Among Michigan Friends: Fill & Download for Free

I went to a private boarding school (on a merit-based scholarship) in the fourth richest community in the United States. The average per capita income was $104,920, and my classmates hailed from the Forbes, Ford, and Romney families, among others.Going over to some of my friends' houses for the first time was a bit of a culture shock. They had flat-screen televisions in their bedrooms, pools in their basements, 5+ bedrooms, wine cellars, home theaters with projectors and screens that would roll down from the ceiling - it was pretty insane. A lot of them also had unlimited access to their parents' money, as well. There was one kid, my Junior year, who crashed his Mercedes one day and bought a new Range Rover the next.Be that as it may, not all of the rich and famous are above doing things themselves. One of my best friend's mothers, Lauren, was an avid gardener. She had sectioned off a large portion of her yard to grow fruits and vegetables, and whenever I came over, she would be up to her elbows in dirt, fertilizer, and plant material, happy as can be. She also did all the landscaping for their considerably large yard. This was exceedingly unusual in a neighborhood where nearly everyone hired help for all things outdoors.One day, a number of canvassers were going around the neighborhood, trying to raise funds for one politician or another, and one of them came across my friend's mom working in the garden out in front of her large house."Hello! You have an absolutely lovely garden here, miss.""Why, thank you very much!""Have you been working on it for long?""Oh, you know, on and off for the past ten years or so. Michigan winters make it a little difficult to do year-round.""I would imagine so! And I'm sure being out of work during the winter makes things a little tough."Lauren chuckled. "Well, I get by!""I'm sure! Well, I was actually hoping to speak to the lady of the house, if she's around at the moment."My friend's mom put her hands on her hips and said, "You're looking at her!"The canvasser was extremely embarrassed and spent the next several minutes apologizing profusely, and we now jokingly call Lauren "the gardener".So, I think the best things a rich person can opt out of paying for are those that involve getting your hands a little messy - carpentry, mechanical work, gardening, cleaning. These are incredibly useful skills to have, and they also serve as a reminder that nobody is above dirt.

Let me tell you a story about Daniel Inouye.The former Japanese-American internee turned Nisei Brigade soldier and war hero was lying in a bed in a military hospital and found himself surrounded by a bunch of American officers who took an instantaneous like to the young soldier with one arm and were all impressed by his intelligence and friendly demeanor.They taught him how to speak better, how to carry himself, and how to, in the words of Dale Carnegie, win friends and influence people. Among the wounded men he met were a young man from Kansas and another from Michigan. The man from Kansas was Bob Dole and the man from Michigan was Phil Hart. All three would go on to become US Senators and they were lifelong friends.Inouye went back to his home, went to college, and law school. He became one of Hawaii's first members of Congress and by 1963, one of its Senators.So it's around 1960 or so and the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, was walking with a new member of the House Rules Committee from Massachusetts, Tip O'Neill, when the Speaker saw Inouye and put his hand out and said “Congressman Inouye, nice to see you.”O'Neill was rather shocked. As powerful and brilliant as Rayburn was, the Texas Democrat paid little attention to newly elected members and knew few members outside of the Leadership, the Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Rules Committee.“Mr Speaker, it's a pleasure, I am so glad you know who I am.”“We got a lot of different folks here, but you're the only One-armed Jap we have.” Rayburn replied.Inouye smiled at the Speaker, ignored the slight, and the very ugly racial comment.Inouye had a reputation before he would become a Senator, a member of the Senate Watergate Committee, the Chair of the Select Committee investigating the Iran Contra scandal, and a whole history of other legislative accomplishments, of being insanely polite and proper even when other people would call him names, insult him, or question his patriotism and honor. It was unnerving and awe-inspiring. There was no angering him, getting him off his Game, and goading him into a pointless argument or fight. He rose above everything.

I was on the Google hiring committee for Product Management, and I can tell you what I looked for. Generally speaking, the resumes that made it to me had already gone through multiple layers of screening. The majority did involve high GPAs from top engineering schools like Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, which is reflective of the Google’s talent pool (at least in my division).However, whenever one deviated from that formula, I became more fixated on it. It usually made it to the top of the pile because that person had done something exceptional, unusual, bold, or inspiring. Those resumes were always more interesting to me, because everyone wants to be inspired by their coworkers.If you don’t have the kind of pedigree and resume that you think would secure you a spot, my advice is to be bold. Tell the story about the time in second grade when you sold a thousand cups of lemonade, or the time you used a clever technical ruse to get a date. Stories like that go a long way among that crowd, because they need inspiration just as much as everyone else. Be the weirdo. One person singing your praises to the hiring committee is a lot more powerful than everyone being lukewarm and flipping over printed packets going, “Wait — who’s Jerry again? Oh yeah.”After a few years at Google, I secretly wondered why I was working for a big corporation instead of being bold, and going after my own dreams. So when it came to hiring, courage impressed me a lot more than pedigree. It was the one thing I didn’t have, despite all the stupid feathers in my cap.Above all — remember that Google’s hiring process is designed to avoid false positives, not false negatives. They hate firing people so they want to make absolutely sure the person is a fit. In the process, they turn down hundreds of qualified people. Some of my most inspiring and brilliant friends got turned down, and have gone on to do things far greater.So be brave, give it a shot, but don’t let a rejection from Google — or any other corporation — change how you feel about yourself. Big data can’t predict anything about people. There is no algorithm for the human spirit.