“It’s not about how many times you get knocked down; it’s about how many times you get back up.” – Richard Tait, co-creator of Cranium
An entrepreneur turns down McKinsey to start a tech company; now his startup has Hearst, Gannett, Time Warner Cable, and AOL as customers
It’s when you take that leave of absence or quit your job to focus on the startup full-time that it becomes real. – Roger Lee, president at PaperG
What a healthcare PhD learned at McKinsey about “relationship capital” that helped him create a new career as a Ruby on Rails software developer
“Part of job satisfaction is knowing that you’re doing a really good job.” – Adarsh Pandit, thoughtbot
How a former Peace Corps volunteer addressed criticisms of “selling out” to Wall Street, and now leverages his finance and consulting experience to serve as a mayor
“One of the important messages Harvard imparted on all of its graduates was that you should focus on tri-sector competence.” – Yiaway Yeh, Palo Alto mayor
Why this cardiologist left medicine for the business world, and how one of his patients who died defined what matters most to him
“Just listening and communicating, even if it takes some extra time out of your day, is extraordinarily important.” – Tarun Mahajan, doctor and BCG consultant
Why this engineer and beauty pageant winner left McKinsey to pursue acting and modeling (and how she got her foot in the door while working full-time at McKinsey)
“Acting for me is the craft of self-exploration, and it’s the study of human nature.” – Melanie Kannokada, actress and model
The biggest entrepreneurship lessons this science major learned in two failed attempts starting a company, before nailing it the third time with a multi-million dollar venture-backed food startup
“In a startup, there are many situations where you just don’t know what you’re supposed to do because you’ve never seen it before. But it’s also really exciting because you get experience you may never get in a traditional job.” – Kevin Yang, EAT Club
How a recent college grad started with nothing but a vision, and in 4 years built one of the most prominent education NGOs in China (and convinced Teach For America’s founder to join her board)
“People don’t tell you how much the world is slanted toward ‘no.’ The number of times we heard ‘no’ when building Teach For China was huge.” – Rachel Wasser, co-founder of Teach For China
How an engineer and McKinsey alum found his career passion in global health at the Gates Foundation
“I’ve realized how important it is in interviews to craft a story that conveys how your career transitions fit into a larger plan.” – Wilson Mok, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
How this liberal arts major found a finance trading job by networking with female traders on Facebook, then left the industry to shoot a documentary and start a company in microfinance
“I think I felt I had to do certain things coming out of school, but quickly realized that wasn’t the life I wanted to live.” – Rachel Cook, Microlending Film Project
