After 15 incredible years of growing our company, we announced a sale of the company for over $23 billion in May 2007. The highly publicized transaction closed in October 2007, to buyers who wanted to double the size of the company again, while retaining the existing management team to do so. Their dreams of stratospheric growth didn't become a reality as the primary owner/buyer was Lehman Brothers and their bankruptcy filing in September 2008 (11 months after our closing) threw everything into disarray.

Many of us deal with the challenges of a demanding and busy schedule. We are tasked with making tough decisions for the good of our company. We go from the demands of a busy work day, to busy family, church and community activities. As leaders, many of us are naturally wired to be in charge and when circumstances cause our world to spin out of control, our natural reaction is to do everything humanly possible to bring it back under control.