Read Online What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Tina Seelig
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range of experiences, from primary school education in the United States to irrigation of crops in rural India and management of innovative organizations. If you study each situation with an eye for improvement, you will find countless opportunities. It is then up to you to decide if you will put yourself in the position to take on that challenge.
Some people are masters at taking on challenges and seizing leadership roles. I learned a lot about this from David Rothkopf, author and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, a Washington, DC–based international advisory firm, whose book Superclass focuses on those people in the world who have more power and influence than the rest of us. 3 David studied leaders who’ve made it to the inner circle, interacting with one another in the elite World Economic Forum that meets annually in Davos, Switzerland. I asked David what sets these people apart from the rest of us. He echoed many of the things that others in this book mentioned: people who get to the top work harder than those around them, they have more energy that propels them forward, and they’re markedly more driven to get there. He notes that in the past people in the inner circle inherited their wealth and access. But today that isn’t the case. The majority of people who claim great success have made it happen on their own. This means that the primary barriers to success are self-imposed. The corollary to this is, as David says, “The biggest ally of superachievers is the inertia of others.”
David actually embodies these characteristics himself, naturally seizing opportunities, as opposed to waiting for others to hand them to him. His first company was called International Media Partners, and one of their activities was organizing conferences for top CEOs. The looming question for this startup was how to get all those exclusive and elusive executives in the same room. David and his partners needed a tempting hook, and decided that getting Henry Kissinger to speak would do the trick. But how would they get Henry Kissinger to participate? David found out how to reach Kissinger’s office and asked Kissinger’s staff if he was available to speak at the conference. No problem…but it would cost $50,000, require a private airplane with two pilots, and a chauffeured limousine. David and his team didn’t have any money, so any amount was too much…but he said, “Yes, we’ll do it.” He assumed that if he could get Henry Kissinger in the room, then the rest would fall neatly into place—and it did! Once Kissinger accepted, they were able to secure Alexander Haig, Secretary of State under President Reagan; then Edmund Muskie, Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter; followed by a long list of other well-known speakers. With this list of luminaries, the CEOs showed up in droves and the company was able to get sponsors who more than paid for all the speaking fees. The fact that David didn’t know Henry Kissinger and had no money didn’t get in his way. He succeeded by creatively leveraging what he did have—his energy, his willingness to work hard, and his drive to make it happen.
The story goes on from here. David’s colleague at International Media Partners, Jeffrey Garten, went on to become Undersecretary of Commerce during the first Clinton administration. He invited David to become Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade. It seemed like a pretty plum position. He had a huge office and a big staff. But after two weeks David walked into Jeff’s office and quit. He couldn’t stand the bureaucratic environment. Everything was painfully slow and David was impatient to make things happen. Jeff took David outside for a walk and told him the following joke:
There was once a man named Goldberg who wanted nothing more than to be rich. So each day he went the synagogue and prayed to God to win the lottery. This went on for days, weeks, months, and years, but Goldberg never won. Eventually, Goldberg was at his
Some people are masters at taking on challenges and seizing leadership roles. I learned a lot about this from David Rothkopf, author and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, a Washington, DC–based international advisory firm, whose book Superclass focuses on those people in the world who have more power and influence than the rest of us. 3 David studied leaders who’ve made it to the inner circle, interacting with one another in the elite World Economic Forum that meets annually in Davos, Switzerland. I asked David what sets these people apart from the rest of us. He echoed many of the things that others in this book mentioned: people who get to the top work harder than those around them, they have more energy that propels them forward, and they’re markedly more driven to get there. He notes that in the past people in the inner circle inherited their wealth and access. But today that isn’t the case. The majority of people who claim great success have made it happen on their own. This means that the primary barriers to success are self-imposed. The corollary to this is, as David says, “The biggest ally of superachievers is the inertia of others.”
David actually embodies these characteristics himself, naturally seizing opportunities, as opposed to waiting for others to hand them to him. His first company was called International Media Partners, and one of their activities was organizing conferences for top CEOs. The looming question for this startup was how to get all those exclusive and elusive executives in the same room. David and his partners needed a tempting hook, and decided that getting Henry Kissinger to speak would do the trick. But how would they get Henry Kissinger to participate? David found out how to reach Kissinger’s office and asked Kissinger’s staff if he was available to speak at the conference. No problem…but it would cost $50,000, require a private airplane with two pilots, and a chauffeured limousine. David and his team didn’t have any money, so any amount was too much…but he said, “Yes, we’ll do it.” He assumed that if he could get Henry Kissinger in the room, then the rest would fall neatly into place—and it did! Once Kissinger accepted, they were able to secure Alexander Haig, Secretary of State under President Reagan; then Edmund Muskie, Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter; followed by a long list of other well-known speakers. With this list of luminaries, the CEOs showed up in droves and the company was able to get sponsors who more than paid for all the speaking fees. The fact that David didn’t know Henry Kissinger and had no money didn’t get in his way. He succeeded by creatively leveraging what he did have—his energy, his willingness to work hard, and his drive to make it happen.
The story goes on from here. David’s colleague at International Media Partners, Jeffrey Garten, went on to become Undersecretary of Commerce during the first Clinton administration. He invited David to become Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade. It seemed like a pretty plum position. He had a huge office and a big staff. But after two weeks David walked into Jeff’s office and quit. He couldn’t stand the bureaucratic environment. Everything was painfully slow and David was impatient to make things happen. Jeff took David outside for a walk and told him the following joke:
There was once a man named Goldberg who wanted nothing more than to be rich. So each day he went the synagogue and prayed to God to win the lottery. This went on for days, weeks, months, and years, but Goldberg never won. Eventually, Goldberg was at his
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