Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in a very blue-collar neighborhood. My parents were both first-generation college graduates. Without a professional network, they struggled to find work that aligned with their education.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I read “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox for the first time about eight years ago. It really helped me understand the importance of challenging conventional thinking, whether in business processes, strategy or family or relationship obligations. The key is to seek a simplified objective and then apply principles of the scientific method to glean insight and new perspectives. In my first experience holding a general management role, I applied lessons from “The Goal” to look beyond the standard metrics and explanations to really engage in the action of the business and to observe processes in order to make improvements.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Nietzsche
In business and in life, the pain that we endure varies from manageable to excruciating, but I have found that my perception of that pain has more to do with the context within which I am experiencing it and less to do with the pain itself.