Don't Get Tied To Someone

Below is an excerpt of an email we sent to our business partners and team members last week. The email was in response to the news of a top leader in our business leaving to pursue another opportunity, and how we felt it would not impact our business. The below story is the important part of the email, and it's all about not getting emotionally tied to someone in your own business:
------------

A quick story.....

When I was a kid growing up in California, the world's best pitcher Tom Seaver played for the New York Mets, which was my grandmothers favorite team and so became mine. I watched Tom pitch on TV whenever I could, collected his baseball cards, and proudly wore my royal blue Mets cap with the big "NY" embroidered on the front. It was a little tough being in Dodgers and Angels territory, but I was a Tom Seaver and New York Mets fan! But you know what happened one day in 1977? Tom went to the Cincinnati Reds. I felt lost...I couldn't root for Tom and the Mets any more and I couldn't even spell Cincinnati!

It took a while to sort it out, but I realized what I really loved had not changed. Yes, a very important player I liked and followed moved on but my love for baseball had not changed. That's what really mattered -- playing ball myself and just being immersed in the fun game of baseball, surrounded by my friends all thinking the same thing. Mets, Dodgers, Angels, and even the Reds.....they were all good and we were part of all of it! And the best thing of all never changed after Tom moved on...helping my grandmother root for the Mets!

------------

Interestingly, and this wasn't in the email, is that in the company I used to work for EVERY SINGLE LEADER in a straight-up direct line above me, all the way to the CEO, left in the space of two years. My direct manager, his manager, etc., all the way to the top guy. While this was hard to sort out during that time and created all sorts of questions about loyalty, it really highlighted we are all responsible for our own careers and business growth. No matter who you think might have the best "way" and you try to follow them, know that they may be following someone too and will move on. When you see someone who preaches "staying with it", "don't quit", and "loyalty pays" LEAVE, you have to wonder what all the preaching was about. Actions really do speak louder than words. At the end of the day, if you are following the one person that really matters - YOURSELF - it doesn't matter when someone leaves your business.

Beware of false prophets, as their promise of profits may be false.

A drum can be beaten on a mountaintop, but just as easily beaten on another mountaintop, and another, and another...