Jens Heitland

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The 2 things I learned from interviewing 100 executives

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Transcript:

(AI Generated)

A couple things is the hundred are very deliberate and focused. And so they don't just kind of willy-nilly go into something. They don't let fate drive where they wanna go. And I'm of the view and so many of the people were that I can control or define where I want my destiny.

And some people don't see it that way, but, these people, they have a vision, they're very clear on what that vision looks like. They may not know how to get there, but they also then have that confidence in order to start going in that direction. And I would dig in, it's like, where does that confidence come from because you don't just start off running a marathon and they said the confidence comes from smaller wins.

Yeah. So that confidence comes from going out and running a two miles and knowing I can do it. And that builds me up to do three miles or four miles, or for the executive is you don't start off being an executive. You start off being a supervisor or in another level and then you get some skills, and then you're a supervisor where you're oversight seeing 15 people and then you work your way up to a manager where maybe it's 30 people and work your way up.

But that confidence comes from success early on. And the other thing is just a tremendous ability to persevere through challenging times. All of 'em had some challenging times, whether it was a failed startup whether it was a divorce, whether it was a death a getting fired.

All of 'em had something that rocked them and that ability to know, I can make it through this. And it hurts today, but tomorrow it's gonna be better. And so I just have to get to tomorrow. And it was fascinating to talk to these hundred people and I could have kept to doing that.

It's like eventually you gotta sit down and write a book.