An open letter on my last day as CEO of Life Ready

Context: I penned an open letter to the company on my final day, closing out my chapter as the CEO of the company I started 13 years ago... I was intending on writing another for LinkedIn for the wider network, but realised I don't have the emotional capacity... but please know that much of what is written below extends not only to direct employees but to friends, supporters, contractors, service providers etc.

Life Ready started as the birth child of a naive, and optimistic 22 year old, with only $5k saved and $5k loaned from parents who had just recovered from bankruptcy. I would have never in my wildest imagination conceived what it would become.

Together at our peak Life Ready provided millions of health care services to hundreds of thousands of people across the country, and employed literally thousands of people along the way. I am excited for the frontiers that HBF will provide for the business and the ongoing story.

Open letter below:

Dearest Life Ready/ HBF friends!

With my last official day being today, I thought I would spend a moment to pen what will be the last of my emails. I thought it would be an important rite of passage for me to do this, to thank you all and encourage with you some parting words. Over the years you’ve tolerated many of these and if you would indulge me a final heartfelt letter, certainly filled with grammatical errors it would mean a great deal.

I was reading a book to Joshua, Caleb, and Alethea this week titled “Big Panda and Tiny Dragon”, it is a beautifully illustrated adventure between two unlikely friends who leave their home in search of new adventures. The premise of the book begins with Tiny Dragon and Big Panda living a life of comfort in their temple. The sky is blue, the food is plentiful. Life is ideal, and yet one day Dragon asks Panda… why despite all things being so perfect do I feel there is something missing? To answer this question, they embark on leaving the place they’ve known and move into the unknown. Just before crossing the river out of the edge of everything, they’ve ever known there is a quote:?

“In the morning, while they were breakfasting on bamboo and berries, Big Panda noticed Tiny Dragon was worried.?

‘What is it, little one?’ Tiny Dragon looked up.?

‘I’m afraid,’ he said quietly. ‘I don’t want to cross the river.’

‘It’s natural to be scared’, said Big Panda,?‘but sometimes we must carry on anyway.’?Fear will not stop you dying, but it may stop you from living.’

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Thirteen years ago Life Ready began in a similar way, a group of unlikely friends (Jess, Tom H, Matt, Scott, Jarrad, Jo Yiannakis, David Crocker) who like the Panda and the Dragon found a comfortable setting. We had graduated from university, had close friends and a stable career working in physio, however like the Dragon one day one of the group ?dared to ask a question… if we’ve graduated from uni and have the jobs we want… why are we not content? Could there be more?

We left the known, and broke from the status quo, by starting a business together. Something that would strain and test our friendships, and teach us more than we could have hoped or imagined. It probably wouldn’t be the path we would have chosen if we’d known, but for me certainly not a path we would change. We stepped out of the comfortable and into the unknown. Whilst the lows have been lower than anything I’ve ever experienced the highs have also been higher than anything I could have imagined I would do with my life. When the business started my family had just recovered from Bankruptcy, I had nothing to lose only a lot to gain, and so in many ways the courageous steps of all the early employees, and friends who risked everything to come along required more courage than myself. For the faith those early people placed in me in those early days I can never express more gratitude.?

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You are all part of this story, our story.

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It was as if we started driving a hypothetical car, to a place, a mountain top we could see but not know the way. We did not know if the car we were in could make the distance, and the road was not yet trodden so it was bumpy – but we always had purpose and we always had each other.

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Later in the book Panda asks Dragon…? “What is more important? The Journey or the destination?”

Dragon responds… “The company”

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“The company”… In same breath, now at the end (for me) I’ve come to realise neither the destination nor the journey is what mattered most… my joy and fulfilment came from the relationships, the good company if you will, that I had. To do meaningful work with people I care about… So, I thank all of you, for giving me one of life’s greatest gifts, an adventure with people I care deeply for. Thank you for giving me your trust in allowing me to lead you, thank you for allowing me to come along side you on your personal adventure and thank you for joining into this adventure. I will never forget it.

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I have never said I was perfect, but I have always had good intentions and I thank you for the grace you shown me, and our team along the way.

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In the bible there is a moment in the first book when God calls Abram to leave his homeland… Abram responds to God with a question “Where am I going to?” To which God responds “To the place that I’ll show you”. The beginning of his journey of courage and to his proverbial promise land did not start with ?a map or clear destination in mind, but an invitation. It was not a call to a place but into a relationship, with God or Life or Fate whatever you would call it. But to go where you’ve never been is to leave where you’ve always known, it is a dance with Fear and Faith.

I’d encourage you all on my departure that whilst my journey with Life Ready has ended, yours continues. There is a road not yet trodden, and a dance between fear and faith for each of you, new opportunities and horizons lie ahead, and it may not look like the comfortable place you knew, but if you let it the ‘company’ will always be good, and the adventure will be hard but meaningful and formative.

Thank you… Keep driving the car up the mountain for me, love and care for each other, and let the adventure change you, as hard or uncertain as it may be.?

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Love,

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Ben