Why You Should Hire Josh

“Whooo boy, look at me! I’m sharing an office with the Pilot-Doctor!” Imagine hearing this in a comically Cajun accent. This is how Josh would greet me when he would sit down in the cubicle next to mine. We were both test pilots in the US Air Force and we flew the B-52, a strategic nuclear bomber. I didn’t realize it at the time and I’m still taken aback by it, but Josh thought he was moving on up by simply sharing an office with me. We traveled very different roads to get to the same place.

Josh grew up in Louisiana in a trailer park without health insurance. So if he fell sick, he just waited it out. Typical high school teenagers get a job to save up for a car. But Josh worked to make rent and buy groceries because was living on his own since he was sixteen. After high school, most people talk about going to college and sitting in a classroom. For Josh, ‘going to college’ meant working as a groundskeeper at Louisiana State University.

At age 23, Josh enlisted in the US Air Force where he trained as an aircraft mechanic. He took online classes at community college and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree. His exceptional performance as an aircraft mechanic and tremendous leadership potential convinced the Air Force to commission him as an officer and send him to flight training. Afterwards, he joined the B-52. Josh did so well that he was selected to attend Weapons School two years ahead of his peers. Weapons School is the Air Force version of TOPGUN where the best aviators go to become leaders of combat tactics. He was subsequently assigned to a flight test squadron. This is where Josh and I met.

Josh was driven and resourceful. He made the most of what was available to him and he was grateful for every opportunity that came his way. His attitude was infectious. Whenever I conducted a flight test with Josh, I knew it was time to work and there would be no room for complaining. Today, Josh is back at Weapons School as an instructor.

Attending business school at Stanford, in many ways, helps me understand how Josh saw me. Stanford is filled with talented people. So many of my classmates have attended the best undergraduate universities, competed in the Olympics, worked for prominent politicians and top consulting firms. Without a doubt, these are the people that will run the world someday. On some days I feel like Josh. “Whooo boy, look at me, I’m in class with the best business students in America!”

And that takes me back to Josh — a talented person who never had a chance of getting into a top-tier school from the minute he was born. We all can point to one or two people that rose above their surroundings to attend elite institutions. But they are the tip of a melting iceberg. Today, parents’ incomes are highly correlated with children’s future incomes. Highly educated, high-income individuals are increasingly marrying each other to create households with enormous wealth. Socioeconomic mobility is decreasing in America and the opportunity for top-tier education is consolidated among those at one end of the economic spectrum.

As we graduate, it’s important to remember the thousands of equally qualified applicants who could have replaced us at business school; that so much of our success is due to externalities beyond our control. Soon, we will lead organizations around the world. I ask that each of you look for Josh.

As we graduate, it’s important to remember the thousands of equally qualified applicants who could have replaced us at business school; that so much of our success is due to externalities beyond our control. Soon, we will lead organizations around the world. I ask that each of you look for Josh. He’s hard to find because his resume won’t make it past your automated screening algorithm. It will contain words, like community or state, that will blind you to his potential. There is no room on his resume to tell you all that he has learned in his struggles to survive.

But you should hire him because he will surprise you with his tenacity and loyalty.

You should hire him because he will inspire you with his capability and humility.

And you should hire him, not because it’s good for society, but because it’s good for business.

(For more perspectives on leadership, please watch A Tale of Two Leaders.)