WHEN YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Dear Founder,

It’s awesome that you created a company and got funding. But now what? What’s next?

Hopefully, your dream is to be a breakout. Everyone wants to be Mark Zuckerberg or Marc Benioff, but for every thousand companies started, only half will survive and only a small fraction of those will be successful enough to be considered a breakout. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle. So how do you do it?

While there’s no formula, there are individual steps on the path to success that must be followed. It all starts with aiming high. What’s high enough? It has to be amazing. If what you are thinking is not amazing, you need to step back and recalibrate and think bigger.

I had to learn this lesson in my own career. I started my career working as a security guard at IBM. I didn’t know what the future held, and truthfully, I had no idea how amazing my future could be. My worldview of what was possible for me to achieve in my career was somewhat narrow. My biggest dream at that time was to become an IBM manager and own a home. While that was a big step up from where I was, I wasn’t aiming high enough.

I always believed I was capable of achieving anything, I just didn’t think the world would let me, given my background and some of the choices I made. I think I understood that I always had to better myself, and I knew I could, but I doubted whether the system would see my unique capabilities, as I took a very nontraditional route. I was, in the words of one executive who mentored me, “an acquired taste.”

I had an unconventional childhood that was incongruous with the life I live today. My father died unexpectedly when I was seven years old. He didn’t have life insurance and my mom had to go back to work to support five kids. We lost the air conditioner, hot water, and TV—and we also lost the opportunity to dream about what could be as we were too caught up trying to get by. Things weren’t easy in school, either. They wouldn’t let me enroll in Cub Scouts if Mom didn’t serve as a “den mother”—something she couldn’t do because she worked. Since the football program cost money to join, I couldn’t play on an organized team until junior high, when it was free. When I was in elementary school, people thought I had a speech problem and that I should be in special education. Always, I was the kid without any father, without any money.

Still, I had big dreams, and I worked hard and saw the results. I won awards in school and was an MVP in football and Little League. I thought I was going to play in the major leagues. My mom was so worried that my head would get too big, she sarcastically called me “hero” as a way keep my ego in check.

No one ever spoke to me about applying for scholarships or aiming to go to college. No one expected that I could be better than good—and that I could hustle my way to great. No one told me that there was such a thing as a breakout. I was only told that I would have to take care of myself when I graduated high school. That curtailed the possibilities. While both of my parents went to college, I was the first of my siblings to get a degree. For all of us, the options felt somewhat limited.

I wish we knew then that the options were boundless. I wish I knew that we could create opportunities for ourselves, that jobs could be exciting and fulfilling—and that we each have a role in building an extraordinary life. In working, I learned:

• One opportunity could beget another, and hard work—especially volunteering for the hard jobs no one else wanted—could yield stratospheric success.

• A lot of it is about jumping in the water. A pedigree, while a good stepping-stone, is not the only way to get where you need to go. The only way to get where you need to go is to actually go for it: Show up, knock on the door, and then run through it.

• When you try and succeed, you’ll see winning is fun—and addictive. You will want to do it over and over.

• But you can’t ever become cocky. You have to learn how to win gracefully. Stay humble and live up to the hype about you.

• Remember, even if you are a breakout, it doesn’t mean you will stay a breakout. You will always have to prove yourself, again and again. With successes, you will gain the perspective that what you once saw as a mountain was just a hill, and you will realize that you still have a ways to go to reach your peak. Always focus on the next range of mountains in front of you.

Although I cleaned up over the years, I never quite looked the part to get me in through the front door. However, I learned there were still giant opportunities even when you came in through the kitchen. After a decades-long career, I’ve come to understand that what society expects you to do is not all that you can do, or are going to do.

We are all capable of more than we think we are. Dream big, and execute bigger. If you are willing to dream and then work hard and execute well, you can achieve more than you ever imagined. I wish you clarity in what you want to achieve, the willpower to work hard to accomplish your dreams, and the satisfaction that comes from knowing you gave it your all.

All the best,

Maynard