There was a time where Robert F Smith, the private equity owner of This that Equity Partners, was not the super successful man that he is today. Once he was a teenager who very much wanted to work for Bell Labs and persistently called the HR department for an opportunity to intern for them while he was in high school. They only took college students for their internship programs at that time.
After two weeks of not taking his daily phone call, he switched to weekly and still had no success. One day, he came home from school and was told by his father that he received a call from them. They wanted him to intern for them, even though he was only a high school student.
“Why,” he asked.
“We had an MIT student not show up today.”
For many of you, that would be a “good enough gift.” But there’s another one in the story that he tells the made a difference.
Showing gratitude for the opportunity, Smith showed up every day plus Saturdays and Sundays.
On his first day he arrives at his office that he is going to share with a much more experienced individual. He asked, “what am I going to do this summer?”
“We have this thing called an operational amplifier that failed in the field. Your job is to figure out why it failed. Your job is to figure out how it failed. If you have any questions, there is a library down the hall that has the full resources of Bell Laboratories.” Then he turned around.
Initially thinking this was kind of rude, he paused and said to himself, “let me to go down the hall and figure out what this thing is.” Smith would come back and ask his officemate to explain something to him. He would get up and go to the whiteboard for two hours and explain it.
“Do you have any more questions?”
“No, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
As a high school student, he wound up with the best project and the best results of all the college students who are interning that summer. It happened because of the process and the mentorship and engagement he received working with his officemate. That relationship between the two of them help them figure out the joy of figuring out things, instead of telling you how it’s done.
Isn’t there someone you can impart that gift to?
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2019
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1600 episodes and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Please click here to see my schedule to book a free discovery call.
If you have questions for me, call me through the Magnifi app for iOS (video) or PrestoExperts.com (phone)
Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.
Join Career Angles on Facebook and receive support, ideas and advice in your current career and job.
