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Sprinklr Stories: Cyrus Hostetler
We are excited to launch a new and ongoing series called Sprinklr Stories. To kick it off, Internal Communications Intern Emma Dobek met with Chief of Staff and Olympian, Cyrus Hostetler. In the interview, Cyrus shares his personal journey, experiences, and passions that drive our business forward.
Emma: So, to start off, share a bit about you. What personal experiences do you feel have significantly shaped your life and character?
Cyrus: I have always been a very curious person, maybe it's the movies I watched or the people I was around, but I always felt like I could achieve anything if I worked hard. I came from a really poor family, and we didn't have a lot growing up. I always had a chip on my shoulder that I needed to prove that I could do something, that I could work hard and show that it didn't matter what we had. And there was my mom. She had three kids by the time she was 22, and I was the youngest. I was the most active, crazy, and risk taking, and always asking 1,000,000 questions. She was patient with me and fostered my curiosity.
I also saw success at a young age, especially in sports. When I started achieving that success, it proved I could accomplish anything if I continued working for it. I learned early on that eventually most people give up, so if I continued to strive towards my goals, I could outlast them and reach achievement. Through this I learned to work longer and harder than everyone.
Emma: I recently learned you are an Olympian! How do you translate your experiences as a high-performance athlete into a professional setting? Specifically in setting and meeting goals for yourself and Customer Operations.
Cyrus: When doing anything at a high level, there is a long process that comes with achieving goals. One of the things I actually hate is when people say, “You made the Olympics after four years of training,” because that’s simply not true. My success was a result of my whole life spent training. My training dates back to high school, not just when I professionally made the U.S. team. And this translates into the workplace because I think it's tough for people to see the light at the end of the tunnel, or even to see progress over time.
I had to learn this while competing in and training for my event, the javelin, because I only threw in the summer. We didn't have a spring or winter season, or indoor track, we only had outdoor track. Given the scenario, I constantly had to create micro and macro goals to check in with to make sure I was on track.
It’s important to me to find progress in things daily, weekly, monthly, annually and generally over time. I learned as I started to chip away at these things with persistence and consistency, I was making great progress without even noticing it in the day to day. And I think we can adopt this mindset within the company and ourselves.
Emma: Athletes often need to adapt to changes, whether it's in training methods or competition formats. How do you adapt to changes in the business environment and ensure that you remain effective and agile?
Cyrus: People tend to think everything just changes all the time. And honestly, the hardest part of change is when it doesn’t happen. For example, I was seeing really great success in college, and then I got injured. To rebuild my performance, I did essentially the same training for seven straight years, and I didn’t see any progress during that time. It sounds crazy; I mean, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting change. But I didn't expect change immediately. I just knew if I continued my routine, it would build what we call, “career-long training,” which is a foundation that gets you through the hard times. Once I built out this consistent block of training, I realized nothing could stop me or get in my way.
Emma: At Sprinklr, we have a unique and intentional approach to peak performance that encompasses optimal efficiency and high effectiveness, prioritizing both physical and mental well-being. How do you incorporate these elements of peak performance into your daily life and work at Sprinklr?
Cyrus: I want to mention a great book I read a few years ago called The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. Honestly, everyone should read it. There's a whole chapter in there about BlackBerry and how they refuse to adapt to the market. At the company’s peak, they thought what they were doing was “the way;” that it was the only way. The author talks about how you can always to better. There's never a best, but there is always an infinite game of striving to be better than you were. And when I think about us as a company, if we continue to adapt, strive for excellence and never give up, we’ll remain in a constant cycle of progress and success.
Emma: Lastly, my favorite question has been asking people “Why Sprinklr?”
Cyrus: First, I would 100% say it's to build a strong family. I want to be a great father, and a great spouse. I’m also driven to be a great leader. I see a lot of growth potential here at Sprinklr and it excites me to know I can grow in tandem with the company.
I also haven’t spoken on motivation, yet. I was an individual sport athlete, so I didn't have a whole team behind me, counting on me. There was no one holding me accountable. I could miss every single day of training, and it wouldn't affect anyone but myself, so if I'm not motivated that day, there's nothing stopping me from not putting in the work. However, I didn't train six to eight hours a day for twelve years straight because I was motivated by it. I was disciplined to know what I had to do to be better.
We called it money in the bank, like you're just investing in yourself. That workout today, you don't cash it out tomorrow. You cash it out next year, and the year after. So, again, it goes back to us as employees at Sprinklr, there are huge growth opportunities here if we continuously invest in ourselves and put that money in the bank.
As we strive toward excellence through learning and being curious, over time the work we put in will undoubtedly make us better. It will make us better leaders, partners, and parents. So, take the risk, do the hard thing, do it the right way. That’s what I’m here to do at Sprinklr.
