Over the years, no doubt, you've heard me use the phrase "only the paranoid survive". It's a popular quote that has been credited to Andy Grove, the first CEO of Intel. But what you may not know is that is only part of the quote the entire quote is "success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive," and it is that entire quote that I'd like to talk about today. At NISC we are on a rather long string of success. Literally, for the past 15 years, we have seen revenues, margins, cash, our employee base, and membership base steadily grow on a methodical climb. We have come to expect and in some cases to take for granted our progress and success. Over the past 15 years, iconic companies like General Electric have seen their share price go from 60 dollars a share to under 10 dollars today. Sears is gone from 115 dollars a share to less than a dollar today, and companies like Compaq, E.F. Hutton, Paine Webber, MCI, WorldCom, Enron, Woolworth, Arthur Andersen, and TWA have all met their demise. Now historically if you started a company in the 1920s, you generally had a 67-year run rate before another company would enter and disrupt your business. Sixty-seven years to ride the wave and enjoy prosperity. Think of how long Sears was successful only to be disrupted by Amazon. Today you start a company and, for example, MySpace is worried about Facebook, Google Plus or Instagram and what it is that will disrupt your proven and successful business model. The fact is that the disruptive cycle has gone from 67 years to 15 and 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies on the S&P 500 today will no longer exist in 10 years. Well, guess what. NISC is 15 years into our cycle of prosperity. We have come to expect our strong growth in financial improvement and growing market share. We approach every prospect with the confidence and the expectation that we will win the business and more often than not we do. Our success in recruiting smart talented and in many cases experienced employees is at an all-time high, and that factor alone is having a significant impact on our progress, our rate of growth, the efficiency of our operation, and our development. But will we be able to defy the odds and continue our progress beyond that ominous 15-year mark? All in all, I am very confident that we will. And if I had to make a call or a prediction, I would say that we're in about inning two of a nine-inning ball game with plenty of runway for continued progress and growth and that's good. That's great for our members, and as NISC employees it is very good for our careers. But having made that bold, positive prediction, I would qualify those comments by saying we will be able to defy the odds only if we stay focused innovative. Always looking for efficiencies and improvement and never getting complacent and always remaining paranoid in a very good in a vigilant way. If our success breeds complacency and a sense of entitlement or if we start slacking, getting lazy, losing our hunger and our drive, losing our resolve, and our humility we could be heading for a demise like has happened to so many good companies before us. We have worked so hard to get to this place of strength. We simply cannot let it slide away. Today we are at a pivotal place with our iVUE releases. These next six months will determine if iVUE Connect will be a game changer launching us to new levels of success or if it will be mediocre, stumbling, pathetic, a comedy of errors in the launch that will shake the confidence of our members and our prospects. Which will it be? Anyone who thinks we are at a place where we can coast is not paying attention. Honestly, we are in a competitive battle for our lives and for our future as is every one of our competitors. Having said all that I have every confidence that we will be successful beyond our most optimistic projections but it will take an extraordinary amount of focus, passion, innovation, drive, and it will take the contribution and the dedication of every single one of our employees to pull this off. Are you in? Can I count on you? Because remember success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. And only the paranoid survive. And yes I am paranoid, and I hope you are also. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern
