HTG10 (Canada) in Orlando
What a great day of sharing here in Orlando. On Saturday we completed the first day of our second meeting of HTG10, the Canadian Group of the Heartland Technology Group. A number of Canadian IT firms converged on the Buena Vista Palace here in beautiful Orlando for our quarterly peer group meeting. What a great day of sharing! We spent most of the day working through our 8 minute update and our one page business plan.
We had to throw the agenda out the window today. Part of the strength with HTG is that the members discuss the items and challenges that are affecting their businesses today and if we need to adjust the schedule to work through some of the challenges of our members we will. It was simply a great day.
After our meetings, my good buddy Dan Wensley from Level Platforms took us all out for dinner to Moonfish here in Orlando. It was a wonderful dinner and even better time with the crew from LPI. Dan is a great friend of mine and super supporter of HTG. Level Platforms is a Platinum sponsor of our group and without great vendors like LPI well HTG is a different group. Thanks Dan, have fun with your F150.
I also want to thank my good friend Erik Thorsell for taking time out of his weekend to come and speak to our group. Erik is a true go-giver and another great friend. Erik talked about SharePoint and the need to have repeatable processes and systems in your business. You know something, Erik is a sharp cookie and very humble about his brilliance. I wish I had just an ounce of his ability to be humble. You guys at SCC in Minneapolis are very lucky people to have a leader like Erik working for you. I would move in a heartbeat to join that team.
I had a number of pages of notes that I scribbled down during the day today with ideas to either blog about, write about or just simply share with a friend. My key learning or reminder today is not something new it is actually something that a wise man told me once. “If you want to be great, surround your self with people smarter, more talented and more driven than you”. Why is this, these people will pull you up. I was reading in the book “Thinking for a change” by John C. Maxwell, the story of the bull rider that wanted to go pro, the lesson he was taught immediately was to quit the amateur circuit and hang out with the pros. I feel that I did this over the course of the week here in Orlando. If you want to grow your firm or yourself, quit hanging around those that bring you down, hang out with those leaders that will pull you up.
And also, be nice to your vendors! You need them!
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Stuart
This is a great post and really captures the power of community. When we hang with the right people, we all rise together. It is so very true with HTG. You are a perfect example of one who has changed dramatically by just doing the right things daily and giving back to others as you learn yourself. It was fantastic to spend an hour with the HTG10 Canadian group and see the change in those members in the few short months they have been part of the family. Thanks for your willingness to learn, serve and lead. So many don’t go all the way - they stop after learning and just want to keep it to themselves. The true blessing comes when we serve and then lead others to those same things that we have been able to put to work in our own lives. Keep after it ey!