2021 Vision - Life at 10X

Good or bad, what you put out into the world happens - thoughts, words, or energy. Positive or negative. Words shared with another human being have some of the most power of all. In early 2020, I wrote an article capturing my view of 2019 and set out a vision for 2020. As I look back on what was one of the most challenging years personally and professionally, I realize that everything I wrote was more true today than it was a year ago, and that in writing those words, I set myself up for a true growth mindset. Looking back I realized:

• I helped our teams adapt to a completely virtual environment, leveraging empathy, authenticity and a ton of flexibility
• I watched the economic reality of a global pandemic touch everyone around me, including my family, but found new ways to support each other and ourselves that have made us more resilient and more thoughtful about our path forward
• I said goodbye to my mother in April, but still see and feel her every day as I channel her positive outlook on life and dig deep for those basic life skills that are the things that keep us grounded in life these days - cooking, gardening, sewing our own masks, finding joy in the simple pleasures of life
• I watched my baby start his senior year and look at colleges just a month after taking my oldest son to start his first year of medical school
• I watched a newly formed team come together and create important, foundational, game changing things out of thin air and become go-to resources who made me obsolete almost a year earlier than I thought possible
• I formed new friendships, including some of the most special, brilliant women I know, and renewed connections from my past that nourished my heart, my soul, and my brain
• I gathered a group of brilliant peers around me who helped me be introspective, and let me articulate a new vision for myself that was critical as I moved toward a defining point in a long and storied career
• I put that vision into words - my spoken word, my written word, my silent meditations - and watched the world shift, and open new doors
• I shed tears as I said goodbye to the team I had built and the comfort of that routine, and popped a cork on a bottle of Dom in the waning days of 2020 as I said “yes” to a daunting new adventure as a CFO

I was as much the teacher as I was the student. And learned that my words are a force - for others, but mostly for myself.

To my 2021 self, and those who choose to come on this journey with me, here are the words that will guide us:

• Think 10X. Aim high and far; do not let what was, or what other people think, limit you. Set a big goal, share that goal with others, and start making it happen.  
• Do 10X. Pick something and commit to making it 10X bigger, 10X faster, 10X better, 10X more impactful. Find a way to do that without 10X the brain damage, 10X the time or 10X the resources and you will make magic happen.
• Learn 10X. Keep your mind open to new ideas, even ones that feel uncomfortable and foreign. Be willing to see your own shadow, to label your own biases, to understand the perspectives of someone who doesn’t think like you. Take bigger challenges, stretch yourself, take chances. Like one of my dear friends said, “Leap, and the net will appear.”
• Love 10X. Love what you do - be passionate about your work, your projects, your goals, and your hobbies. Love your family and friends ferociously. Love life - its glories, its frustrations, and its teachings. Love something bigger than yourself and watch the world change for the better. Love yourself.
• Be 10X. Be a big, beautiful version of yourself. Don’t make yourself a quieter, tamer, more mainstream version of yourself to fit some mold. Take stock of those things that make you your authentic self and 10X that. Be ok with the few who fall out of your orbit; they are only making space for others to fall in.  

In the waning days of 2020, I was speaking with a dear friend who commented “You said you were going to be a CFO, and now you are one. What’s next?” I laughed and said “Master of the Cosmos?” 

A couple days ago, I asked our leadership team to give a big initiative that I’m spearheading a project name. What do you think they chose? “Cosmos.” 

State your intentions - just make sure they are 10X.