Читать книгу All of My Heart - Teguh Pranoto Chen - Страница 4
There is always a sky above the sky
ОглавлениеThen I feel myself going back, back to a time when I had just completed my degree. I remember that proud, puffed-out-chest feeling as if it was yesterday. Graduating with the highest grades in my class, I had even delivered the valedictory address at the graduation ceremony. I had preceded most of my peers in what was the best university in the country. Wow, the world is my oyster, I thought. Unstoppable.
I knew which company I wanted to be a part of, the instant I first read about them. Flipping the pages in the glossy Fortune magazine, I saw the listings, and yet again they were ranking as one of the most elite and admired. One of only two companies in the world to appear in all of Fortune’s annual lists — a blue ribbon company.
I will be there soon, I smiled to myself… And convinced that I had chosen them, rather than vice versa, I strolled right through the open double doors that my newly acquired qualifications had jimmied ajar for me.
You can only begin to imagine the crushing blow my ego took when I arrived in that welcome meeting, strutted up to the sheer glass table of strangers, and seated myself defiantly — only to find that all of them seemed just as intelligent, just as passionate, and possibly just as hard working as I would ever be. My heady feeling of being top dog for the job was starting to wane quickly.
I spoke to one of them by the water cooler… a relatively young girl, still no more than nineteen. Jane was the president of the student association at Berkeley and graduated top of her class. Beautiful, athletic, and incredibly intelligent… To look at her, I would never have thought she might even entertain an interest in such a male dominated cooperate environment. But she was there, she was popular, and she was radiant as she answered every question put to her, with a calm and informed finesse.
Max was the quiet one with geeky glasses who sat opposite me in the far corner. He struck me as possibly a little shy… Needless to say, he was just absorbing every detail and biding his time. When he introduced himself, I was to discover that he was top of his class at Stanford, had family connections with the CEO, and was popular with the ladies. Didn’t even need the glasses — and would you believe, he never wore them again anyway.
I was part of a team, and after their impressive performances, I was unsure who would become the leader of that team; not me, perhaps.
That was the first time I had ever experienced a humbling. No matter how smart you think you are, there is always someone smarter than you.
And as my car begins to leave the road, launching up onto the curbside, I see the clouds up above. It reminds me that in a company there is always a sky above the sky... I learned that lesson more than once.