My Best Mistake: A Mortifying Numbers Gaffe

Being asked about one's "biggest career" mistake is akin to asking "what is your favorite book?" There are so many, every week, and they change and expand over time. Like great books, they just seem to keep coming. Also like great books, within them lies the most important learning for one's career.

My first job out of college was in -- gasp -- investment banking. Then as now, young people go to Wall Street or consulting for a mix of reasons: a passion to see many new things; a desire to

make money; a business "chit" for one's resume; a clueless grasp at something (anything) we can explain to our parents. A few even actually simply love and make wonderful careers from it. In my case, it was some of all of these with the added pressure of student loans and that while I wanted to enter business, beyond my high school DJ business and some hard college jobs, I really knew nothing.

I learned a great deal, met remarkable people (most of whom, like me, moved on to other things as quickly as we could). But I learned in particular what CFO's think and a lot about deal-making and financial structuring. I learned about numbers and how the stories they told tell a lot about what is really going on when well understood. And I learned something about motivating people.

Enter Bowen Smith and a formative mistake.

Bowen was out of central casting of what is good in business -- he had served in the Navy, but never boasted about it, rose in the industry to become the leading research analyst in the world for paper and forest products, and then the most sought-after banker in those industries. Integrity came first for Bowen, then hard work. Clients sought him out not only because he was the best, but because he'd tell them they didn't need him if he thought that was true. Young professionals sought him out because he was demanding but fair.

I prided myself in being among the top of my class in our program, and shiver to remember one massive project Bowen put into my hands. We were pitching one of the largest industry players for work around a significant strategic shift they were making. They had been locked to another bank for years, and Bowen thought this was our opportunity. I understood the project, pulled together a team, pulled together what I thought was clever analysis and literally worked 72 straight hours. I was even proud to photo-copy the damned thing at 4:00 AM and hand the presentations personally to my boss and the team as they flew out.

I heard nothing. Not a word all day.

The next morning Bowen asked to see me. I was very excited, expected all sorts of kudos, maybe even a bonus as I walked into his office. But he was the only one there, looking decidedly less celebratory.

"Chris," he said, "you are a good banker and no one works harder. But the better half of valor is to be very careful in your work, have others look at it, and make sure it is right." He handed me the summary piece of the part of the work I was most proud of. It looked beautiful, I was sure it was right, and in my agitation began to defend it.

He paused, listened, and said quietly: "Just look at it. Slowly." Again I defended it, until he raised his hand. I rolled my eyes, but then saw it.

I had run a series of very important ratios that would have worked had they only affected the income statements, but I had wrongly misconnected them to the balance sheet. The math was right, but the analysis was irrelevant. A three-note chord of thoughts it hit me instantly: "I sent my boss into a crucial meeting with bad information; he would not have had time to see it until the meeting; the mistake I had made and defended suggested I did not understand the most basic principles of finance."

Bowen looked at me firmly, but his voice was soft. "We all move too fast, the industry demands it. But there are lessons here. Move slower and look at things out of the weeds; get others around you to look at your ideas afresh; learn -- keep making mistakes, but never this one."

Move slower
Look at things out of the weeds
Get others around you to look at your ideas afresh
Learn

These are four lessons I have taken with me every day. I have made new mistakes, but miss many more by paying attention to these four.

But with the four there is a fifth. Bowen was within his rights to kick my ass, even fire me. He could have humiliated me in front of the pitch team all of whom knew what had happened. But he didn't. He taught. And he inspired. And I learned and became better. And as a CEO, that's what I've tried to with my teams do throughout my career.