Mike Wallenfels - Halloween 1993

Transcript:

Mike: Halloween day; so I was incredibly nervous that day. I knew what was going on in terms of there were challenges with Odyssey, we wanted to stay at Sierra Designs, we were working on tendering our own offer for the company, we knew that other companies were making their own offers at the same time and Jack and Paul were primarily negotiating for our future. It was a day of celebration in the building but at the same time a day of a great deal of tension and anticipation; what’s going to happen when Jack walks back? As he walked out of the office in his cowboy outfit and which – a Halloween costume for Jack just includes boots and a hat. That’s normal everyday dress for some people in the West, but for him it’s just strictly Halloween costume.
And as I’m sitting there waiting, almost drumming my fingers, to try to find out what’s going to happen when Jack walks in the door, “Is he going to talk to the folks at Odyssey and find that yup, we’re going to continue forward and they’re going to entertain our offer for Sierra Designs or are we going to do our move and walk out and create something new, and will I be part of that opportunity?” And so that’s something as we’re sitting there waiting and the people that were knowledgeable of the events that were going on, it was a day that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else other than those thoughts and see what was going to be the next thing.
And it’s amazing to me that it can happen on a Friday, walk out and go, “Well, I guess we just did that,” and remember that feeling of commitment, of it’s almost like, “Okay, I guess we can’t come back from here.” Once you walk out that door, submit your own letter of resignation, walk out there and go, “I guess we’re doing something else on Monday.” And a whole lot of faith both in the team but also in myself that we could do something different. But it was a very different day that will live in my memory forever.