27 Scality responds to the call More than 24,000 people in France are on the wait list for organ replacement – and that number is climbing. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, donations have declined. To raise awareness of this important need and encourage more people to sign up to be organ donors, representatives of the French private and public sectors recently ran La Course du Coeur, which translates roughly to, “the race of the heart. This 800 kilometer (almost 500 miles) non-stop relay traverses some 200 municipalities between Paris and Les Arcs in the French Alps. Our Scality team was honored to be a part of this. Scality’s commitment to making the world a better place is not just an idea – it’s in our DNA. As a company, we strive to encourage positive, healthy human progress as a force through our Scality for Good programs. So, when an employee put forward the idea of joining the cause, our team rose to the call and began training. For more than three months, they dedicated themselves to prepping for the grueling physical challenge.When you begin a run like the Course du Coeur, you do so with a lot of excess baggage, including a contradictory mix of both egoism and self-doubt. Along the way, much of that starts to slip away as you gain greater confidence and a stronger relationship with the people on your team – not to mention, a newfound awareness of your own capabilities. As my colleague, Géraldine Courtois-Menguy, a sales manager at Scality, puts it, “Running CDC to raise organ donation awareness made me go beyond my expectations and realize even when we think we gave it all, we can still put in more energy. It is a very meaningful cause, and seeing kids as we pass through the villages is just like a tornado of positive feelings.” Runners refused to stop when they were tired; they stopped when they were done. They could either experience the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The choice was theirs and everyone rose to the challenge. The fundamental tenets of Scality were lived by the team, during the five -day exhausting event: to work hard, eat well and amaze each other. Beyond the physical challenges The only thing more contagious than a good attitude was a bad one. From Paris to Les Arcs, our panacea was laughter and the spirit of camaraderie. When our runners grew sore or discouraged – both physically and emotionally exhausted and in need of support – we had to push past the competitive instinct to win. Instead, we learned to give each other the space to find our hidden reserves of mental and emotional tenacity to keep going. When one colleague turned to me and said, “you will learn more about the people you work with in the next five days than anything you could learn otherwise,” I didn’t know what he meant. But in the next few days and nights, I saw my office colleagues in a new light. I saw them achieve feats of endurance, I saw them display courage and support, and recognized that even the most humble of people are capable of incredible acts of both physical and inner strength. The essence of success Imagine seeing a coworker leading the pack in the cycling stage of the relay by several kilometers, only to take a wrong turn and then have to backtrack. To see someone do this without anger or remorse, and stay focused on the end goal is truly inspiring. These are the kinds of people who make life at Scality something unique and it was an honor to participate in this event by their side. These people we call colleagues are committed to success. They understand that success is a habit, not a goal. They are driven to be the best they can be, both professionally and personally; whether that’s creating new ways to manage data or running through the cold night in the French Alps.
