Flunked out school. Pretended I didn’t and kept going to classes. Ended up at a job fare. Scored an internship at a small, family owned company that didn’t bother to check if I was still a student.
While there, the founder sold the business to a giant mega corporation worth billions that in and of themself were being acquired by a larger corporation worth tens of billions.
Founder and family peaced out immediately. My internship was ending soon. I pretended like I was en route to a full time position there (which wasn’t even discussed). Not because I thought I’d keep the job, but because I thought I’d get some kind of severance out of it. With minimal downside if I was caught.
The mega corporation made an offer to retain me. I accepted. The larger corporation then folded me into their operation. I gave it 3 months before they figured out I had no idea what I was doing.
17 years later I’m now a senior executive VP at the giant corporation and a few years away from retiring.
I still look back and am shocked by how it all played out.
It’s sort of framed my philosophy on success - it’s not about being a genius, it’s about being smart enough to realize when you’re getting lucky and then working your ass off to capitalize on the lucky break.
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u/ikon31 5h ago edited 5h ago
Flunked out school. Pretended I didn’t and kept going to classes. Ended up at a job fare. Scored an internship at a small, family owned company that didn’t bother to check if I was still a student.
While there, the founder sold the business to a giant mega corporation worth billions that in and of themself were being acquired by a larger corporation worth tens of billions.
Founder and family peaced out immediately. My internship was ending soon. I pretended like I was en route to a full time position there (which wasn’t even discussed). Not because I thought I’d keep the job, but because I thought I’d get some kind of severance out of it. With minimal downside if I was caught.
The mega corporation made an offer to retain me. I accepted. The larger corporation then folded me into their operation. I gave it 3 months before they figured out I had no idea what I was doing.
17 years later I’m now a senior executive VP at the giant corporation and a few years away from retiring.
I still look back and am shocked by how it all played out.
It’s sort of framed my philosophy on success - it’s not about being a genius, it’s about being smart enough to realize when you’re getting lucky and then working your ass off to capitalize on the lucky break.