My thoughts on "Embracing Failure" by Connor Makowski

(This is a response to this article published in LinkedIn by my friend Connor Makowski. LinkedIn's character limits in comments and posts require that I publish my response as an article instead.)

You are very welcome, Connor! It was my pleasure. If I may, given the topic of your post, I'd like to offer some words regarding my view from the other side of the handshake.

When I was asked by my boss at the time, Chris Caplice, to find someone who could help me with what I was doing for the MicroMasters, the first and only name that came to my mind was yours.

Why you were on my mind is an interesting fact in itself: it was because you had created a lasting impression on me, with your sharp intellect. Your team had performed admirably in the supply chain simulation game I had run during your time as a ZLOG student, and I had interviewed you at my office at MIT CTL on your perception of the factors behind this success. During these conversations, I came to know you. Your intelligence was plain to see. That's why you were on my mind months later when the opportunity to hire someone arose. A lesson to be derived from this, in my view, is to see every professional interaction as part of a potential job interview. Because you never know who may want to hire you in the future.

Since you mention your two rejections from MIT graduate programs, one from MIT Sloan and one from MIT CTL, and since I have some experience in that field (both as the "rejector" and the "rejected"), I have some thoughts to share here as well. I myself was rejected by MIT Sloan for a doctoral program I applied for. I was rejected by Harvard Business School for a doctoral program as well. These business programs, and these graduate programs in these top schools, in general, are very selective. I remember the pain it caused me to be rejected by Sloan and HBS, in the case of Harvard, after having been interviewed on site by them and short listed: it was as if a relative had died, a sense of loss and grief. But at the same time, in the same round of applications when I was rejected by them, I was accepted by MIT on a different program. That program gave me the chance to do the PhD at ESD under Prof Sheffi, followed by a postdoc, that led to my work at CTL for Chris Caplice (under whom I had done years earlier my master’s at MIT). Which led me to meeting you. So I met you as a result of my own path of "failures" and "successes".

I use quotation marks here because I think it is helpful to think of these things not as true failures and true successes. It's more akin to missing a bus than it is to getting hit by one, in that there is always another bus coming, which you can catch to get you to your destination or a similar one, albeit a bit later. People of faith may see in this process the hand of providence. I (being - as you know - an avowed atheist and nihilist) consider this the result of a path we open for ourselves. And in this path, which is as long and winding as the one in the Beatles song, we will find doors that open when we knock and also doors that don't. The lesson I take from this is to keep at it: if this door does not open, move to the next one and keep knocking.

You were very young at the time you applied to MIT Sloan and MIT CTL as a student, and your lack of work experience - I am sure, although I was not directly involved in evaluating your application - weighted against you. You were still young when I recommended you as my hire for the MicroMasters work, and I remember well that I had to make the case for why you were the right person for the job. I had to go to bat for you, and I did so gladly. I am proud to have done it, because you deserved it and time has proven me right. So here's another lesson: it helps when there's people who know you and believe in your capabilities.

I was proud to create and lead the Problem Creation Team for the MicroMasters. And I am happy to have opened doors for some wonderful people in the process, counting both you and our now common friend Luis Vasquez, for whom you vouched and went to bat yourself some time after I had left MIT to come to Australia. You made the case for Luis, because you knew he was the right person, and you were right. Now you are also, as I was, on the hiring end of the equation. And you identified talent and helped advance it. I believe that talent recognises talent, and I believe in hiring those who deserve it.

So, in short, my friend, I think we are all tiny links in a long supply chain of talent, where each individual link is forged in the fire of rejection, against the anvil of hardship, hammered by the blows of 'failures', until we become ready for the demands of the 'successes' to come. I'm very happy to have been the link that connected you to this chain. You've made the best of it and have helped others along the way. I'm very proud of you.

Cheers!