I spent last night the Music City Future 50 Awards dinner for the 4th year in a row (we were also just selected for the BusinessTN Hot100 for the second year in a row). If you make the Future 50 five times, you get inducted into the “Hall of Fame”, and that means you have to give a speech at the awards dinner. This year, there were a record-setting seven HoF inductees…which means a lot of speeches. We listened to Clint Smith and Will Weaver of Emma do a stand-up bit, pink-boa-toting Hannah Paramore managed to (jokingly) credit her success to T&A and Jerry Bostelman of Vaco even busted out a little Kanye West impression (props to him for actually pronouncing our name correctly!).
All the speeches gave me some time to think about what I’ll say next year if we’re fortunate enough to earn the honor again. Every speech includes the requisite thanking of the employees, the spouses, the Chamber, etc. True, but boring, boring, boring. Tim thinks we should do a song and dance routine. That’s probably a little outside my comfort zone, but the possibility should inspire everybody out there to buy a lot of software from us in the 2009 fiscal year.
What struck me most about the possibility of being in the hall of fame next year is just how small we are. It’s amazing what a small group of highly talented people can accomplish. I sat there looking at companies with 150 employees and I felt no jealousy. There’s something special about a small cohesive group doing exceptional work that I never want to lose. Now, how do I turn that into a non-sleep inducing speech?
