Leadership is about finding a new direction, not simply putting oneself at the front of the herd that’s heading toward the cliff. In the past two years, through its hosts, mentors, speakers and participants, the BOLD Program has taught me how to live by the preceding definition of leadership. I am the product of a mélange of experiences, learnings and serendipitous events at Google.
My return to the BOLD program this summer gave me considerable advantage over my previous summer, as I walked in knowing the company, the culture, and was ready to work, filled with energies that had been inspired by a year of the Ambassador program. The inspiration from individuals at every level- Rosenberg to Roe to Dinsmore, product to sales to hr, gave me the thirst to seek ownership of my projects, and represent Google’s core values as the face of all my exertion by going far and beyond.
Working with the dynamic DSO Consumer Packaged Goods vertical, under Catherine Roe gave me the ability to pitch to clients and be creative in the work I do. I have had the opportunity to do amazing work, be creative, pitch ideas and work hand in hand with the team. For example, an opportunity surged to help the Kraft management team design a full day of learnings and activities for their newly established innovation team, and I raised my hand, spoke-out my interest and jumped straight to the task. This was my opportunity to pitch Google products to Kraft management, while helping them fulfill their adventurous request. This was something that was out of the marketing scope of my internship, but it was new and exciting.
I helped put together a full day event, whereby the participants would visit different small to medium size companies and learn from their case studies to inspire ideas internally. I designed and created an interactive, digital Google map to provide guidance for the Kraft Pub Crawl organized by Google. The map is an interactive interface. The user is able to rate the locales, take notes on the icon's description box about his/her experience, draw lines connecting places and even set routes and directions. I went even farther. I held a tutorial for a VP at Kraft about Cloud Computing, and how we could implement Google Docs, Forms and even Sites for the Crawl, to not only inspire collaboration and communication, but also augment tech-savyness amongst what they hoped to be an innovative team. The list is long- I created iGoogle Marketing Dashboards to help them understand search and prepared a Walmart / Kraft strategy report.
The results were incredible. “Cloud Computing” was the new buzz-word inside of Kraft, they felt at the top of the tech-world knowing that they were implementing this new fashion. Collaboration and communication were unique, and idea sharing was exponential. The Senior VP of Marketing at Kraft emailed Dennis Woodside to thank him for my leadership in the project, and my team applauded my accomplishment as I ameliorated their relationship with Kraft and opened doors that had been locked for some time. Just this past week, I was approached by Hunter PR and Kraft to organize a similar event in New York.
Taking complete ownership of this project showed my ability as a leader and a doer. I was able to help an external team grow stronger, while simultaneously having them adopt Google products and act Googley, by collaborating, thinking of the bigger picture and being open and accessible to the world. This year I return to the University of Chicago as a Google Ambassador for the second time. This summer has taught me many things. Just like I was able to navigate effectively and make things happen at Kraft, I look forward to planting the seeds of Google products in similar ways- from the student who wants to keep his documents online to the school administration that aims to cut costs and integrate email, calendar and other online applications by Going Google. As a leader, I am always in search of a new direction. BOLD has given me mine.
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Saturday, August 14, 2010
How do you create as many options as you can? A conversation with Lazlo Bock, VP at Google
The following is an excerpt or agglomeration of ideas from a conversation with Lazlo Bock, VP of People Operations at Google, Inc.
The most important thing in your career is to pick your industry carefully. The industry you choose determines how many opportunities you can create for yourself. Following Jonathan Rosenberg’s ideas (another blog post pending on his talk), we all want to catch waves, find industries where there are tons of waves, and find a big one to ride. Technology is ours.
A lot of people say they want to work for nonprofits, since they have passions for things of charitable value. Do it, I’m not saying not to, but chose your priorities in life. You can have a very big scope of impact without staying always in solely nonprofit. As Vice President of People Operations, Lazlo Bock has the power to give millions of dollars in scholarships to touch people.
Pick your company right. “When I was in consulting at McKinsey, I would flip through thick resume books and take out the ones that had impressive companies on their resumes like Google, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and focus mainly on those candidates.” When you’re getting started in your career a big company is better. It doesn’t matter what job you have, but the fact that you’re there. Once in, you can find more opportunities for yourself that are better fits given the huge waves of opportunities flowing through everyday.
It doesn’t matter so much what you do, but whom you’re with and what opportunities you create for yourself.
The next important thing is about how you manage yourself. I see careers as managed in ten-year pockets. The first 10 are very experimental, jump from pond to pond, and try companies out, roles, and grad schools. Now, once you hit the 10-year mark you better settle, and excel! It’s like declaring a major. You don’t want to say “I could have gotten there” one day. Become known for that major you choose, the best at it, the expert in the field- have the potential to have real impact and establish yourself.
The other notion about how to manage yourself and your career goes back to an interview Lazlo had at Pepsi. “What are your three core values?” was the question that he got asked. Lazlo fumbled it, but was interested enough to ask Rusty (cool name for a Pepsi exec, ha?) what where his. There’s one that stuck with Lazlo over the years: always go above and beyond, because then they have no choice but to reward you.
One of the things I have been frustrated about is the quality of leaders around me. At McKinsey, they had this thing called obligation of descent. If you disagree, you are obliged to disagree, to stand up and fight back. Leaders should be inspirational, well-versed and truthful. “As a leader I put my money where my mouth is, and strive to build leaders like I envisioned,” he concluded.
Don’t be disappointed in your career at managers, don’t judge too harshly. Leaders are human. You will go from one manager to the next, but focus on the work you do because that is what matters.
Monday, August 3, 2009
On The Importance of Being Customer Centric, a Conversation with the VP of Best Buy
As part of my summer at Google, I've had the opportunity to meet countless people that are reshaping and influencing corporate America this decade.
Bill Thompson, the vice president and territory general manager of Best Buy, came to speak to a small group at Google on the focus on customer centricity. The term refers to the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviors of its customers, rather than internal drivers (such as the quest for short term profit). The Best Buy executive led us through an invigorating presentation that presented the company's key Standard Operating Practices (SOPs), values and vision.
"Stack it high and watch it fly" was one of the key phrases that sparked from Thompson's presentation. Best Buy seeks to have it all, and let customers do the rest. "The business was getting far more complicated than we were able to convey to our client," said the Vice President when describing the business model and complexity.
In the early 2000's Best Buy turned massive wheels to focus their main powers on the "customer centricity" model. It's literally all about serving the customer right, customer service- how well are you listening to the customer, and then meeting his needs.
70% of what a store will do is based on SOPs: stores must connect to communities. A great example for Best Buy was the Tech Tax repeal through the "Geek Squad Rally" and their having joined forces with the local people to seek support. Bill Thompson assures that their strategy is centered on grassroots initiatives, benefiting communities.
Customer Centricity's Goals
Donna Fluss puts it best. A major impediment to building a customer-centric organization is the conflicting goals of the primary customer-facing departments: sales, marketing and service. Somehow, in the drive to achieve goals, each department loses sight of customers as people and sees them only as "objects" that need to be optimized. (See Figure above) Clearly, the obvious answer is to shift the focus back to customers and to align corporate goals. The problem is that when some companies have tried to standardize goals, their revenues decreased, customer satisfaction fell and loyalty dropped off, because the three primary customer-facing groups failed to cooperate.
Best Buy encourages its employees to be innovative and eager to bring about ideas through the "Idea Development Summit" every year. Best Buy gives its employees the freedom to make decisions and take action at the local level. One whole market is dedicated to selling Korean fridges in the branches because their community members in those cities happen to be Korean, and one employee was intuitive enough to identify that opportunity and divert from the SOP. Wait till you hear about the branch manager in California who hired 8 full time sign language proficient employees to target the population attending the 70 sign language schools in the area- revenue increased by 27 percent! Finally, Target's "You Spoke, We Listened" campaign surveyed students on what features they needed and Best Buy ordered the computers on those provisions.
It's all about local growth plans, about developing the communities where they're based and adopting those practices on the national level.
He ended the conversation on this note: "Try to satisfy their needs, selling will happen by on its own".
The Model
Promise Phelon wrote a very interesting article on Inc. magazine, titled "Are you really customer centric?"
Bill Thompson, the vice president and territory general manager of Best Buy, came to speak to a small group at Google on the focus on customer centricity. The term refers to the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviors of its customers, rather than internal drivers (such as the quest for short term profit). The Best Buy executive led us through an invigorating presentation that presented the company's key Standard Operating Practices (SOPs), values and vision.
"Stack it high and watch it fly" was one of the key phrases that sparked from Thompson's presentation. Best Buy seeks to have it all, and let customers do the rest. "The business was getting far more complicated than we were able to convey to our client," said the Vice President when describing the business model and complexity.
In the early 2000's Best Buy turned massive wheels to focus their main powers on the "customer centricity" model. It's literally all about serving the customer right, customer service- how well are you listening to the customer, and then meeting his needs.
70% of what a store will do is based on SOPs: stores must connect to communities. A great example for Best Buy was the Tech Tax repeal through the "Geek Squad Rally" and their having joined forces with the local people to seek support. Bill Thompson assures that their strategy is centered on grassroots initiatives, benefiting communities.
Customer Centricity's GoalsDonna Fluss puts it best. A major impediment to building a customer-centric organization is the conflicting goals of the primary customer-facing departments: sales, marketing and service. Somehow, in the drive to achieve goals, each department loses sight of customers as people and sees them only as "objects" that need to be optimized. (See Figure above) Clearly, the obvious answer is to shift the focus back to customers and to align corporate goals. The problem is that when some companies have tried to standardize goals, their revenues decreased, customer satisfaction fell and loyalty dropped off, because the three primary customer-facing groups failed to cooperate.
Best Buy encourages its employees to be innovative and eager to bring about ideas through the "Idea Development Summit" every year. Best Buy gives its employees the freedom to make decisions and take action at the local level. One whole market is dedicated to selling Korean fridges in the branches because their community members in those cities happen to be Korean, and one employee was intuitive enough to identify that opportunity and divert from the SOP. Wait till you hear about the branch manager in California who hired 8 full time sign language proficient employees to target the population attending the 70 sign language schools in the area- revenue increased by 27 percent! Finally, Target's "You Spoke, We Listened" campaign surveyed students on what features they needed and Best Buy ordered the computers on those provisions.
It's all about local growth plans, about developing the communities where they're based and adopting those practices on the national level.
He ended the conversation on this note: "Try to satisfy their needs, selling will happen by on its own".
The Model Promise Phelon wrote a very interesting article on Inc. magazine, titled "Are you really customer centric?"
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Three Musketeers in a Basement: My Friday Nights in San Francisco
I find myself in one of the most exhilarating cities around the world, yet one of the coldest at this time of the year. I couldn't believe it either, but yeah, San Francisco is cold. Despite the chilly breeze that makes one mutter "zezezeeeetszee", I am inspired to go explore, find new places, meet new people and experience unforgettable experiences.
Friday nights are a bit different for me, though. They have always been. I was born and raised in Venezuela in a Jewish Orthodox home. My parents always left it up to us to decide the extent of involvement and dedication we would give the religion, while imposing in our upbringing strong values and traditions. Not surprisingly, my brothers and I chose to pursue the path of our ancestors and celebrate our heritage.
Many have a passion for their religion; I myself try to get involved not only in the spiritual side of things, but in the community building opportunities and practice of traditions. At the University of Chicago, I am the President of the Chabad Student Board, back in High School I was one of the student directors of Maccabi Tzair Miami, which a group of community members and I developed from its grassroots: Olam Hayeled.
On Fridays, Jewish people celebrate the Shabbat (Sabbath); it is customary to pray in the evening and follow by performing the blessing of the wine and the bread and having a Shabbat meal. Living in San Francisco this summer, I took advantage of the opportunity that there are numerous synagogues around and picked one of Sephardic tradition (the one that my family practices from their origins in Morocco). Temple Magain David is 40 minutes away in public transportation from my apartment! Regardless, I decided to go and check it out.
I finally arrived. 7:40 marked my watch; I was already 10 minutes late. As I entered the harmonious temple, everyone shushed and the main guy, whom I later learned was the rabbi said in a loud voice "Shabbat shalom" (good shabbos). I thought it was funny he did that so I smiled and took a seat somewhere in the middle row. Without making eye-contact with anyone, he proceeded by repeating the phrase, twice more. In seeing that no one answered, I realized that he was actually talking to me and wanted to make sure I had come to the right place. I immediately responded three times the same phrase, and everyone laughed. The prayers continued without other interruptions all the way until the end.
After the prayers, the rabbi asked me in Hebrew if I had a place to eat that night, and I said no, so he claimed that they served dinners downstairs every Friday and that I was welcome to come, eat and share whenever.
The rabbi didn't stay though. I walked down to the basement and helped a guy I was introduced to, to cut some vegetables. While I did that he took out 10 plates with different foods on them and put them on a side table, while another man helped him setup our plates. The two of them and I would have dinner together every Friday thereafter for the rest of the summer.
It's a different experience. All three of us are young, one has a room in the synagogues on Fridays and the other camps out in the backyard- it's their way of not having to walk over 2 hours to get to temple on Fridays. The food is magically there every Friday- always different, in abundance and hot. The fellows- one is an accountant who migrated from Russia, the other one is the son of two Holocaust escapees who got married when they were 15 years old and went through Argentina and Chile, until they ended up in San Francisco.
I could probably find another synagogue, with more people to eat dinner with, not in a basement… but it wouldn't make this summer as special as it is. I have my musketeer Fridays, and I wouldn't change the laughs, stories and sense of independence for anything out there.
Monday, July 13, 2009
When Latinos (and friends) Come Together… at Google!
Note to begin, that I added “(and friends)” because Google in itself is known for its inclusive culture, and our Hispanic Googler’s Network (HGN) is that much so!
The BOLD (Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development) Program is a summer internship for undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds around the United States in any of the Google offices. It brings together people of all majors, schools, colors and affinities- it brings together a taste of the world.
This year’s group of interns is fun and engaging, opportunity-seeking and driven. We are here to learn, work, network and make long-lasting relationships that will help us develop as a group and as individuals in the years to come.
I am currently an economics/international studies double major at the University of Chicago. I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela and finished High School in Miami. My family is so diverse in itself that it’s usually hard to tell people where we’re from; I’ve come to see that as a trend among many peers in our group. We all have a story, and a load of culture differences and similarities. That’s what makes us the 2009 BOLD Interns.
This past Friday, a group of interns and I, met with Alana and Luiz of the Hispanic Googler’s Network to learn and contribute ideas to what should be an exciting summer together. Many of us have already introduced ourselves through the mailing list, and joined forces with the aforementioned hosts to come up with exhilarating ideas that will mark our summers, build on our culture and strengthen HGN.
We are here, we are eager, and we are ready.
The BOLD (Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development) Program is a summer internship for undergraduate and graduate students of diverse backgrounds around the United States in any of the Google offices. It brings together people of all majors, schools, colors and affinities- it brings together a taste of the world.
This year’s group of interns is fun and engaging, opportunity-seeking and driven. We are here to learn, work, network and make long-lasting relationships that will help us develop as a group and as individuals in the years to come.
I am currently an economics/international studies double major at the University of Chicago. I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela and finished High School in Miami. My family is so diverse in itself that it’s usually hard to tell people where we’re from; I’ve come to see that as a trend among many peers in our group. We all have a story, and a load of culture differences and similarities. That’s what makes us the 2009 BOLD Interns.
This past Friday, a group of interns and I, met with Alana and Luiz of the Hispanic Googler’s Network to learn and contribute ideas to what should be an exciting summer together. Many of us have already introduced ourselves through the mailing list, and joined forces with the aforementioned hosts to come up with exhilarating ideas that will mark our summers, build on our culture and strengthen HGN.
We are here, we are eager, and we are ready.
Ashley and Luiz
Luiz, Benito, Rodrigo, David and Ashley
Introductions
Alana!
After our meeting (and getting some schwag), we headed to the ERG Ice Cream Party near the volleyball courts on main, where we had an official introduction of the other groups at Google eager to come together and share: Black Googlers Network, Asian American Googlers Network, Gayglers, etc… We mingled and ate, as any good Googler would!
I am very much looking forward to cultural food outings, Salsa competitions, networking and so much more!
Feel free to reach out to us, schedule a lunch / coffee, or even join forces in planning summer events!
To a great summer: Cheers!
David Akinin, on behalf of the BOLD Interns
I am very much looking forward to cultural food outings, Salsa competitions, networking and so much more!
Feel free to reach out to us, schedule a lunch / coffee, or even join forces in planning summer events!
To a great summer: Cheers!
David Akinin, on behalf of the BOLD Interns
Friday, July 3, 2009
AdSense For Soccer
This summer, as you'll later learn I am working at Google. I have a paid internship in AdSense, Google's ad publisher interface that allows you to make money while publishing advertisements from their AdWords customers. In AdSense everything is AFX. AdSense for X (x being, S for search, M for mobile, etc)... Today's post is about AdSense for Soccer.
I had just gotten back from a 1:1 meeting with a team leader in AdSense when three different people approached me asking me how come I wasn’t ready! Ready for what? I asked. For soccer, put your shoes on, this product manager (that’s quite a high position) answered. Now let me explain something about Google culture: here everything has codenames, so “soccer” probably stood for some software or meeting, and as any new intern, I felt out of place! So I proceeded by doing what I have always done when I feel out of place- I asked!
It turns out there was an actual soccer game. Yes! At 12:30 PM right in the middle of lunchtime, and I was probably not only going to miss the Texas themed 4th of July BBQ I was about to go to with some co-workers, but some of the meetings that followed. Agh! Who cares? My manager thought it’d be cool, I took the offer.
Now here was the problem- everyone at Google dresses really chill, I on the other hand was dressed on the business casual side, and therefore only found myself wearing one thing that would come useful for the soccer game- underwear. Where was I going to find sneakers, shorts and a T-shirt. By coincidence I had those things in a locker at the Gym, as the day before I had forgotten to take it home.
I walked out of the Gym and there was an SUV, with a driver waiting. He pulled down the window and called out- Sir, are you David? I laughed. He said, get on and quickly, they’re waiting for you. I had no idea what was going on. One minute there’s some managers near my desk asking me why am I not ready, the next a driver outside of the building awaiting me.
It was a chilled ride- he talked about how he always tried to play in a soccer league but never made the cut. I wanted to share a similar experience, until he interrupted by saying how he really admired people like me who can do business and play sports so well. I had no idea where he got that from, but the last time I was officially in any sort of sports team, must have been the 7th grade.
Anyways, we reached the soccer field, I got outo f the SUV and thanked him. Ran in to the Google Soccer Field (as big as any pro field you’ll find), and there they were. Six team mates waiting for me, in their soccer gear, anxious. Aren’t you Scott Sheffer, the Director of Online Sales and Operations for the company (that’s four people above my manager)? Yeah! He said. And you’re David the Venezuelan; we have high expectations for you. Well, I’m working really hard and networking with everyone I can, I answered proudly. He giggled. No, I mean for today’s game- given your country of origin we expect good results! There, I joined him in the laughing; mine was perhaps a nervous one. I immediately wanted to clear everything with my team mates. Guys, I am not sure why all of this is happening or why I was chosen to play this afternoon. Given my country of origin I should be good at baseball- Venezuela never made it to the world cup.
I was relieved. I finally built up the courage to stop time for a second and let them know I wasn’t Maradona. They didn’t seem to listen. One teammate padded me in the back, and the VP-level-executive (who no one ever gets to meet with because he’s so busy, but with whom I was now going to spend the next hour and a half playing sports) approached me and asked what position I usually play. I don’t usually play, I answered. He laughed, no seriously, where in the field? That was it for me, they weren’t going to believe me, then I was going to show off. I usually play Lateral Izquierdo, it’s our word for left defense. He suddenly became interested in how to say the rest of the positions in Spanish, and I made up half, but I was proud to be teaching him some things in the field, at least before the game started.
So yeah. This was all for real. The other team got there, everyone in cleats and sheen guards! Game starts. They scored, we scored, and they scored. We were down 1-2 towards the end of the first half. I have got to admit it; I was putting up a great fight! Poh, poh , puhh- a bunch of great passes and all, but this was a really quiet game for me. One who knows me, would picture me in a field screaming random Spanish things, “pasala brother”, “cheeeaa boii”, “aqui viejo, aqui” or “papi, papi”, or even running funny to scare the other players. Not this time, this was a job interview, man. Everyone in that field had a Bachelors Degree, most had a Master’s In Business Administration, and years of experience in the Google Soccer team.
Back to the game. There I was defending the left laterals of our empire, with my bare shoe soles, no protection or support; every man had a responsibility, and expectations upon him. What sucks about being defense is that you don’t score; you take the ball from the opponent and give it to your team mate to score and take the glory. I took a chance. This time I didn’t give it to my team mate. Went up the left lateral with the ball, thought it would be great to center the ball, and maybe get some credit for “putting it in a silver platter” to the delantero (forward). I shot, the ball torpedoed like never before and I scored. “cheeaaa boiiiii”, I was screaming down the field! The high executives clapping for me, impressive said one of them. The other one turned to him and answered, I told you, we were right. Wow! I cannot express the feeling of ecstasy that was running through me. I ran back calmly to my position while everyone celebrated. On the inside I wanted to explode!
The first half ended, I had tied the game, and we were ready for the second half. I asked for a longer break, I was exhausted, although they all seemed to be fine. What’s wrong buddy, a product manager asked. Man, I haven’t played since college, gotta give me a break, I told him. Why did I say that? You haven’t played since college!? College was three weeks ago for you. You can’t use that sentence, as an intern! Everyone laughed. The ice was definitely broken. Later I’d find out, everyone in the office was talking about how “I hadn’t played since college”.
The second half happened. We really got back to this game. I scored another one (I could not believe it either, don’t worry!), and we ended up beating that team 6-2, maybe 7; by that point I wasn’t really paying attention to the score- I was in my own world…
Game was over, time to get back to work. After all, I was still getting paid for playing that game. Just when I was going to jug back to my building, Scott offered a ride in his car. I took it. I call the shower first, he said. (We have gyms everywhere, and showers too. Our building had only one). I have a meeting soon, I answered. Well, I have a 2 O’clock, he answered. I pulled out my phone, went to our personal Google Calendars, and suggested, whoever is meeting with the most important person gets to shower first. Now, he was already more important than anyone I had met at the company, so unless he was meeting with a coworker of mine, I had no chances. He was meeting with the CEO…
Soccer is a game I have always loved, but not necessarily mastered. I have played at times where I am the star, but usually others outperform me. This time I went in with the mentality that I had to win, that I wanted to win, that I was ready to give it my all. True, I was getting paid to play and all, but this game could have been at anytime during the day, and I would have paid to e able to have this experience. Things sometimes happen to us and we ask ourselves why. We have to learn to let go of that “why?”, and worry more about the “how?” How can I make of this a great experience?
I had just gotten back from a 1:1 meeting with a team leader in AdSense when three different people approached me asking me how come I wasn’t ready! Ready for what? I asked. For soccer, put your shoes on, this product manager (that’s quite a high position) answered. Now let me explain something about Google culture: here everything has codenames, so “soccer” probably stood for some software or meeting, and as any new intern, I felt out of place! So I proceeded by doing what I have always done when I feel out of place- I asked!
It turns out there was an actual soccer game. Yes! At 12:30 PM right in the middle of lunchtime, and I was probably not only going to miss the Texas themed 4th of July BBQ I was about to go to with some co-workers, but some of the meetings that followed. Agh! Who cares? My manager thought it’d be cool, I took the offer.
Now here was the problem- everyone at Google dresses really chill, I on the other hand was dressed on the business casual side, and therefore only found myself wearing one thing that would come useful for the soccer game- underwear. Where was I going to find sneakers, shorts and a T-shirt. By coincidence I had those things in a locker at the Gym, as the day before I had forgotten to take it home.
I walked out of the Gym and there was an SUV, with a driver waiting. He pulled down the window and called out- Sir, are you David? I laughed. He said, get on and quickly, they’re waiting for you. I had no idea what was going on. One minute there’s some managers near my desk asking me why am I not ready, the next a driver outside of the building awaiting me.
It was a chilled ride- he talked about how he always tried to play in a soccer league but never made the cut. I wanted to share a similar experience, until he interrupted by saying how he really admired people like me who can do business and play sports so well. I had no idea where he got that from, but the last time I was officially in any sort of sports team, must have been the 7th grade.
Anyways, we reached the soccer field, I got outo f the SUV and thanked him. Ran in to the Google Soccer Field (as big as any pro field you’ll find), and there they were. Six team mates waiting for me, in their soccer gear, anxious. Aren’t you Scott Sheffer, the Director of Online Sales and Operations for the company (that’s four people above my manager)? Yeah! He said. And you’re David the Venezuelan; we have high expectations for you. Well, I’m working really hard and networking with everyone I can, I answered proudly. He giggled. No, I mean for today’s game- given your country of origin we expect good results! There, I joined him in the laughing; mine was perhaps a nervous one. I immediately wanted to clear everything with my team mates. Guys, I am not sure why all of this is happening or why I was chosen to play this afternoon. Given my country of origin I should be good at baseball- Venezuela never made it to the world cup.
I was relieved. I finally built up the courage to stop time for a second and let them know I wasn’t Maradona. They didn’t seem to listen. One teammate padded me in the back, and the VP-level-executive (who no one ever gets to meet with because he’s so busy, but with whom I was now going to spend the next hour and a half playing sports) approached me and asked what position I usually play. I don’t usually play, I answered. He laughed, no seriously, where in the field? That was it for me, they weren’t going to believe me, then I was going to show off. I usually play Lateral Izquierdo, it’s our word for left defense. He suddenly became interested in how to say the rest of the positions in Spanish, and I made up half, but I was proud to be teaching him some things in the field, at least before the game started.
So yeah. This was all for real. The other team got there, everyone in cleats and sheen guards! Game starts. They scored, we scored, and they scored. We were down 1-2 towards the end of the first half. I have got to admit it; I was putting up a great fight! Poh, poh , puhh- a bunch of great passes and all, but this was a really quiet game for me. One who knows me, would picture me in a field screaming random Spanish things, “pasala brother”, “cheeeaa boii”, “aqui viejo, aqui” or “papi, papi”, or even running funny to scare the other players. Not this time, this was a job interview, man. Everyone in that field had a Bachelors Degree, most had a Master’s In Business Administration, and years of experience in the Google Soccer team.
Back to the game. There I was defending the left laterals of our empire, with my bare shoe soles, no protection or support; every man had a responsibility, and expectations upon him. What sucks about being defense is that you don’t score; you take the ball from the opponent and give it to your team mate to score and take the glory. I took a chance. This time I didn’t give it to my team mate. Went up the left lateral with the ball, thought it would be great to center the ball, and maybe get some credit for “putting it in a silver platter” to the delantero (forward). I shot, the ball torpedoed like never before and I scored. “cheeaaa boiiiii”, I was screaming down the field! The high executives clapping for me, impressive said one of them. The other one turned to him and answered, I told you, we were right. Wow! I cannot express the feeling of ecstasy that was running through me. I ran back calmly to my position while everyone celebrated. On the inside I wanted to explode!
The first half ended, I had tied the game, and we were ready for the second half. I asked for a longer break, I was exhausted, although they all seemed to be fine. What’s wrong buddy, a product manager asked. Man, I haven’t played since college, gotta give me a break, I told him. Why did I say that? You haven’t played since college!? College was three weeks ago for you. You can’t use that sentence, as an intern! Everyone laughed. The ice was definitely broken. Later I’d find out, everyone in the office was talking about how “I hadn’t played since college”.
The second half happened. We really got back to this game. I scored another one (I could not believe it either, don’t worry!), and we ended up beating that team 6-2, maybe 7; by that point I wasn’t really paying attention to the score- I was in my own world…
Game was over, time to get back to work. After all, I was still getting paid for playing that game. Just when I was going to jug back to my building, Scott offered a ride in his car. I took it. I call the shower first, he said. (We have gyms everywhere, and showers too. Our building had only one). I have a meeting soon, I answered. Well, I have a 2 O’clock, he answered. I pulled out my phone, went to our personal Google Calendars, and suggested, whoever is meeting with the most important person gets to shower first. Now, he was already more important than anyone I had met at the company, so unless he was meeting with a coworker of mine, I had no chances. He was meeting with the CEO…
Soccer is a game I have always loved, but not necessarily mastered. I have played at times where I am the star, but usually others outperform me. This time I went in with the mentality that I had to win, that I wanted to win, that I was ready to give it my all. True, I was getting paid to play and all, but this game could have been at anytime during the day, and I would have paid to e able to have this experience. Things sometimes happen to us and we ask ourselves why. We have to learn to let go of that “why?”, and worry more about the “how?” How can I make of this a great experience?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)