Dear friends,
Welcome back to another issue of BIC Magazine. Thank you for your loyal readership.
As we have worked recently to close out our books on 2024, I’ve considered the year that was. While we had our share of challenges, we tried to treat them as opportunities. As a result, we achieved several milestones in 2024, including introducing an unprecedented number of new products and marketing services, reaching all-time high website traffic, producing more videos than ever and hosting our most attended events, including a sold-out PRIME Expo. Additionally, BIC Recruiting placed a record number of candidates in 2024.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo "finishing well" during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
I recognize that while we set many records, our financial performance — and those achievements — depended upon ending the year on a strong note.
Although the environment was challenging in many ways, we would not have set any records if we had slowed down or merely coasted to the finish line. Strong gains could easily be negated. Errors follow inattention and leave lasting impressions. One cannot let up. No matter the context, be it sports, work tasks, job tenures, relationships or life in general, how you finish is certainly more important than how you start. The effort you put in at the end determines if you win or lose.
It is a cliché in sports. But clichés are predicated upon more than a modicum of truth. How many games are decided in the last two minutes in football or the last several possessions in basketball?
A sports moment seared permanently into my memory is the amazing finish in the women’s 400-meter race during the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was an effort at the end that I will never forget. Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, holding off a late charge by her competitor, dove headfirst over the finish line, past Allyson Felix of the U.S. I was cheering feverishly for the American. But the Bahamian’s heroic give-it-your-all effort at the end gave me such joy, I couldn’t help but be happy for her. First impressions shape our thinking, but it is the final impressions that we always remember.
When ending employment relationships, the same is true. My first job after graduating was as a landman for Exxon. If you’ve seen the TV show of the same name, I can tell you, I was never tied to a chair by the cartel, but I did love it. Seven years in, a recruiter called me with an offer to be a manager at another exploration company. The job was going to be more challenging, but most importantly, it would provide the financial means for my wife to quit her job and stay home with our two toddlers.
When leaving Exxon I gave my boss ample notice and offered to stay longer if necessary. We worked together on a knowledge transfer and really enjoyed our last weeks working together. He knew I was taking a position that provided a major jump in career development — one that he could not provide at the time. I still have the card he gave me when I left. In it, he told me to contact him directly if I ever needed another job. I consider it as one of the highest compliments I’ve received in the workplace.
As an employer for over 25 years, I have had similar circumstances with talented professional employees who have "graduated" into different positions. Unfortunately, some people tarnish an otherwise good record by choosing not to finish strong. Having decided to leave, they quit while still on the job—sadly, collecting a paycheck while their effort has already disengaged. My partner, Earl Heard, taught me the true spirit of helping employees achieve success. There isn’t a more dizzying high than the joy found in truly helping another person. Conversely, nothing is more somber than trying to help someone who believes that tough times are the time to give up.
Speaking of Earl, he’s 82 and has been retired for many years now. He may not be as mobile and certainly doesn’t have the energy he once had, but he remains a model of optimism. I know he deals with a number of aches and pains, but he has never once mentioned them to me or my wife. Earl is a man who may not have started his life on the right path, but he’s finishing well.
If you met him, you’d never know that his first business went bankrupt or the many hard times he faced while unsuccessfully trying to start several other businesses. Earl understood that something good can always come from tough times. One only learns perseverance through trials. If you want to make trials work for you, don’t see the pain, see the purpose. Don’t ask, ‘Why me?’ Ask, ‘What do I need to learn?’ Don’t give up; use the opportunity to grow up. If you focus on controlling your attitude rather than your circumstances, you’ll experience a renewed sense of freshness, like the hope that comes with new beginnings. You may start fresh right where you are, instead of finishing weak and tarnishing your reputation.
I once knew a young husband and father of three children who died after a four-month battle with a dreadful infection. For all his bad circumstances, his attitude was amazing to all who visited him in the hospital. During this process, his infected legs were amputated in an effort to stop the infection spreading. He never asked, ‘Why me?’ Instead, he spoke with enthusiasm about learning to walk with prosthetics. He also was a man of great faith who was not afraid of dying, although he most certainly didn’t want to leave his wife and kids behind. He finished strong. But it wasn’t just his time in the hospital. Those who knew him say he lived each day with gusto and purpose, focusing on the priorities he had set for his life.
It is one of the great spiritual enigmas. We are taught to live each day as though it is our last. Yet we are encouraged to remember that today is the first day of the rest of our life. I hope you will embrace both of these lessons.
This issue offers a variety of practical insights as we highlight the leaders shaping the future of the industry, including Nick Gill of TPC Group and Bryan Wooten of INVISTA.
Additionally, we examine President Trump’s second-term energy agenda, which includes a national energy emergency declaration to accelerate fossil fuel projects, lift restrictions on Alaskan drilling and suspend offshore wind leasing as well as potential regulatory changes at federal agencies like OSHA, the EPA and the Chemical Safety Board.
