if you don’t
have kids
hug your dog and if you don’t have a dog
get one my second lesson relates to the
human condition and that is simply there
is always another gear with my calf
sliced in half on my head cut open I
darted out of a room I flew down a set
of stairs I ran up a set of stairs I ran
into the woods
I ran onto a road I ran 200 yards up to
another home there’s no way that should
have happened when the police the next
day interviewed me they told me they saw
every step I took for 300 yards with a
footprint
splat footprint splat oh I can say is
when you fight adversity dig deep and
then dig deeper there is always another
gear
my third lesson relates to business I’ve
been in business for 30 years and I’ve
been in very competitive business
environments and I could tell you that
no matter what business you’re in it’s
always under attack by your competitors
if you look at the fortune 500 from the
year 2000 52% of the companies listed
then are no longer listed today why is
that clearly there are companies that
are using technology and changing the
game of how businesses get that done but
beyond that I would actually surmise
that a lot of why big businesses are
losing is because they’re playing
defense if you look at it Airbnb is now
worth more than the combined Marriott
and Starwood Tesla is worth more than
General Motors and all its brands why is
that
it’s because these brands that are
starting up are not playing defense
they’re actually on offense from day one
fueled by the power of disruption if you
think about what happened to me the
moment I went on offense was the moment
I changed my fate so my last lesson for
you is stop thinking about the present
think about the future
stop playing defense and go on offense
it just might save your life
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
the first is a love of strategy the
second is a bias for action and the
third is what friends and colleagues
would describe as an approach to work
that’s calm cool and collected
in the early morning hours of June 14th
of this year all three of those traits
would be tested like never before while
on a business retreat at a rented home
straight out of Architectural Digest I
was brutally attacked by drug-crazed
intruder I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and
at roughly 12:30 in the morning the door
opened up I saw a flood of light from a
hallway I looked at a shadowy figure a
man and all I could process at 12:30 in
the morning was that it must be one of
the colleagues who was with me on this
trip because there were four in the
house so I thought surely this is
somebody pranking me so I turned to the
man and I said cut it out
that’s not funny and he replied in a
cold
monotone voice I’m not joking I’m going
to kill you so I jumped on my bed with
my feet Sherly intimidating in my
j-cruise snowflake boxer shorts and
t-shirt
and then he came around the bed so I
jumped to the floor and get myself in a
ready position ready for I don’t know
quite what because I had no weapons as
he came around the bed he began to poke
at me he poked and I danced he jabbed
and I danced he struck me on the upper
chest but the wounds were not severe he
then began to slash at me and he slashed
me on two sides of my face I wasn’t so
fortunate I looked at him and I said
what the f are you doing I think it was
quite clear what he was doing he was
trying to kill me
he had already told me that at that
point he raised his arm to the sky and
he hit me as hard as he could with all
his drug-induced might with a knife
sharpener they held in one hand I fell
to the floor six feet below and I was
bleeding profusely out of my head into
my eyes and I had a do-or-die moment as
in do-or-die right now or else so I
stood up and I took the closest thing I
had to a weapon which was my forearm I
stuck my forearm out and I charged my
attacker
I hit him under the chin and we both
fell about eight feet into the adjoining
master bathroom I landed on his legs I
pinned him to the ground and his legs
were incapacitated but the bad news was
his torso and his arms or not so again
he reached to the sky this time with a
carving knife where he hit me in the
calf again with all his drug-induced
might the pain was unlike anything I’ve
ever felt he struck me pure I later
found out the knife snapped in half
at that point I stood up and I screamed
for help with all my might the good news
was that a colleague had heard the thud
when the bathroom when we landed in the
bathroom and he began to run and so when
I screamed for help I heard the two most
comforting words I’ve ever heard I’m
coming and with that I darted out of the
room
luckily my attacker was on the other
side of me and I uh I went in the
opposite direction he was unable to stop
me we went down the stairs I met my
colleague outside the stairs we went
down the stairs and my attacker chased
us down the stairs we fled outside a
sliding glass window onto the patio we
ran up a set of stairs outside and we
fleed into the front of the home to a
grove of tall pine trees where we waited
for two minutes constantly thinking yet
the attacker would be right around the
corner at that point my colleague said
we need to try to get to the other house
to get help so we escaped the woods we
went toward a dirt road and he looked at
me and he said I need you to run because
I’m afraid he’s gonna see us so what did
I do
I began to run how I ran with my calf
sliced in half I have no idea I made it
up the hill we got to the other home
it’s now 12:45 in the morning and we
rang the doorbell but nobody awoke we
went to the back of the house banged on
windows nobody awoke we went to the
front of the house and banged and
screamed until somebody awoke I went to
the home they took a dish towel and a
belt I created a tourniquet on my leg
raised my leg we called 9-1-1 and within
about 20 minutes an ambulance was there
I was brought to the hospital where I
was stabilized prior to surgery and the
good news is I’ve recovered fully
I wish this real-life horror story on no
one no one should have to go through
that but I think there’s some lessons to
be learned in adversity and I’d like to
share them with you the first is that
relationships are everything and the
moments after my attack as I was sitting
in that hospital bed I never thought of
my four bedroom house I never thought of
my supercharged OD I never thought of my
Titleist driver or any of my material
possessions I thought of my wife of 24
years I thought of my kids I thought of
all the loved ones that my overbooked
life didn’t allow me to spend time with
so my advice to you is this spend more
time on your relationships find time
where it doesn’t exist go on more
vacations with your families and loved
ones hug your kids more if you don’t
have kids
hug your dog and if you don’t have a dog
get one my second lesson relates to the
human condition and that is simply there
is always another gear with my calf
sliced in half on my head cut open I
darted out of a room I flew down a set
of stairs I ran up a set of stairs I ran
into the woods
I ran onto a road I ran 200 yards up to
another home there’s no way that should
have happened when the police the next
day interviewed me they told me they saw
every step I took for 300 yards with a
footprint
splat footprint splat oh I can say is
when you fight adversity dig deep and
then dig deeper there is always another
gear
my third lesson relates to business I’ve
been in business for 30 years and I’ve
been in very competitive business
environments and I could tell you that
no matter what business you’re in it’s
always under attack by your competitors
if you look at the fortune 500 from the
year 2000 52% of the companies listed
then are no longer listed today why is
that clearly there are companies that
are using technology and changing the
game of how businesses get that done but
beyond that I would actually surmise
that a lot of why big businesses are
losing is because they’re playing
defense if you look at it Airbnb is now
worth more than the combined Marriott
and Starwood Tesla is worth more than
General Motors and all its brands why is
that
it’s because these brands that are
starting up are not playing defense
they’re actually on offense from day one
fueled by the power of disruption if you
think about what happened to me the
moment I went on offense was the moment
I changed my fate so my last lesson for
you is stop thinking about the present
think about the future
stop playing defense and go on offense
it just might save your life
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
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