I just met a high school girl

[Put this on LinkedIn, thought I'd put this here too... makes my heart feel good.]

She has the most RAW TALENT, I've ever come across.... over everyone I've ever recruited for my last startup which is currently at $26B...

So, first the obvious question, how can I claim to have a $20B opinion? I'd assert that whether anyone cares to admit it, the major corporation with an over 50% chance of having transacted the gas that hit your tank, the electricity that flowed into your computer or phone to fuel this discourse, the coffee that fuels your business pro-ness, and the OJ that puts a smile on your kid's faces was largely built, staffed, executed and innovated by your's truly.

But it's the "Securities and Financial" industry so "shhhhhhh..... let's all get quiet"... Let's just say I straight-up walked on a quarter million per year to wander the earth in sandals for half a year... It was a laugh, but I digress...

I remember being a 16-year-old bag-boy at Albertson's on Melbourne, FL when Betty DiPrima offered me her card telling me to call her for a job at DiPrima-McCluskey when I graduated high-school if I wanted pursue a career in Real Estate. Although I never followed-up on that contact, it left an impression, I was a kid loading plastic bags into a Mercedes--A MERCEDES! and at the time that was a "big deal" to me...

Betty DiPrima told me words that have stuck with me my entire career, "You're a raw talent, whatever you want and set your mind to, you'll take the world by storm." Probably not the best metaphor for an area that took three consecutive hurricanes, but oh well.

Betty DiPrima's business card handed to me fueled my conquest in many areas of business... and, yeah, I'm a MACHINE, as a consultant I've billed out at $500 per hour at 200 percent. What I took from that is that "if you're awesome, the world cannot get enough of you. Shine on you crazy diamond." Wow, are digressions a from of parallel structure? So this girl...

And I met randomly, I'd stopped for Sushi in my podunk hometown outside Atlanta around closing. Somehow it came up that my waitress was from a Stuart, FL, a small town near where I grew up.

When I said I used to party in Stuart and asked how she got to Fayetteville from there, she gave me an explanation of the multiple (failing) businesses her father was involved in with MBA-level precision and insight. She is still in high school.

The wait staff at this restaurant wears all black, however there was something about her hair band that reminded me EXCELLENCE. At first, I could not place it, so I did what I do when I find my own ignorance, I asked. She got really excited and said it is her passion. After graduating in a year, she is planning to go to Georgia State and then transfer to the Fashion Institute in NYC.

A former college from a job a decade ago is a maven of Style in Atlanta. I pulled her site up on my phone and the waitress immediately exclaimed that they share a sense of style. When I explained my former colleague's business, my waitress saw a future with fashion and immediately claimed my former colleague as her hero.

I've interviewed A LOT of people and am very good at spotting talent, she registers off my charts. I took her contact information and set an introduction with my former colleague in motion, recommending her for an internship.

I look back at the people who saw something in me and encouraged it. Their guiding and facilitating helped me finding my eventual future--as for credit, the list is too long to go through. I have a lot of personal debt, so all I can do is pay it forward--and the most satisfying is helping young folks find the path to discovering their best selves. If you are looking for a strategy to get ahead in life.... Just do that....

 

wut?

 

Did you bang that cougar, Betty DiPrima?

 

That Night Train is a mean wine...

 

Hah! I know the DiPrimas. They've been in the Melbourne area since the early 60s. Joe builds some beautiful homes.

 

Sketchy thread titleunless you are a high schooler too

 

Hey little school girl. I'm a little school boy too!

 

" I just met a highschool girl" I'm not surprised since you're a gator fan...

 

So you have a $20B opinion, a priceless ego, and $.02 worth of writing ability. You met an articulate waitress at a sushi bar and set her up with a job for no pay. Did I miss anything?

 

Great, ouch, yeah.

 

This will end badly for you.....you might as well get your teaching degree now, quickly, so you have it when arrested Makes for better national headlines

 

Hurry and get locked up so we can talk about you in the dungeon...

 

You guys are terrible... So much for my first go at a "click-bait" headline--never again. Just got off the phone with someone who I'm hooking up with a position that should doubling their salary. There's a certain euphoria that comes from hooking people up with career opportunities where you know they will CRUSH it.

It's the best feeling in the world.

 

Being a recruiter ?

 

I'm not a recruiter--and I forego referral fees. Being a mensch.

 

Doubling nothing is still nothing.

 

What business do you do that has a $26B valuation?

 

He uses jail bait as click bait