Their success is your success

I recently had dinner with a former intern who was now making her name in our industry. After leaving us she went to one of our vendors.

She was enthusiastic about her work as well as the opportunities before her, from new projects to being part of an inaugural industry leadership group in her state.

She is on her way to becoming a bigger success.

But here's the thing with them: interns are kind of a pain. They are young, inexperienced and full of ideas about which we daily workers are curmudgeonly.

And yet that's also the great part of having them - their fresh eyes, openness to trying things and relative lack of fear of failure make up for the pains of training someone and watching that knowledge go out the door at the end of the internship.

Every time one of our former interns moves on to something "bigger and better" we get to be a part of their success. When their star shines, it doesn't diminish ours.

The day after that dinner I bumped into a senior colleague of hers and asked how she was doing at the company. Unaware of our connection, he waxed on about her drive, enthusiasm and potential, identifying her as a key part of the team.

I got the chance to smile smugly when I said, "Of course she's so good - she was once our intern."