Jane Hynes on courage
Courage in the face of adversity and opportunity
Every customer hero (a/k/a trailblazer) I ever knew (including me) always dreamed of working at salesforce.com. The company was so bold, so fun, so disruptive. You got to do cool things. And the face or voice of that outreach in the early days from a marketing perspective was Jane Hynes and her small, very small PR team.
A phone conversation with Jane before I ever worked there went something like this:
- Jane: Hi Tom, it's Jane Hynes from salesforce. Do you have a minute?
- ME: Sure Jane. What's up?
- Jane: I have an opportunity in [insert city] to [insert action] next [insert date and time] ....yada yada yada.
Of course, these opportunities didn't come until you were thoroughly vetted, but when they did come, they were often bold, challenging and under deadline, much like Jane.
On one rare occasion, the phone conversation with Jane transitioned to something like this:
- Jane: Have you ever written a book?
- ME: No Jane, why do you ask?
- Jane: Well there's an opportunity to write a book on salesforce. We've narrowed recommendations down to a small select list of external experts, and you're on the list. Interested?
- ME: Well sure Jane. It sounds amazing but I have a full time job; Is that ok?
- Jane: Well maybe, but there is a tight deadline. Don't miss your chance. If you're serious about this, the publisher will probably require an interview and writing sample. Good luck! Be brave!
The rest is history. I convinced Wiley to take a chance on me, quit my job, sat writing in a library everyday and 150 days later the first book on salesforce, "Salesforce.com for Dummies" was in the can. I received a plaque from the publisher when the the first edition shockingly reached #1 on Amazon across all computer books.
Of course, I'm recounting as best my memory will serve but I'm certain it's about 99% spot on because it became such a pivotal moment in my life. In all our lives, opportunities will present themselves and often we just need the courage to step up and keep going.
My lesson from Jane is around courage because she's always been that way, greater so because she has stood tall in a tech industry dominated by men. She was courageous when she first took on the salesforce account as part of a small PR firm, she was brave in all the years I knew her leading comms at salesforce, holding her ground with one of the titans of the industry. And she continues to do so on an even bigger platform at Google. You have to be brave to have achieved all that she has.
We should all have Jane's courage.
