Without These Opportunities to Prove Myself, I Wouldn't Be Where I Am Today

With summer jobs on the horizon, professionals recall the first jobs that launched their careers. Read more, then write your own #CareerLaunch post.

The best teachers you meet in life won’t always be in a classroom.

When I think back to the start of my career, many of the most valuable lessons I learned came from people I happened to meet. They gave me an opportunity, invested in teaching me, and provided the tools I needed to succeed.

One of the first was Guido Loayza. I was fresh out of college and found myself sitting next to him on an airplane. We got to know each other during the flight. By the time we landed, Guido offered me a job as his second-in-command at the Bolivian Soccer Federation.

He taught me so much about leading an organization, working in a high-profile position, and inspiring members of a team to do more than they ever thought they could do. That chance encounter led not only to my career success, but to a lifelong friendship. I’ll always be so thankful to Guido for seeing the potential in me, and for serving as my mentor.

Another who comes to mind is Enrique Darer. A couple of years after graduating from college, I walked into a Boston-area shop to buy a new cell phone. Enrique, who owned the business, helped me sign up for service. As we talked, I learned Enrique was interested in selling his store.

I was just beginning my career and didn’t have the money to make such a substantial investment. But, like Guido, Enrique saw something in me and was willing to give me a chance. He agreed to let me to take over the business and pay him back over time. Perhaps most importantly, Enrique taught me everything he knew about the mobile phone business.

Enrique accelerated my start as an entrepreneur, and he is, to a great extent, the reason I have been in the wireless industry for more than 20 years. I went on to create and grow the largest global wireless distribution and services company in the telecommunications industry. And now I’m leading one of the largest wireless carriers in the United States as CEO.

Guido and Enrique met me before I proved what I could do. Yet, they saw the potential in me, gave me an opportunity, and were willing to teach me what they knew. Simply put, this was life-changing for me.

I’ve thanked them many times over. But when I consider their amazing generosity, it always seems like thanking them is not enough. So I’ve always tried to follow their example and act as they did by paying it forward by giving opportunities to others who are early in their careers.

Whether you own a small business, are a manager in a larger corporation or are a CEO, many of us are in a position to provide these types of opportunities to someone just getting started. Maybe it’s a job, or the chance to lead a big project. Then it’s up to them to do something with it — to earn their success with dedication and hard work.

Few things compare to the satisfaction of seeing someone take on a huge challenge and succeed in a big way, not to mention helping them develop their skills and build character.

I’m sure that, at the time, Guido and Enrique had no idea they were doing something that would change my entire life so dramatically. Every day I hope to make them proud of their decision to invest in me long ago.

More posts on this topic:

• “Here’s the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered” — President Barack Obama
• “How Winning This Contest Changed My Life” — Oprah Winfrey
• “My First Job Lasted One Summer — But It Changed the Way I See the World” — Katie Couric, Yahoo Global News Anchor  
• “Dream Big But Be Humble: Lessons That Led Me from the Factory Floor to the Executive Floor” — Ralph de la Vega, Vice Chairman of AT&T, Inc.
• “Before I Became a Stylist, I Sold Shoes at the Mall. Here's What I Learned.” — Rachel Zoe, CEO, Rachel Zoe, Inc.; Editor-in-Chief, The Zoe Report
• “What Designing a Shampoo Bottle Taught Me About Business” — Meg Whitman, CEO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• “Just Starting Out: The Life-Shaping Potential of Our First Jobs” — Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief at The Huffington Post Media Group
• “What I Lacked in Qualifications I Learned to Make Up with Courage” — Suze Orman, television host and motivational speaker
• “Practice Makes a Career” — Bernard Tyson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente
• “What I Gained from Choosing the Rocky Road” — Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations
• “Summer Jobs Are Your First Shot at the ‘Grown-Up World.’ Soak Up as Much as You Can.” — Adena Friedman, President and COO at Nasdaq
• “I Used to Hate Doing Stand-up. Then I Discovered the Power of Showing Up.” — Chelsea Handler, Executive Producer and Star, Chelsea Does at Netflix
• “Delivering Papers and Working as a Security Guard Taught Me How to Hustle” — Maynard Webb, Chairman, Yahoo!; Former COO, eBay
• “My First Career Lesson: Know When to Ask a Stupid Question” — Jon Fortt, Co-host of CNBC’s Squawk Alley
• “Be Curious. No One Limits Your Career But You.” — Marcus Samuelsson, Chef and Author at Marcus Samuelsson Group
• “Setting the Stage: How a Hollywood Internship Jump-Started My Career” — Sam Shank, CEO and Co-Founder at HotelTonight
• “Everyone Should Have Access to That First Job” — Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama
• “Remember Your First Job?” — Tom Perez, Secretary of Labor at U.S. Department of Labor
• “Employers: Young Workers Are Your Diamonds in the Rough” — Maria Contreras-Sweet, Administrator at US Small Business Administration