Motivational speaker Sterling Hawkins helped kick off the first day of the Warehousing Education and Research Council’s (WERC) 2024 Conference with a message about overcoming challenges and breaking through the fear of the unknown by embracing discomfort—something the business leader experienced early on in his career.
Hawkins led a multi-billion-dollar tech startup that eventually collapsed, causing him to re-evaluate his professional and personal goals to find strength in not just confronting adversity, but working through it to create a competitive advantage. Hawkins credits his “No Matter What” philosophy for taking him from collapse to comeback—and he’s since launched, invested in, or helped grow more than 50 businesses as part of his #NoMatterWhat movement.
Key elements in the #NoMatterWhat philosophy include:
Hunt Discomfort—Seek out and do what’s uncomfortable as a way to deal with the changes and challenges in front of you.
Get a Tattoo—Commit to challenges in ways that there is “no going back.”
Build a Street Gang—Surround yourself with people that hold you accountable for what you want to achieve.
Flip It—Find strength in your problem or challenge.
Surrender—Accept the past and your current situation so you can move forward.
WERC 2024 runs through Wednesday June 5 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas.
