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Great story, but how do you get into this kind of "deal"? I believe that most engineer would be able to come up with a reasonable way to manage an airport, may

by siscia 10y ago

Great story, but how do you get into this kind of "deal"? I believe that most engineer would be able to come up with a reasonable way to manage an airport, maybe with more dumps that our heroes, but still I believe that most of us will be able to dig themselves out of the problem. But then, how do you get into it? You need tons of money and wealthy/powerful people that trust you, how do you get that trust?

jtmarmon 10y ago
...become "the former head of General Electric’s infrastructure business and Jack Welch protégé" probably
gizmo 10y ago
If you're not born into it your best bet is to go to an ivy league, preferably Harvard or Yale, study business or law, and make the right friends. Being born into it is easier, though.
- elastic_church 10y ago
  > Being born into it is easier, though. because then you get to keep your youth while you have the respect as well.
retube 10y ago
These are engineers who have reached very senior levels in large industrials, have prob 20-30 years experience, are responsible for large operations or assets, and are known for significant achievements in their domains.
- gukov 10y ago
  Success breeds success Wanting the skip all of that and just get a cool billion dollars because you have a big idea is naive, to say the least.
whorleater 10y ago
> You need tons of money and wealthy/powerful people that trust you, how do you get that trust? How does anyone do anything big? Get lucky with parents/work hard and network with the right people/start ambitious projects/some or all of the above.
hibikir 10y ago
When we fix software, we know that full rewrites are bad ideas, and that the way to success is to make easy changes until finally you end up with a better product. This is true because failing, for any amount of time, is a terrible outcome. However, when it comes to moving upward for bigger opportunities, the opposite is true: Little is gained by very slow grinding. Wondering how to get all wealthy people to trust you is the wrong question: What you want is ONE wealthy person to trust you. 300 failed pitches don't matter. You just want to succeed once. Therefore, my strategy is to aim as high as you can, be ok with a bunch of failures, and once you have success, consider whether you can use it to aim even higher, now that you have established a higher baseline. It's better to have one resounding success an 50 failures at convincing people that never failing, but aiming way too low.
- siscia 10y ago
  That is a great point! I do agree that shooting for the stars is the way to go, but I still find it difficult.

by siscia 10y ago

jtmarmon 10y ago

...become "the former head of General Electric’s infrastructure business and Jack Welch protégé" probably

gizmo 10y ago

If you're not born into it your best bet is to go to an ivy league, preferably Harvard or Yale, study business or law, and make the right friends. Being born into it is easier, though.

elastic_church 10y ago
> Being born into it is easier, though. because then you get to keep your youth while you have the respect as well.

retube 10y ago

These are engineers who have reached very senior levels in large industrials, have prob 20-30 years experience, are responsible for large operations or assets, and are known for significant achievements in their domains.

gukov 10y ago
Success breeds success Wanting the skip all of that and just get a cool billion dollars because you have a big idea is naive, to say the least.

whorleater 10y ago

> You need tons of money and wealthy/powerful people that trust you, how do you get that trust? How does anyone do anything big? Get lucky with parents/work hard and network with the right people/start ambitious projects/some or all of the above.

hibikir 10y ago

When we fix software, we know that full rewrites are bad ideas, and that the way to success is to make easy changes until finally you end up with a better product. This is true because failing, for any amount of time, is a terrible outcome. However, when it comes to moving upward for bigger opportunities, the opposite is true: Little is gained by very slow grinding. Wondering how to get all wealthy people to trust you is the wrong question: What you want is ONE wealthy person to trust you. 300 failed pitches don't matter. You just want to succeed once. Therefore, my strategy is to aim as high as you can, be ok with a bunch of failures, and once you have success, consider whether you can use it to aim even higher, now that you have established a higher baseline. It's better to have one resounding success an 50 failures at convincing people that never failing, but aiming way too low.

siscia 10y ago
That is a great point! I do agree that shooting for the stars is the way to go, but I still find it difficult.