I have a vague reptile memory of a Wall Street Journal or NYT profile of some business leader(maybe "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap (before he was a pariah)?) describing why he was valuable to his organization. Whoever it was answered, "I absorb uncertainty." That turn of phrase sort of turned on a lightbulb over my head because it captured in words what I admired most about my then-boss at the venture capital firm, and a couple of folks I really admired on the Pop!Tech board. The guy I went to work for at BIGLAW had it -- it's why I chose that place, although I couldn't articulate it at the time. It's a great descriptor of my current boss, the Big Guy, too.
There are a lot of smart people out there. Some of them also carry an emotional charge with their analysis -- their very good brains are good at bounding way ahead down an imaginative path toward something grand or something terrible. I'm like that by nature, can pretty easily think my way into a tizzy. In my experience, people can get blinded by that imaginative side, or, conversely, can irrationally fail to deal with problems they don't like or don't want to admit they've created.
Today I watched the Big Guy providing a fantastic service to some clients just by remaining unworried. Sure, there's some complexity here, and sure, the outcome is not certain. And there's a lot at stake -- the world will be very different if a hearing goes one way than if it goes another. But, you know, there's a difference between thinking about it and stewing about it. There's clarity that comes from someone who is unafraid to look at the world and deal with any outcome rationally, without ego and emotion and all that stuff. You can watch a roomful of people -- maybe smarter, maybe more skilled, maybe with more power to effect an outcome -- respond to some kind of invisible authority and wonderful calming force of a person with such a presence.
I will only work for those people. I just realized that as I wrote it, but it's true. When or if the day comes I leave this firm I would only do it to work alongside another person like this. And I will do my best to become one. Sometimes I get glimpses, watching clients calm down as I talk them through outcomes. But at this stage what little power I have is generally the result of reason and words, I parse out the problems, suggest we put some of them aside for later, and lay out the alternatives for those we should deal with now. The masters can do some of this just by being present, I can't describe it but I've seen it -- I still see it. I want that.
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