Letter to Zale IT

For the past fourteen years, I have had the privilege of working at Zale Corporation. During those years, I have worked alongside an incredibly talented group of professionals. My departure is bittersweet. My recommendation to eliminate my job (it was in the best interest of the Company) meant that I had to leave innumerable co-workers, mentors, and friends. Yet, my departure allows me to begin a new journey that enables me to take on new challenges and explore new horizons.

As I begin this new journey, know that I will embrace uncertainty. Most would choose to eliminate uncertainty. But what would happen if you could eliminate uncertainty? Surprisingly, very little would change. Your five senses would still work the same way. You would still have successes and failures. You would still have good days and bad days. Just no surprises. No unknowns. No guesswork. Yet, the elimination of uncertainty would also change everything. Profoundly. You would suffer an unbearable feeling of loss. The sparkle of anticipation would vanish, the delight in things unexpected would disappear. Hope, all of a sudden, would become a meaningless concept. Life would become bleak. Life would become desolate. Thus, I will choose to embrace uncertainty as a catalyst for shaping my new journey.

Second, know that I will let go of what’s going away. Life doesn’t force upon us any particular reaction to a situation. We each decide how we’ll handle the arrows and bullet that we’re unable to dodge. Some will indulge in suffering, opting for the role of victim and seeking pity for themselves or guilt on the part of others. Some will invest themselves in anger and blame (another victim approach) which more or less presumes that the solution to their predicament resides with those who “caused” the situation to happen. Both of these strategies represent a failure to “let go.” Both are prisons, making us captives of pain and unhappiness, withholding from us the promise of our best possible future. My journey lies ahead – not with things that are going away, but that are yet to come – and this is where I will invest myself.

Finally, know that I will reserve judgment on the present until it becomes the past. Maybe the situation we are experiencing now feels undesirable and difficult. And maybe we expect it to damage our future. But one of these days we are likely to see all this in a very different light. Why? Human beings actually aren’t very good at forecasting how they’ll feel about things later on. It’s because our predictions about how we’ll feel in the future are heavily influenced by our current emotions and state of mind. It’s just our nature to try to do things or create conditions that we’re convinced can make us happy. Likewise, we try hard to avoid situations which we believe would be painful or difficult to endure. Yet, experience proves over and over that people miss-predict how they’ll eventually feel. Good things commonly fail to gratify as we expected and misfortune often ends up being deemed a blessing in disguise. Thus, I will reserve judgment on the present until it becomes the past.

I want to recognize a group of special individuals. First, I want to thank the members of the Senior Leadership Team at Zale for working with IT and considering us a partner in the business. Second, I want to thank, you, the IT Department. For nearly three years, I have had the privilege of working side-by-side with you. And I may say – no SVP or CIO in Zale history has had a staff as proficient, as talented, or as loyal as the Department I leave. I want to thank you for being business-minded. I want to thank you for being creative and maintaining a culture of “cost-saving.” I want to thank you for your commitment to excellence in the chaotic world that we call Zale. I want to thank you for showing me the respect and honor that I never deserved. Third, I want to thank my direct reports, Rick Hill, John Craven, and Mike Meyer. These leaders required only that I set forth a vision, provide them with the necessary resources (empowerment), and then get out of the way. Their knowledge of the business, their deep relationships with the user community, and their commitment to excellence make invaluable to the Company. Fourth, I want to thank my assistant Laurie Womble. Her penchant for detail enables her to stay on top of even the most mundane of tasks. She extended my reach as CIO throughout the Department and Corporation by making sure my schedule allowed for productive work time and informal consultation time. She is an extremely talented assistant that I will sorely miss. Finally, I want to thank my wife. Her love, encouragement, and wisdom have made it possible for me to serve you as CIO at Zale.

To those not specifically named, thank you for the support and the opportunities that you have provided me during the past three years. I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as CIO. If I can be of any assistance during this transition or in the weeks and months to come, please let me know. I would be glad to help.

My time and experience at Zale has been very rewarding. I look forward to continuing relationships with many of you as the years progress. Please look for an invitation to an “open house” that I will be hosting for members of the IT Department as a means of saying “thanks” for all that you have done for me these past three years.

“Those who have the right kind of character don’t tremble at the first sign of adversity.”

Contact Information:
Email: markastonetx@gmail.com
Blog Site: http://markastonetx.blogspot.com/

[1] Some embedded material has been borrowed from Price Pritchett’s, “The Unfolding”