(I’ve decided to split my article flow into 2 streams:
Wednesday Tidbits: small 1–3 min articles, containing thoughts I pick up from other sources through the week
Saturday Perspectives: slightly longer 3–7 min reads where I explore a topic, talk about some viewpoints I have, or share an experience.)
For this week’s Tidbit, I’ve had the enormous pleasure of chatting with an Olin Business School alum I really respect and admire. We talked about many things, but I wanted to highlight just 3 main points that had an impact on me.
- “Every Single Thing Matters”
When I asked her to pick out actions or behaviors that have helped her excel, her singular answer was “every single thing matters”.
When you treat everything (and everyone!) as important, you create a lot of loyalty. You start off many virtuous cycles. And even though it may look like you’re the only one who cares, you’d be surprised — that goodwill manifests itself in all sorts of ways.
2. Speeding Up Your Career
Big corporations do many exciting things, and their products and actions affect millions. However, as an employee, you will likely not be able to execute that kind of broad-based impact until you get to a high enough level. That exciting and unique decision-making really exists at, or near, the top. And it might takes a long time to get up there.
There are “non-traditional” careers that do help to speed this up, however. This alum took the private equity route, where she eventually took some lead in originating deals, seeing them through and even running operations in portfolio companies. This set her up really well for a lateral transfer into a tech firm where she now heads up Integration (read: M&A) just a few years out of college!
The route could truly be anything. It could be founding a startup, expanding a franchise, or setting up a microfinance fund in another country. Regardless, make sure that (a) it is incredibly challenging, and (b) it gives you huge ownership.
3. Being an Awesome Person
What really stood out, though, was how approachable and awesome she was. We laughed a lot throughout the chat. We talked seriously, but also shared some personal thoughts. And the fact that she was willing to chat for an hour on Saturday, and then follow-up with even more nuggets of advice, just blew me away.
She didn’t just inform or inspire me. I want to be like her. An amazing alum who is willing to sit down with anyone, and have a blast.
Thank you so, so much for reading! If you got something out of this, please Like it, hit Follow, or even Recommend this post!
If you feel like I could do better, or if you have other points to share, please Comment! (or send your feedback here: http://goo.gl/forms/dIR4YU6kd3) Each piece of feedback is a gold nugget for me.
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