Guest speaker Richard Hoy offered a powerful and very personal presentation on what he called his “annus horribilis” – a year that brought repeated pneumonias and heart issues, a ruptured Achilles, a difficult divorce, and deep exhaustion and depression, all on top of a demanding executive career. Rather than presenting a polished success story, Richard walked us through the real emotional journey when “the wheels come off”:

Rejection (“this can’t be happening”), denial, blame, and finally the “well of despair.”
He emphasized that things only start to change when we take ownership, stop waiting for life to “get back to normal,” and begin to plan and then act, because action is what creates the information and confidence we need to move forward.

Drawing on his decades leading large teams and business turnarounds, he shared a simple structure for rebuilding: be clear on your goal (what good looks like), your values (what you will and will not do to get there), and the honest truth of your current state (what’s really working and what isn’t). From there, focus on the basics: doing enough of the right activities, in the right places, with continually improving skills; measuring what matters; and making small, consistent improvements rather than waiting for big, occasional breakthroughs.

Richard also urged us to prioritize health and truly critical issues, instead of treating all problems as equal, and to design our lives and roles around our strengths rather than trying to fix every weakness. His closing message was both challenging and hopeful: this too will pass, good and bad alike; don’t give up just before you win; and over time, we tend to get what we truly deserve through our plans, habits, and willingness to act—so focus on “deserving more.”