Jerry Rice Joins GuidePoint Security for Oct. 29 Industry Forum
Sometimes, the heroes you have as a kid end up being important in different ways when you grow older. Such is the case with Bryan Orme, who was a huge football fan long before he became a successful cybersecurity executive as principal and partner at Virginia-based GuidePoint Security.
Those two passions will intersect on Thursday, Oct. 29, when Team GuidePoint hosts a cybersecurity forum featuring a panel of industry experts, plus one very special guest — Hall of Fame football superstar Jerry Rice.
So, why is the man who scored more touchdowns than any player in NFL history taking time out mid-season to huddle up with a bunch of cybersecurity professionals?
For the answer, we set the instant replay machine to “San Francisco | 1980s,” back when the hometown 49ers were the toast of the town and the Orme family moved from Maryland to the Bay Area with 9-month-old Bryan.
A Legacy of Success Fueled by Hard Work
“The 49ers were the best team in the NFL with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice leading the way. We had season tickets to the games, so I’d go with my dad to as many games as possible,” says Bryan, describing a parent-child bonding ritual that is familiar to kids of all eras.
Of course, Rice’s legacy is one of Super Bowl championships, extraordinary catches and a two-decade run as the very best in the NFL. However, one key detail from his hero’s life story that left an indelible impact on young Bryan had nothing to do with Rice’s gridiron exploits, but rather his approach to hard work and determination.
When Rice was a boy growing up in Mississippi he would work with his dad, a brick mason. Not only did Rice master catching flying bricks that were tossed to him up on a scaffolding, he also learned the importance of having a strong work ethic.
“My dad always instilled a hard work ethic in me and Jerry Rice was somebody that I looked up to tremendously, as much of his success was attributed to him working hard even when it wasn’t the most glamorous task,” says Bryan.
This made Rice a natural role model, since he has a history of being outspoken about the value of hard work, discipline, perseverance, teamwork, personal integrity and other qualities that are just as essential to success as physical talents.
Bryan is now striving to pass such lessons on to his own son Davis, now 10. He has also passed down his “prized possession” — a Jerry Rice rookie card. One year, he spent all summer mowing lawns and saving every penny in order to be able to afford the Rookie card of his hero. “I thought, when I was a kid, that it was going to be worth a million dollars one day,” he says. Not surprisingly for a cybersecurity executive, he and his son now keep the card safe and secure “in a hard plastic protective case.”
Football and Cybersecurity: Teamwork and Shared Missions
When GuidePoint welcomes Jerry Rice and the other participants to the Oct. 29 event, it will mark the first time that Bryan has met his childhood hero. No word on whether he’ll mention that he used to dress up as #80 for Halloween for “3 or 4 years in a row”.
Though his family left the Bay Area to head back east when he was just in fourth grade, Bryan’s still putting into practice lessons that he attributes to watching Rice. “Watching him as a kid and seeing all of his success and realizing that it wasn’t just what he was doing on the field on Sundays that led to that success, but what he did year round, day in and day out, even when nobody was watching … making sure that he was prepared for the right moments.”
Rice has been retired from football since 2004, and it’s safe to say he probably knows far more about defeating the Colts and Broncos than he does about how to defeat a sophisticated threat actor. But many of the principles he has always embodied bear direct relevance to the business world, including the booming, ever-evolving field of cybersecurity.
And, in an industry where teamwork and having the right game plan is essential to protecting the assets of organizations of all shapes and sizes, his message will likely resonate with the cybersecurity forum attendees.
Sure, there are plenty of additional similarities between football and cybersecurity:
- Continually scouting the opposition to understand strengths and weaknesses
- Putting in place a strong defense to protect your territory
- Learning from failures as well as successes
- Even gathering in a “war room” to plot strategy
The football metaphor certainly holds ongoing significance for Bryan Orme in his professional life. For example, you could describe his work at GuidePoint as partnering with leading companies and government agencies to “identify threats, optimize resources and integrate best-fit solutions that mitigate risk.”
Or you could describe it as teaming up to help them develop and implement a customized “playbook” for cybersecurity success. Perhaps the chief difference is that, in cybersecurity, the game never ends and the clock is always ticking.