Posted by Kevin Lofgren.

I don't know if this is true or not, but it doesn't matter. It works for my purposes.

I've always been told that a mother bird teaches her baby chicks to fly by literally pushing them out of the nest.

That's not too terribly different from my views on indoctrinating someone into the fold at Farstar. Employees that join us must be cut from a different cloth. They have to be able to handle immense pressure. And they must be excellent problem solvers. It only stands to reason, then, that if someone walks in the door with a modicum of moxie they should be able to take the ball and run with it. Or, in our own metaphor, take the rock and swim with it.

Here's my thought on the matter. You may think you know how to swim. You may think you don't know how to swim. You may have been a champion swimmer somewhere else.

But somewhere else isn't here. These are different waters.

Therefore, none of us - you nor we - have any validation that you do know how to swim in these waters. What's the fastest way to find out? To take the risk. To do what that proverbial mother bird does to her babies - hand you the rock and ever so lovingly push you into the deep end of the ocean.

We are a little nicer than the mother bird. I mean, we'll stand on the surface with life preservers. We'll jump in and save your butt if you ask for help. But let one thing be very clear. If you don't ask for help, that means you must be succeeding and you know of no reason for anyone to be concerned for you or that rock you're carrying.

And it don't take long to find out, folks.

Let's say you are successful. In that case, you are swimming with that rock a few weeks into things, we'll see that you're still afloat. Then we'll rejoice and congratulate you. Or maybe you struggled and struggled to swim with that rock but you had to ask for help a few times. And then we threw in the life preservers to save you and keep you afloat. Well congratulations. You just bought yourself a little more time to learn. But if you are sitting on the bottom of the sea clutching your rock in desperation to show us that you are still in the water with your rock and didn't even have to ask for help, you can bet that you know you're dead before we do, but we'll figure it out seconds later.

So, the moral of this little story isn't that different from other notes and quips I've posted up here. Be yourself. Be honest. Be transparent. Be willing to fail, but hell-bent not to. Be humble. Be confident. Be self-aware. Be curious. Be ambitious. Be rebellious. Be a listener. Be a leader. Be a follower. Be a problem solver. Be what you want to be. We believe you can. Whether you are or not will be completely within your control.

And - if you ever do join the ranks at Farstar - you'll now know what it means when we're in a production meeting, you get your first big assignment that's all yours, and out of the corner of the room you hear Randy mutter, "here's your rock." And you'll understand the knowing chuckles that follow from the other survivors.

Best of luck to you. If you think you have what it takes, apply yourself.

Here's your rock.

kl