“I’m very curious about people. I’m very interested in people. I’ll ask a very high-status person, ‘What was your first job? How did you get to where you are? Tell me your story… tell me about your family. What makes you tick?’ Because that also makes you more familiar to them and they are more familiar to you… you’re starting the relationship. But I’m also really interested in, wow, how does someone get to be CEO?”

“As opposed to chasing positions and titles, I was always interested in gathering experiences. I was just thinking about this the other day. You know, if someone said, ‘What is it that you want to do?’ I don’t actually have a position title in mind, I don’t have a company in mind. I know that I like to be involved in things that affect certain areas.”

“So I learned some of the tricks of becoming a ‘normal-ized’ office colleague, whether it’s music or sports… people want a common interest as a basis for interaction. From there, you can talk about anything you want. Eventually, they wanted to know about my background. But that ‘normal’ means of communication, I felt was important.”