This is very true in my experience. I can recognize the "People don't respond naturally to qualifications. They respond to getting their personal interests and

This is very true in my experience. I can recognize the "People don't respond naturally to qualifications. They respond to getting their personal interests and desires satisfied." everywhere. Of course a very bright engineer will naturally achieve some success, but there will always be a bar limiting his growth to how much people who can open new doors want him around and trust (in a very personal sense) him.