My Personal Journey Archives

The unexpected lessons I learned from my cardiac arrest

In the early morning of Nov 7, 2020, walking alone on a beach in Maui, my heart stopped. It didn’t beat for about 4 minutes before I had the incredible luck of being found by a doctor who did CPR and saved my life. Obviously, a lot more drama happened after that, including being put into a therapeutic hypothermia coma for a couple of days and a long stay in hospital with a beautiful view of the West Maui mountains but the definitive moment of luck/grace/lightning was being found by someone who [...]

By Penny Herscher|2021-02-09T10:30:58-08:00January 30, 2021|My Personal Journey|Comments Off

The velvet-lined rut

I’ll start with a disclaimer. I am a privileged Silicon Valley executive with no grounded reason to complain. I have my home, my family (our adult kids came home) and a living that creates a comfortable lifestyle. So don't feel sorry for me. But here I am, in the middle of a global pandemic, back in lockdown in a state where the infection numbers are going in the wrong direction, turning sixty today. Wow - that's a big number. I'm not afraid of it, but as I look back on the [...]

By Penny Herscher|2020-07-16T15:29:21-07:00July 16, 2020|My Personal Journey|Comments Off

I know why my Grandmother drank gin at breakfast

It is day 60 of our shelter in place. Everything seems calm in Cupertino, California. Companies have quickly and successfully transitioned to working from home. Jack Dorsey has said Twitter employees can work from home forever, friends are posting gorgeous pictures of their new lives on Facebook and for the first time in more than 10 years there is very little traffic on 101 at 5pm. But inside the California ranch houses there is a seething going on, a desperation at the role we find ourselves in in the pandemic. [...]

By Penny Herscher|2020-05-17T07:45:11-07:00May 16, 2020|My Personal Journey|Comments Off

How 2016 rocked my world as I talked with women entrepreneurs

I am more convinced than ever that there is a bright future for women entrepreneurs and 2016 proved it to me! I stepped back from being a full time CEO a little more than a year ago. It was time, for family reasons, and I set out to change my life. I still work (I serve on two public company boards) but I decided to spend a great deal more time with my father and my family than I have ever been able to do before, and to prioritize my [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-10T12:01:17-08:00January 4, 2017|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

The Silk Roads – and other Summer reading which may make me live longer

I was highly amused to read the New York Times article that people who read books live longer! According to the NYT "Compared with those who did not read books, those who read for up to three and a half hours a week were 17 percent less likely to die over 12 years of follow-up, and those who read more than that were 23 percent less likely to die. Book readers lived an average of almost two years longer than those who did not read at all." Well I am [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-09T19:59:05-08:00August 22, 2016|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

When Thomas Paine went back to high school: Or how Thetford Grammar saved my father

It's strange how the tendrils of history weave our lives together in unexpected ways. This Summer my father told me that he had decided to give a 1925 copy of the complete works of Thomas Paine to his old school in memory of his brother. He asked me to go with him and, thinking it would be a pretty drive on a summer day, I said yes, not knowing I'd peel another layer of his story. My father's school is Thetford Grammar School in Norfolk, England. It's a very old [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-13T06:11:33-08:00August 18, 2016|My Personal Journey|0 Comments

Living the life of an eighty four year old and the lessons that teaches

When I stepped back from being a full time CEO 9 months ago I knew there were a few things that would take an adjustment. Most have been a good change for me. And some are just very different. One of the choices I have made is to spend a great deal more time with my father. He's 84 (almost 85!), lives in England and is physically fit. But he's alone, and slowing down, and long periods alone get him down. So this year I've been going to the UK [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-13T06:20:15-08:00August 6, 2016|My Personal Journey|2 Comments

The strange story of the lost Poussin the “Destruction And Sack Of The Temple Of Jerusalem” and my Uncle Ernie

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. This is a true story of a great masterpiece, lost in time for 350 years and found in our family.My great-uncle Ernie was born Ernest Onians on August 14th, 1904 in Liverpool. He was the youngest of 6, and his immediate elder brother Frank, with whom he was close friends as a young man, was my grandfather. After working together as salesmen selling animal food in East Anglia, Ernie recognized a huge business opportunity - taking waste food at the back door of London [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-13T06:23:46-08:00May 25, 2016|My Personal Journey|2 Comments

SPLX IPO 15 Years Later

15 years is a milestone I think. Short enough that I still remember, long enough that is seems far in the past.We took Simplex public 15 years ago today. May 3, 2001. It was the culmination of a wild ride, and the beginning of another. Going public is a rite of passage. It's not a birth (founding a company), it's not a marriage (M&A), it's not a death (shutting down) so maybe it's like a bar mitzvah or confirmation - a rite of passage into adulthood. You take a company [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-13T06:28:00-08:00May 3, 2016|Leadership, My Personal Journey|1 Comment

Why I’m stepping back from being CEO

I’ve loved being a technology CEO. It’s been 20 years, and the CEO journey has taken me from pride to humility, from exhaustion to exhilaration, from courage to fear and often all in the same day. It’s a fantastic job and a huge responsibility and I’m honored to have been trusted with the job not once but twice and in two very different markets. I’ve worked with talented executives, loyal investors, and customers who’ve become friends over the years. And I’ve also always been incredibly conscious of the role I [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-13T06:52:57-08:00November 17, 2015|Leadership, My Personal Journey|0 Comments