Sneaking In Via Life’s Side Doors

My father graduated from Harvard Business School in 1958. He really, really wanted me to go too. I took a swipe, applying to HBS in the late 1980s. Rejected! I failed to be allowed to enter via Harvard’s tightly locked front door.

Last week I delivered a talk at Harvard Business School. Yes, I made it to HBS, but via the side door. I was invited to discuss “Artificial Intelligence Powered Personal Branding”. This was the third time I’ve been invited to speak at HBS.

All my life I’ve been turned away from front doors. Upon graduation from college, the big famous management training programs said no. Later in my career, literary agents didn’t even bother to send “no thank you” letters. Speakers’ bureaus ignored me.

However, I’ve managed to figure out a way to make things work out for the best, primarily via side doors.

Pick Yourself

Seth Godin has been writing about this theme for years. In Pick Yourself, he says: “Our cultural instinct to wait to get picked. To seek out the permission, authority and safety that comes from a publisher or talk show host or even a blogger saying, “I pick you.” Once you reject that impulse and realize that no one is going to select you — that Prince Charming has chosen another house — then you can actually get to work.”

I graduated from Kenyon College, a wonderful liberal arts college in the Ohio cornfields. My four years there were full of adventure, meeting interesting people, finding my way in the world. The courses I took were fascinating, but nothing I studied directly prepared me for a specific job. Instead, I learned to think. And as one of my friends said, “Kenyon prepares you to be a good conversationalist at a cocktail party.” Perfect skills to forge my own path!

The front door is locked. However, the side door is wide open. Do you know how to sneak in?