Don’t Worry Alone
Security leaders shouldn’t have to navigate the hardest decisions alone
I entered the corporate security industry in 2014–15 with Goldman Sachs’ Office of Global Security. Before that, I’d done some security-adjacent stuff in the military. Mostly driving over IEDs in Iraq and traipsing along the Korean border in winter. I even did a stint as a guard for Universal Studios in Florida. (Beware City Walk on Teen Night.)
But I entered the Security Industry as Goldman’s GSOC Lead, responsible for the Americas. And in that job, I worked for a CSO who had a mantra that he repeated a LOT:
“Don’t worry alone.”
He said it to the executive protection guys flying all over the world with the firm’s leaders, to the guards standing a post in the loading dock, and everyone in between. He said it at lunch. He said it over coffee. He said it to individuals. He said it to groups.
“Don’t worry alone.”
I’d come out of the army with a pretty clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, but to be honest, I didn’t understand what he meant. What I did understand was that I was a member of a global security team and had a specific role to play. The same applied to my colleagues. They had their jobs, and I had mine, which is to say they had their own worries, and I had mine.
“Don’t worry alone.”
Did he mean to escalate when a certain incident or risk threshold was crossed? Because that was part of my job. That was what I worried about doing well. I could understand that. “Don’t worry alone” = “Do your job.” Sure, I got it. I can do that.
What took me too long to understand was that he wasn’t just talking about things that go up the chain. He was talking about the things we keep to ourselves as security professionals.
And security professionals keep a lot to ourselves. We’re paid to be the people you go to when you need help. We’re supposed to have a plan. We’re supposed to have seen it all before.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that it’s easy to mix up being responsible for a problem with being responsible for solving it alone. Team members need to admit to each other that we haven’t seen it all before. To ask for help, even with the routine stuff. That willingness to lean on each other is what makes it a team.
What’s changed in my role here at Ontic is the size of the team I think about when I hear “don’t worry alone.”
The person who can help might not work at your company. They might run a GSOC in another industry. They might have made the same budget argument you’re preparing to make. Or tried the thing you’re considering and learned, painfully, why it didn’t work.
But that experience only helps if it gets shared.
That’s the idea behind the relaunch of Ontic’s Center for Connected Intelligence.
What the hell is the Center for Connected Intelligence?
The Center is Ontic’s think tank for the security professional. We’ve been producing research, podcasts, and expert commentary for years. This relaunch brings that work and our gatherings under one roof (metaphorically speaking) and the conversation led by the people doing the job.
The idea is not more stuff to read. It’s to help you figure stuff out.
How are other teams making the case for more headcount when leadership expects AI to pick up the slack? Where is AI actually helping? What have other teams tried that didn’t work, and what can the rest of us learn from it?
Research and benchmarks can help you see where your program stands. Expert analysis can help you make sense of what’s changing. And practitioners can share the decisions, trade-offs, and lessons that don’t always make it into a conference presentation.
We’re also bringing senior security leaders together through the Executive Council, a private, invitation-only community that will meet regularly to compare notes and work through shared challenges. And those conversations stay private.
And all this is available at no cost. You don’t even need to be an Ontic customer. We’re here to help solve problems, not pitch products.
“Do not disturb”
If you check your phone one last time before bed and reach for it first thing in the morning to see what happened overnight – if you wouldn’t dare turn on “Do not disturb” – the Center is for you. It’s for the security professional trying to stay ahead of the risks, and the leader who wants to know how peers are handling the same difficult decisions.
Take a look. Subscribe. Bring us the questions you’re trying to answer.
You’ve still got things to worry about. Stop worrying alone.
