you can actually make more money being
smart than you can being strong or fast
running your own race demands trust in
yourself even when others don’t this is
not a lifestyle business and if you want
to make it a lifestyle business this is
wrong business to begin he’s the founder
chairman and CEO of Vista Equity
Partners a firm with over 26 billion
dollars under asset control he’s ranked
by Forbes as a two hundred and sixty
eighth richest person in America he has
an estimated net worth of over three
billion dollars he’s Robert F Smith and
here’s my take on his top ten rules for
success rule number two is my personal
favorite and make sure to stick around
all the way to the end for some special
bonus clips also as Robert is talking if
he says something that really really is
meaningful to you please leave it in the
comments below put quotes around it so
other people can be inspired as well
enjoy
intelligence can create huge profits and
in fact you can actually make more money
being smart than you can being strong or
fast okay and so the importance of
developing intellectual property cannot
be underestimated because I want you to
think about something intellectual
property no one else can take that from
you point number one if you manage it
right
point number two it is constantly
evolving and it actually takes no
capital if I’m going to go in the real
estate business it takes me a whole lot
of money to go buy a building and get in
the real estate business intellectual
property I just have to think through
how it actually works and then to
develop it and that’s what really
launched me on the path to saying you
know what you know as good as I thought
I was playing football and all those
wonderful things my mom was was a
wonderful governor to my ambitions she
said you were far better after a scholar
than you are athlete which kind of hurt
my feelings at the time but she was
absolutely right and I started to turn
my attention to what I call developing
my mind running your own race the man’s
trusting yourself even when others don’t
because guess what there are a lot of
people good people people who love you
who trust you and who you love and trust
who want the best for you and you’ll
come to them with some ideas about what
you want to do and how you want to do it
and they’re going to say that’s crazy
just like when I left my first
engineering job at Kraft and was telling
my grandfather I was going back to
business school and he said that’s a
great paying job that’s crazy and when I
finished Business School and decided to
join the tumultuous world of Investment
Banking my friends and my family and it
was spoke up with concerns about my
sanity and when I left goldman sachs
right after we’ve gone public to set up
a private equity firm called this
my mentors and colleagues at Goldman
Sachs thought I was crazy and to top it
all off when I told I’m going to start a
firm we’re going to focus on enterprise
software and not be diversified like all
other private equity firms I was going
to hire a team of smart young talented
people who never done this before
everyone knew I was certifiable and I
did this of course in the spring of 2000
about two months before the entire tech
bubble crashed well all I can tell you
is I’ve never been mad at these folks in
fact I’m grateful for the advice and
their concern because in their caution I
found my courage in their doubts I found
my resolve and in their warning warnings
I found my voice and chartered my own
journey and I’m proud of the vistas
story we take risks we do things
differently and we listen to our own
voice we run our own race and it has
worked we are now considered to be the
number one private equity firm on the
planet and have been so for the last
decade and did you go straight to Wall
Street after college no I work for about
six years and applied research and
development you know one of the joys of
being a chemical engineers and we talk
about becoming the modern-day Alchemist
you learn how to create things you know
transform matter from one form to
another and that’s what was important to
me I wanted to be an inventor and so I
worked for about six years an Applied
Research develop and got a chance to you
know travel all over the world with big
companies like you know Kraft General
Foods and Air Products and chemicals
solving some very complex problems and
with using you know my engineering skill
set and I’d loved it absolutely loved it
until one day I was sitting there with
the head of my division and the head of
marketing the head of sales a head of
development for in a small division but
then you know Philip Morris was part of
Kraft and I realized we went through our
six most important strategic priorities
I was leading five of them I was half
the age of everybody in the room and I
know I was making 1/3 of everybody in
the room I said I mean doing something
very right or very wrong
and it’s bit of both right and so this
kinds of that lesson of the realization
of worth and self-worth right I said you
know what this is a great experience I’m
having fun I got three promotions in
like eighteen months as I was doing all
these great and wonderful things but
then I realized there’s probably
something else out there that you are
enough to be who you want to be and to
create what you want to create you have
to make sure that beyond the intention
that you put out there you put action to
support the intention don’t say I want
to be a millionaire but don’t take the
activities to do it or I want to be the
best at something but don’t practice it
it’s important to understand that you
are enough pieces you know you know put
in the vision have the vision of what
you want to become but you have to put
consistent action behind that vision in
order for that to manifest and it has to
be consistent you know I have the good
fortune bill was invited here by one of
my fraternity brothers Louis Tobias and
I remember many a day Louie and I Friday
night we’re going to go to the party and
we went to the party and we finished the
party at 2:30 and three o’clock we were
back studying so that we could do well
on an exam on Monday it is the
importance of knowing that it’s your own
intention and your power and your
actions that can actually lead to you
know the outcome that is good that that
you want to have manifest and the first
and foremost important thing about
running your own race is dreaming big
and here I’m called back to my childhood
when I was just starting elementary
school at that point in time the Capri
McCourt had just ruled that public
school districts could pursue
disaggregation by using forced busing to
achieve racial balance in their schools
in fact I started my own education as a
first grader being bused to a school
across town even though my father was a
principal at a school five blocks away
although I was a live subject in one of
the nation’s most controversial legal
debates I frankly didn’t know what the
big deal was all about because these
kids who didn’t look like me sure acted
just like me but desegregation was a big
deal to my
parents and leaders of their generations
knew a great new that great change was
in store and it was the right thing to
do and they often met with resistance
and often violent resistance but because
of their struggle their sacrifice I
received a great gift and that’s the
gift to dream big
I knew my history I remembered the pride
of my mother telling about when she took
me and my brother brought us back to
Washington DC and held me as a
nine-month-old during the march on
Washington when Martin Luther King laid
out his dream for equal and harmonious
meritocratic America and dreaming big to
me meant knowing my history but not
being bound by it it meant harnessing
the past to drive me into the future
it meant grounding myself and who I was
and where I came from so I could soar to
become where I wanted to become the
sponsors of Robert Smith’s career only
did so after I demonstrated that I’m
willing to make the commitment to my
career it’s a two-way street it’s not
just oh here’s you know the person
you’re going to sponsor make sure that
they get on good deals no it is they see
you in the office you’re grinding 100
hours you’re getting it done you’re you
know you’re making sure there’s no
mistakes and if there is a mistake you
correct it you’re following up you’re
reaching outside of your knowledge to go
learn more when you do that sponsors are
more than happy to then take credit for
you okay and that has been my experience
but it has all come through you got it
you got it you got to demonstrate that
that’s who you are and that’s your
priority if it’s Friday night and it’s
five o’clock your response we’re seeing
you leaving because you got you know
happy hour with your boys well guess
what I mean and they’re there you know
you got to be conscious of that that
sort of stuff okay I like when they come
back in on Saturday because they did
come back and I’m wearing the same thing
I wore Friday night right okay this
guy’s dedicated to his crowd and so when
this deal happens they’re happy to stand
up and from the man
principle of the firm at that time to
say hey you know Robert did this work
you see I mean so it’s a two-way street
and sponsors you know again I have the
opportunity and I do in my firm and
build and develop people but we have and
we do our reviews part of what we’re
looking at you have that kind of grit
and you dedicated to this Craig this is
not a lifestyle business and if you want
to make it a lifestyle business this is
wrong business to begin ok so that’s in
the world I live in that’s something we
think about we talk about in that
context that’s just nature so we look
for you know again I will sponsor those
and even my folks now who have not grown
up with me in this business I sponsored
them because I saw them putting that
level of effort and energy and 15 years
ago and guess what they still do it
today in America education is not enough
especially for us as african-americans
you also need to have access to the
economy and so as I’m not going from you
know from elementary school to middle
school to high school I started to
actually think about what is access to
the economy why did they live in that
great house and a their father is a
contractor but owns theirs own his own
contracting business and yet down the
street I had a friend his father worked
for a contractor but didn’t own his own
contracting business they lived near it
near us and when I looked at that I said
you know part of what has to happen in
in my mind was I needed to and I wanted
to become a business owner and that was
early on so literally you know I started
my first business when I was probably 19
years old I was selling golf balls and I
go cut grass I did all those sorts of
things because the fact no matter is I
actually didn’t like where my brothers
clothes until I was 14 years old
you know I wore hand-me-downs basically
into that period of time and I don’t
know if any of you have experienced that
but you know kids can be cruel in some
respects but part of that also hardened
to you to help you understand and help
you to reach some of your goals and part
of my goal was to be part of
and an economic class in America where I
could buy my own clothes the ones I
wanted and buy the shoes that I wanted
and all the places I wanted and one of
the advantages of again having parents
who wanted me to read and force me to
read I got a chance to read a number of
things and one of the things that
inspired me early my life was actually
believe it or not the James Bond novels
because as I read them they took me and
transported me to places that I had no
idea actually really existed and if you
ever seen any of those movies I mean
they characterize them in these movies
and I was like wow this is pretty
terrific I want to figure out a way to
actually get to that place and that is
part of the impetus behind me working
hard and also driving myself to to go
figure out how to create an opportunity
that I could actually make big and
lasting and have an impact so when I got
to Bell Labs they shared offices and I
happen to share offices with a PhD in
chemical engineering and this man had
patents that were probably 30 pages long
and he’d become one of my first mentors
and on my first day at work as we got
settled into his office he turned his
chair around he kind of looked me up and
down and held this computer chip in
front of me and said this is an
operational amplifier it’s failing in
our Merlin systems out there in the
field you need to figure out while it’s
why it’s failing so we can fix it if you
have any questions ask me and any turns
around and so you see unlike today’s
technically sophisticated high school
students I had no idea what an
operational amplifier was what it was
supposed to do what this one didn’t do
and so before the days of Google and
Wikipedia we had this thing called the
library and we and I went to the library
and I pulled every book on operational
amplifiers I could find I talked to
everyone in the halls who would listen
and ask questions and by the end of the
summer not only did I have an idea about
why this wasn’t working but I built a
system that’s that simulates the field
conditions that causes him to fail and
then with my mentor self help we fix the
problem
my guess is even now I’m probably the
most knowledgeable intern at Bell Labs
on operational amplifiers in the history
of that company but the important thing
was a challenge from my mentor was more
than to teach me something about this
obscure integrated circuit it’s a
challenge that has rich dividends for me
over my entire career it is the joy of
figuring things out what do you think
the accelerators to success are
particularly in environments where
structures are not designed to help
people succeed sure this is complex
there’s an education piece then there’s
a knowledge piece and then there’s a
practitioner of a craft piece that all
are important and you do need to have
guides along the way at least if you’re
a person of color okay
and I and I say that because you know
being a person of color I see the
difference
in my experiences versus others and you
know in what their experiences have been
and I wouldn’t say that it is it is who
knows this overt or not I just can tell
you what my experience has been so you
know first of all you have to you have
to do well enough max you know you have
to be you know have a desire to be great
at what it is you want to do first of
all to do this business that’s the first
thing and you have there’s there’s a
fundamental base level of understanding
of you know basic math you have to be
good at it okay really good at it and
then from there you have to understand
and start to listen to the structures
around how deals are done and there’s a
whole fact pattern capturing that’s
important that while you can listen the
only way to really learn it is to do it
and you have to become expert never
talks about you know what is an expert
well an expert someone who dedicates
10,000 hours to their craft okay it’s a
lot of time not over 20 years but in as
compressed the period of time as
possible the advantage of going to these
investment banks is in a in a heady
environment that happens you know 100
hour work weeks right great and you know
while all your friends so you graduate
college with they’re going out on Friday
night and Saturday your guess what
you’re working and on set you’re working
and on set you are working but that’s
how you build you know that that fabric
and in you know to be an expert at your
craft you cannot do this business well
if you’re not an expert at your craft so
all of those things first of all you
have to have structures an opportunity
to see it then you have to dedicate
yourself to it and then you have to have
people who can help you understand and
navigate to some extent you know why
certain deals went one way and why
certain deals went the other way and it
is highly nuanced it isn’t something
that you’re just you can just read in a
case study you have to live it and you
have to live it through the eyes of
someone who has lived it and to use to
the extent you see people who have lived
it and you’re in that environment you
have to now seek out the time and force
that engagement of why it went one way
versus another and see how that fits in
the context of you know of this of the
deal business so those I mean it’s it’s
it’s complex and it is but the rewards
beyond the personal rewards but you know
the rewards are just astounding okay in
terms of personal growth personal
development and frankly the opportunity
to then train and build others so that
they can become experts in their craft
and realize their dreams right so I
think you know that’s the the arc of the
opportunity there that is is in this
world I mean it’s a rarefied air of
people who are really good at this and
you really get an opportunity to do it
and practice it at a size and scale that
matters you know in this world and I you
know the importance of actually you know
going through the process of
understanding what the problem is and
then figuring out yourself and every now
and then need some help that’s fine
but if you get too much help you never
figure out how to do things and you
don’t develop the grit and some of the
older folks in this audience are shaking
ahead you got to have grit and grin
means getting turned away from things 14
15 times calling someone every two weeks
you know every day for five months and
then finally it materializing and
something that you want and discovering
the drawer and figuring things out means
you know if you know for you know fight
through those problems understand and
learn how you address those problems and
come up with the answers to those
sulukim up to with the answers to those
problems within the solution that is
uniquely yours that’s an important part
of growing up in solving problems
because if you can’t solve easy problems
now you will not be able to solve
difficult problems later
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because our levia white
asked me to so if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you are made a profile
next leave it in the comments below I
don’t see what I can do
I’d also love to know what of Roberts
message had the biggest impact on you
and why what was your favorite clip what
did you learn from this how is it going
to impact your life or your business
please leave it in the comments below
I’m gonna join in the discussion I also
want to give a quick shout out to Jason
Jay Rhys Fonseca from rides online.com
Thank You Jay rice you’re picking up
another copy of my book it really really
really means a lot to me so thank you
guys again for watching I believe in you
I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon
I went to the same high school and these
Denver as my father did Denver East High
School and I remember taking computer
science course and at the time they
introduced this thing called a
transistor which is the building block
of computers for those who don’t new
don’t know and transistors were invented
at this place called Bell Labs which had
a facility about 20 20 miles from my
home and after that lesson I went and I
dug up the telephone number to the Bell
Labs facility and I called him I said do
you have summer internships they said we
absolutely do I said fantastic they said
if you’re between your junior and senior
year in college I said hey I’m a junior
in high school I’m taking advanced math
classes in future science getting all
A’s just like being in college they said
no it isn’t
so I called every day for two weeks
straight the HR director course stopped
taking the calls after the second day
and I left the message with my phone
number then I called every Monday for
five months and every time I call the
receptionist just chuckled and she took
my name and she took my number and she
said we’ll get back to you if there’s an
opening and I kept at it and to my
surprise the human resources director
called my house in June and said listen
an intern from MIT didn’t show up we
have an extra slot we’re not promising
you anything but why don’t you come on
in and interview now of course I knew I
was the most qualified candidate for
this job and the truth is I went in I
interviewed I got the job
so the important thing that I want you
to think about here is the persistence
to get that job led to meet working at
Bell Labs for the next four years
becoming a co-op student and ultimately
finishing with the degree in chemical
engineering from Cornell all from being
persistent
smart than you can being strong or fast
running your own race demands trust in
yourself even when others don’t this is
not a lifestyle business and if you want
to make it a lifestyle business this is
wrong business to begin he’s the founder
chairman and CEO of Vista Equity
Partners a firm with over 26 billion
dollars under asset control he’s ranked
by Forbes as a two hundred and sixty
eighth richest person in America he has
an estimated net worth of over three
billion dollars he’s Robert F Smith and
here’s my take on his top ten rules for
success rule number two is my personal
favorite and make sure to stick around
all the way to the end for some special
bonus clips also as Robert is talking if
he says something that really really is
meaningful to you please leave it in the
comments below put quotes around it so
other people can be inspired as well
enjoy
intelligence can create huge profits and
in fact you can actually make more money
being smart than you can being strong or
fast okay and so the importance of
developing intellectual property cannot
be underestimated because I want you to
think about something intellectual
property no one else can take that from
you point number one if you manage it
right
point number two it is constantly
evolving and it actually takes no
capital if I’m going to go in the real
estate business it takes me a whole lot
of money to go buy a building and get in
the real estate business intellectual
property I just have to think through
how it actually works and then to
develop it and that’s what really
launched me on the path to saying you
know what you know as good as I thought
I was playing football and all those
wonderful things my mom was was a
wonderful governor to my ambitions she
said you were far better after a scholar
than you are athlete which kind of hurt
my feelings at the time but she was
absolutely right and I started to turn
my attention to what I call developing
my mind running your own race the man’s
trusting yourself even when others don’t
because guess what there are a lot of
people good people people who love you
who trust you and who you love and trust
who want the best for you and you’ll
come to them with some ideas about what
you want to do and how you want to do it
and they’re going to say that’s crazy
just like when I left my first
engineering job at Kraft and was telling
my grandfather I was going back to
business school and he said that’s a
great paying job that’s crazy and when I
finished Business School and decided to
join the tumultuous world of Investment
Banking my friends and my family and it
was spoke up with concerns about my
sanity and when I left goldman sachs
right after we’ve gone public to set up
a private equity firm called this
my mentors and colleagues at Goldman
Sachs thought I was crazy and to top it
all off when I told I’m going to start a
firm we’re going to focus on enterprise
software and not be diversified like all
other private equity firms I was going
to hire a team of smart young talented
people who never done this before
everyone knew I was certifiable and I
did this of course in the spring of 2000
about two months before the entire tech
bubble crashed well all I can tell you
is I’ve never been mad at these folks in
fact I’m grateful for the advice and
their concern because in their caution I
found my courage in their doubts I found
my resolve and in their warning warnings
I found my voice and chartered my own
journey and I’m proud of the vistas
story we take risks we do things
differently and we listen to our own
voice we run our own race and it has
worked we are now considered to be the
number one private equity firm on the
planet and have been so for the last
decade and did you go straight to Wall
Street after college no I work for about
six years and applied research and
development you know one of the joys of
being a chemical engineers and we talk
about becoming the modern-day Alchemist
you learn how to create things you know
transform matter from one form to
another and that’s what was important to
me I wanted to be an inventor and so I
worked for about six years an Applied
Research develop and got a chance to you
know travel all over the world with big
companies like you know Kraft General
Foods and Air Products and chemicals
solving some very complex problems and
with using you know my engineering skill
set and I’d loved it absolutely loved it
until one day I was sitting there with
the head of my division and the head of
marketing the head of sales a head of
development for in a small division but
then you know Philip Morris was part of
Kraft and I realized we went through our
six most important strategic priorities
I was leading five of them I was half
the age of everybody in the room and I
know I was making 1/3 of everybody in
the room I said I mean doing something
very right or very wrong
and it’s bit of both right and so this
kinds of that lesson of the realization
of worth and self-worth right I said you
know what this is a great experience I’m
having fun I got three promotions in
like eighteen months as I was doing all
these great and wonderful things but
then I realized there’s probably
something else out there that you are
enough to be who you want to be and to
create what you want to create you have
to make sure that beyond the intention
that you put out there you put action to
support the intention don’t say I want
to be a millionaire but don’t take the
activities to do it or I want to be the
best at something but don’t practice it
it’s important to understand that you
are enough pieces you know you know put
in the vision have the vision of what
you want to become but you have to put
consistent action behind that vision in
order for that to manifest and it has to
be consistent you know I have the good
fortune bill was invited here by one of
my fraternity brothers Louis Tobias and
I remember many a day Louie and I Friday
night we’re going to go to the party and
we went to the party and we finished the
party at 2:30 and three o’clock we were
back studying so that we could do well
on an exam on Monday it is the
importance of knowing that it’s your own
intention and your power and your
actions that can actually lead to you
know the outcome that is good that that
you want to have manifest and the first
and foremost important thing about
running your own race is dreaming big
and here I’m called back to my childhood
when I was just starting elementary
school at that point in time the Capri
McCourt had just ruled that public
school districts could pursue
disaggregation by using forced busing to
achieve racial balance in their schools
in fact I started my own education as a
first grader being bused to a school
across town even though my father was a
principal at a school five blocks away
although I was a live subject in one of
the nation’s most controversial legal
debates I frankly didn’t know what the
big deal was all about because these
kids who didn’t look like me sure acted
just like me but desegregation was a big
deal to my
parents and leaders of their generations
knew a great new that great change was
in store and it was the right thing to
do and they often met with resistance
and often violent resistance but because
of their struggle their sacrifice I
received a great gift and that’s the
gift to dream big
I knew my history I remembered the pride
of my mother telling about when she took
me and my brother brought us back to
Washington DC and held me as a
nine-month-old during the march on
Washington when Martin Luther King laid
out his dream for equal and harmonious
meritocratic America and dreaming big to
me meant knowing my history but not
being bound by it it meant harnessing
the past to drive me into the future
it meant grounding myself and who I was
and where I came from so I could soar to
become where I wanted to become the
sponsors of Robert Smith’s career only
did so after I demonstrated that I’m
willing to make the commitment to my
career it’s a two-way street it’s not
just oh here’s you know the person
you’re going to sponsor make sure that
they get on good deals no it is they see
you in the office you’re grinding 100
hours you’re getting it done you’re you
know you’re making sure there’s no
mistakes and if there is a mistake you
correct it you’re following up you’re
reaching outside of your knowledge to go
learn more when you do that sponsors are
more than happy to then take credit for
you okay and that has been my experience
but it has all come through you got it
you got it you got to demonstrate that
that’s who you are and that’s your
priority if it’s Friday night and it’s
five o’clock your response we’re seeing
you leaving because you got you know
happy hour with your boys well guess
what I mean and they’re there you know
you got to be conscious of that that
sort of stuff okay I like when they come
back in on Saturday because they did
come back and I’m wearing the same thing
I wore Friday night right okay this
guy’s dedicated to his crowd and so when
this deal happens they’re happy to stand
up and from the man
principle of the firm at that time to
say hey you know Robert did this work
you see I mean so it’s a two-way street
and sponsors you know again I have the
opportunity and I do in my firm and
build and develop people but we have and
we do our reviews part of what we’re
looking at you have that kind of grit
and you dedicated to this Craig this is
not a lifestyle business and if you want
to make it a lifestyle business this is
wrong business to begin ok so that’s in
the world I live in that’s something we
think about we talk about in that
context that’s just nature so we look
for you know again I will sponsor those
and even my folks now who have not grown
up with me in this business I sponsored
them because I saw them putting that
level of effort and energy and 15 years
ago and guess what they still do it
today in America education is not enough
especially for us as african-americans
you also need to have access to the
economy and so as I’m not going from you
know from elementary school to middle
school to high school I started to
actually think about what is access to
the economy why did they live in that
great house and a their father is a
contractor but owns theirs own his own
contracting business and yet down the
street I had a friend his father worked
for a contractor but didn’t own his own
contracting business they lived near it
near us and when I looked at that I said
you know part of what has to happen in
in my mind was I needed to and I wanted
to become a business owner and that was
early on so literally you know I started
my first business when I was probably 19
years old I was selling golf balls and I
go cut grass I did all those sorts of
things because the fact no matter is I
actually didn’t like where my brothers
clothes until I was 14 years old
you know I wore hand-me-downs basically
into that period of time and I don’t
know if any of you have experienced that
but you know kids can be cruel in some
respects but part of that also hardened
to you to help you understand and help
you to reach some of your goals and part
of my goal was to be part of
and an economic class in America where I
could buy my own clothes the ones I
wanted and buy the shoes that I wanted
and all the places I wanted and one of
the advantages of again having parents
who wanted me to read and force me to
read I got a chance to read a number of
things and one of the things that
inspired me early my life was actually
believe it or not the James Bond novels
because as I read them they took me and
transported me to places that I had no
idea actually really existed and if you
ever seen any of those movies I mean
they characterize them in these movies
and I was like wow this is pretty
terrific I want to figure out a way to
actually get to that place and that is
part of the impetus behind me working
hard and also driving myself to to go
figure out how to create an opportunity
that I could actually make big and
lasting and have an impact so when I got
to Bell Labs they shared offices and I
happen to share offices with a PhD in
chemical engineering and this man had
patents that were probably 30 pages long
and he’d become one of my first mentors
and on my first day at work as we got
settled into his office he turned his
chair around he kind of looked me up and
down and held this computer chip in
front of me and said this is an
operational amplifier it’s failing in
our Merlin systems out there in the
field you need to figure out while it’s
why it’s failing so we can fix it if you
have any questions ask me and any turns
around and so you see unlike today’s
technically sophisticated high school
students I had no idea what an
operational amplifier was what it was
supposed to do what this one didn’t do
and so before the days of Google and
Wikipedia we had this thing called the
library and we and I went to the library
and I pulled every book on operational
amplifiers I could find I talked to
everyone in the halls who would listen
and ask questions and by the end of the
summer not only did I have an idea about
why this wasn’t working but I built a
system that’s that simulates the field
conditions that causes him to fail and
then with my mentor self help we fix the
problem
my guess is even now I’m probably the
most knowledgeable intern at Bell Labs
on operational amplifiers in the history
of that company but the important thing
was a challenge from my mentor was more
than to teach me something about this
obscure integrated circuit it’s a
challenge that has rich dividends for me
over my entire career it is the joy of
figuring things out what do you think
the accelerators to success are
particularly in environments where
structures are not designed to help
people succeed sure this is complex
there’s an education piece then there’s
a knowledge piece and then there’s a
practitioner of a craft piece that all
are important and you do need to have
guides along the way at least if you’re
a person of color okay
and I and I say that because you know
being a person of color I see the
difference
in my experiences versus others and you
know in what their experiences have been
and I wouldn’t say that it is it is who
knows this overt or not I just can tell
you what my experience has been so you
know first of all you have to you have
to do well enough max you know you have
to be you know have a desire to be great
at what it is you want to do first of
all to do this business that’s the first
thing and you have there’s there’s a
fundamental base level of understanding
of you know basic math you have to be
good at it okay really good at it and
then from there you have to understand
and start to listen to the structures
around how deals are done and there’s a
whole fact pattern capturing that’s
important that while you can listen the
only way to really learn it is to do it
and you have to become expert never
talks about you know what is an expert
well an expert someone who dedicates
10,000 hours to their craft okay it’s a
lot of time not over 20 years but in as
compressed the period of time as
possible the advantage of going to these
investment banks is in a in a heady
environment that happens you know 100
hour work weeks right great and you know
while all your friends so you graduate
college with they’re going out on Friday
night and Saturday your guess what
you’re working and on set you’re working
and on set you are working but that’s
how you build you know that that fabric
and in you know to be an expert at your
craft you cannot do this business well
if you’re not an expert at your craft so
all of those things first of all you
have to have structures an opportunity
to see it then you have to dedicate
yourself to it and then you have to have
people who can help you understand and
navigate to some extent you know why
certain deals went one way and why
certain deals went the other way and it
is highly nuanced it isn’t something
that you’re just you can just read in a
case study you have to live it and you
have to live it through the eyes of
someone who has lived it and to use to
the extent you see people who have lived
it and you’re in that environment you
have to now seek out the time and force
that engagement of why it went one way
versus another and see how that fits in
the context of you know of this of the
deal business so those I mean it’s it’s
it’s complex and it is but the rewards
beyond the personal rewards but you know
the rewards are just astounding okay in
terms of personal growth personal
development and frankly the opportunity
to then train and build others so that
they can become experts in their craft
and realize their dreams right so I
think you know that’s the the arc of the
opportunity there that is is in this
world I mean it’s a rarefied air of
people who are really good at this and
you really get an opportunity to do it
and practice it at a size and scale that
matters you know in this world and I you
know the importance of actually you know
going through the process of
understanding what the problem is and
then figuring out yourself and every now
and then need some help that’s fine
but if you get too much help you never
figure out how to do things and you
don’t develop the grit and some of the
older folks in this audience are shaking
ahead you got to have grit and grin
means getting turned away from things 14
15 times calling someone every two weeks
you know every day for five months and
then finally it materializing and
something that you want and discovering
the drawer and figuring things out means
you know if you know for you know fight
through those problems understand and
learn how you address those problems and
come up with the answers to those
sulukim up to with the answers to those
problems within the solution that is
uniquely yours that’s an important part
of growing up in solving problems
because if you can’t solve easy problems
now you will not be able to solve
difficult problems later
thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because our levia white
asked me to so if there’s a famous
entrepreneur that you are made a profile
next leave it in the comments below I
don’t see what I can do
I’d also love to know what of Roberts
message had the biggest impact on you
and why what was your favorite clip what
did you learn from this how is it going
to impact your life or your business
please leave it in the comments below
I’m gonna join in the discussion I also
want to give a quick shout out to Jason
Jay Rhys Fonseca from rides online.com
Thank You Jay rice you’re picking up
another copy of my book it really really
really means a lot to me so thank you
guys again for watching I believe in you
I hope you continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love I’ll see you soon
I went to the same high school and these
Denver as my father did Denver East High
School and I remember taking computer
science course and at the time they
introduced this thing called a
transistor which is the building block
of computers for those who don’t new
don’t know and transistors were invented
at this place called Bell Labs which had
a facility about 20 20 miles from my
home and after that lesson I went and I
dug up the telephone number to the Bell
Labs facility and I called him I said do
you have summer internships they said we
absolutely do I said fantastic they said
if you’re between your junior and senior
year in college I said hey I’m a junior
in high school I’m taking advanced math
classes in future science getting all
A’s just like being in college they said
no it isn’t
so I called every day for two weeks
straight the HR director course stopped
taking the calls after the second day
and I left the message with my phone
number then I called every Monday for
five months and every time I call the
receptionist just chuckled and she took
my name and she took my number and she
said we’ll get back to you if there’s an
opening and I kept at it and to my
surprise the human resources director
called my house in June and said listen
an intern from MIT didn’t show up we
have an extra slot we’re not promising
you anything but why don’t you come on
in and interview now of course I knew I
was the most qualified candidate for
this job and the truth is I went in I
interviewed I got the job
so the important thing that I want you
to think about here is the persistence
to get that job led to meet working at
Bell Labs for the next four years
becoming a co-op student and ultimately
finishing with the degree in chemical
engineering from Cornell all from being
persistent
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