Lesson 2: Your Career Has a Long Tail
Willy Shih is an unassuming executive. With a smile always on his face, a way of glancing off to the side when pondering an issue, and a sense of humor that is ever present… you’d be hard pressed to guess that Willy resided over the growth of many of the most significant businesses within the electronics and semiconductor industries (IBM, Silicon Graphics, Flex, etc.).
I never knew Willy as an executive. I only knew him as one of my favorite professors at the Harvard Business School. He taught Technology and Operations Management (“TOM”). TOM was a class that centered around supply chains, flowcharts, and questions of optimization. It was a class that tied neatly to my background before business school; I could basically sleep through and pass. But for Willy, I stayed awake and engaged.
To be honest though, I don’t remember anything that Willy taught me in class. What I do remember is taking every possible opportunity to visit Willy during office hours to discuss entirely different things. At different points during my tenure at HBS, we talked about the startup companies I was always helping on the side, we talked about managing work life balance, we talked about career paths and academia, and we talked about the value of hobbies. (Willy is a Photographer and claimed during business school that I needed something other than work to think about; it is probably still true).
I don’t even remember how it came up. It could have been about a negotiation for nuevoStage. It could have been about MCR Inc’s fundraising efforts. It could have been about BCG. But at some point, Willy gave me one of the most profound pieces of advice of my entire career.
He looked at me and said, “Max, your career has a long tail.”
My irritation with my current situation (whatever it was) must have been obvious. And Willy proceeded to tell me about how some of the most important assists of his career came from colleagues and classmates that he hadn’t spoken to in more than a decade. He explained that people remember how you behaved when you worked with them for a long time. That memory comes back in ways you can’t possibly understand. So it does you no service to be an asshole to people along the way. Speak your mind. Make tough decisions for the right reason. But always be respectful and transparent.
My career hasn’t been so long to date. But it’s long enough that I find myself reflecting regularly on Willy’s counsel. I’ll reach out for job references, introductions, and advice from people I’ve not worked with or spoken to in many years — and it never ceases to amaze me how open they all are with offering help. This help often is what defines success or failure of our endeavors. If I’d acted strictly out of self-interest or self-importance in years prior, my story would be very different.
Your career has a long tail. Don’t forget it.
