Two days of informative sessions coupled with outstanding Keynote speakers—and exploring the French Quarter, of course—created a rewarding and memorable MSP conference.
For the sixth consecutive time, I was able to attend MSPWorld which is hosted by the MSPAlliance—the largest and oldest vendor neutral organization for cloud and managed service providers. Making new connections is always an integral part of the event but learning from experienced MSP owners and keynote speakers about how to be a better leader and business owner are immensely valuable.
The Keynote speakers were prominent government officials—one from the FBI and the other from the Navy—now retired from their respective duties. Special Agent Brent Watkins shared some stories about his 20+ years with the FBI but focused mainly on important internet security issues. Robert O’Neill, the leader of Navy SEAL Team VI, also told some intriguing accounts of his missions during active duty with his focus on creating “high performance teams.”
Rob spent most of his time talking about how Navy SEAL training creates these high performance teams, emphasizing perseverance and critical leadership skills that were very relevant to owners of MSPs. His words were very motivational to me as the owner of an MSP continually trying to build high performance teams of my own.
These are the pearls of leadership wisdom that resonated with me:
• Everyone needs good people skills because no one wants to work with a jerk
• The keys to success are training, communication, and repetition
• Learn to take emotion out of the decision-making process
• Don’t react but do respond
• All stress in life is self-induced and you only feel the amount of stress you allow
• Planning is important but execution is the key to success
• Panic does not help and it is contagious
• Your enemies are your doubts and everyone who ever said you couldn’t do it
• Focus on the mission success – what are you trying to achieve
• Complacency is caused by success and it kills
• Failure is one of the greatest learning experiences
• Never pass up the opportunity to not say anything
• NEVER QUIT!
To read more about Rob O’Neill and his experiences, check out his new book.
