Thankfulness is Mission Critical!
Posted on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 @ 03:38 PM
By Chris Palermo
I was one of the lucky ones to get a few days off over the recent extended Holiday weekend and it gave me some time to really reflect on all the things I should be thankful for in my life. Many of us work so hard to succeed by making quota, finding more clients, taking care of existing customers, along with all the other obligations, that we never take time to reflect on what made us the people we are today and why we should be thankful for all the things in the past that brought us here.
I am thankful for:
My parents - for moving my family out of Brooklyn, NY when I was four years old to give my brothers and me a better life. They taught what it means to work hard and the true value of a dollar.
My brothers - being the oldest I never appreciated them growing up, but as we matured we have become very close. Both of my brothers were "best men" in my wedding. Today we are godparents to each others children and continue to be very tight knit.
My wife - we met when I was 15 years old. We were great friends all the way through college and have now been married 16 years. She is my soul mate.
My three children - I could not be a more thankful, proud and blessed father to have three happy healthy children. Each of them have their own passions and interests that make them true individuals. They all do well in school and still even like to have fun with their parents.
All of the friendships I have made - I can remember all of my friends in childhood, adolescence, high school, college and today in business and pleasure settings. In every season of my life there have always been close friends that helped make me the person I am today. Many of those people are still in my life and some of them are my best friends today.
My health - as the years have gone by I have had my share of broken bones, an ongoing bout with colitis, three degenerative herniated disks in my back and a mountain biking accident that left me paralyzed from the neck down for 45 minutes (I will save that story for another blog post). I still have residual issues from that accident, but I don't let it slow me down. All in all, I still have my health, I can work out every day, run with my kids and really appreciate life.
My business - I started Global Communication Networks nearly 15 years ago. When I first opened, I offered two carrier solutions and I was the only employee. As I added customers, I added employees. 
Some customers required additional solutions that required us to procure more carrier and colocation partnerships. Today we offer solutions from more than 150 carrier and colocation partnerships all over the world. We have a retail and wholesale billing platform, a management team that works with our Global Account Directors and a Project Management Office to facilitate the project workloads of our large enterprise customer projects.
My customers - I have always said that if we lose one customer, part of the company just went out of business. Our customers make GCN what we are today. I am so fortunate to have customers that have been with us since day one. Our goal is to grow and evolve ahead of the industry so we can always offer our customers the very best solutions for their business needs. This year our customer growth was rewarded by our induction into the Inc. 500|5000 list of America's fastest growing companies. We ranked 1,347th overall, as well as being named the 45th fastest growing Telecommunications company in the country.
These are tops on my list, but there are so many other things for which I am thankful that had I included them all, this would look more like an ebook than a blog post. It is a great time of year to sit down and reflect on all the reasons to be thankful - I encourage you to do the same.
Global Communication Networks has sourced, negotiated and project managed colocation and telecommunications projects all over the world. Should you have questions or need assistance on your next project please do not hesitate to contact me here, or via twitter at @SChrisPalermo.