The Billionaire’s Right Hand

Let’s consider a real-world example of what a humanities-trained professional brings to the table.

Understanding the relationship between people is key to being a good mediator
Image courtesy of Pexels.

Recently, I was part of a meeting to help resolve a catastrophic business and technical problem that had been created over years of neglect. The meeting had quickly become acrimonious, with managers blaming each other for everything from blatant incompetence to outright fraud. Meanwhile the owner of the business, who was clearly not able to follow the deeper technical issues being argued about, seemed just as paralyzed by the anger and frustration at the table. Meanwhile the business was at a standstill.

I had been asked to present a technical solution to this complex problem, but it was clear that feelings and emotions were the priority. I had brought my son along to just listen in and learn a few things. He has been shadowing me this summer while he is home from college. I had not intended for him to take part in the meeting, but at the point when it looked like pens were going to be thrown across the table, he motioned at the owner, as if to ask for permission (without really receiving it), and then he stood up and asked if he could speak.

Now up to this point everyone was still seated, so his decision to stand was a surprise to everyone. Likewise, he was unknown to everyone, much younger than every gray haired expert in the room, tall and skinny but with an athletic built, and wearing a dark blue polo shirt with a bright Cal logo – it was the only “nice” shirt he had brought home. …And for that brief critical moment, the entire room fell silent – I was as stunned as everyone else and ready to usher him out of the room at the first sign of trouble, but that would not be necessary.

After a pause that seemed far too long, he spoke softly and said: “So, what we are all in agreement on is that the previous management team made a grave mistake that resulted in one team receiving more funding and consequent growth than the other team, and this imbalance grew over the past several years…” he then paused again to ensure he had everyone’s agreement; one person even nodded. He then continued: “…then what David here is simply trying to propose is to use this excess to repair the imbalance, and this will require everyone to agree to work together to make that happen.”

At that point, I was more stunned at the fact that he used a first name, than the fact that he had just synthesized at least a month’s worth of bitter communication on this issue, culminating in this contentious meeting, into a single sentence. Now there was quite a bit more discussion after that and my son spent the next hour slowly bringing both sides together, but in the end, everyone walked out of the meeting like they now had a path forward to solving the problem. I even overheard one of the engineers walking out asking: “Who was that guy?”

Who Was That Guy?

My son was a typical teen in high school. He played soccer, worked hard for good grades, and his academic interests were primarily in English, foreign language, history and social sciences. After highschool he attended the local community college, took the requisite STEM classes to get by, but continued focusing on his main interests. He did however, join a competitive debate team and eventually received his associates degree with top honors. This allowed him to enter Berkeley where he is now completing his bachelor’s degrees in history and Dutch language. He is also on the archery team and president of the Dutch club on campus.

To say that we regularly have to answer the obligatory “So what does he plan to do after college?” question at every social event would be an understatement. Here’s what everyone fails to see. As a humanities major he is studying how people get along, in his case, how people have been getting along for centuries. That is something you don’t need to be born with, it is something you can learn. Some do it by studying psychology, some with a foreign language, and some with art. These are all social sciences and they teach skills that are critical in business, government, medicine, and yes also technology.

At those dreaded social events, I could tell them that my son’s true focus is the historical, cultural, and economic history between the United States and Europe and that he is looking to parlay that into becoming the preeminent expert in this field. This could flick on the switch on that lightbulb, but that’s too long of an explanation at a bustling party with alcohol, music, and appetizers too good not to be a distraction. So, we just leave it at: “He’s studying history and Dutch language” and, unless they are truly interested, we move on to the latest soccer scores.

Now, my son knows enough tech and business to stand up in this meeting, synthesize the major arguments down to their core components, and recommend a path forward. He does not, however, have the skills to do those things himself. That is for the engineers and accountants in the room to figure out, but that is not why he was in this meeting in the first place. Actually, he wasn’t really supposed to be there, but even I was too wrapped up in the technical details to see what was needed at that precise point and time. What was needed was someone to break the tension in the room, calm everyone down, speak with authority to move the meeting forward, and then bring everyone in agreement to work together to resolve the problem.

This is not an Indictment of STEM

My late father was a brilliant engineer who worked for two of the top medical systems corporations in the world. He eventually moved into management. In that role, he would be the deciding role in hiring newly graduated engineers hoping for a job at these prestigious companies. He would ask the applicants a simple question: “Can you describe to me how a transistor works?” or the one question he would always ask me: “Can you describe the law of ohm?” Ironically, very few of these engineers with impressive resumes, skilled in the latest bio tech and computer advances, could actually answer this question.

Studying STEM at the university level is not just about numbers and physics. Likewise, studying business and economics isn’t either. Those skills are the basis, but a true education is about how that basis fits into the world. That is something that is learned both inside the classroom and outside of it – it is the ability to bring those two worlds together and do something useful with it. Those are the people that succeed out of college and into successful careers.

The same is true for the humanities. Anyone can go to a university and immerse themselves in Plato’s Phaedo, the origins of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, or Malevich’s Suprematism in Kandinsky's art. The bigger skill, however, is to be able to take that knowledge and use it in the latest Peloton Marketing proposal, the strategy for JPMorgan Chase’s foray into tokenized blockchain funds, or the campaign to elect James Talarico as the first democratic senator in Texas since 1988. Those humanities graduates who can do that, just like the engineers who can explain a transistor in plain English, those are the ones who will succeed in any field they choose to work in.

What Owners, CEOs and Billionaires Need

The owner of this company didn’t have someone on their management staff with those skills. As with most small tech companies, built up with an amazing idea by a single brilliant engineer who eventually became the owner, the management team was made up of engineers and accountants, all smart and well educated in their own fields. That is what  the owner understood and knew, so he hired people of like mind.

When he started the business, literally out of his own garage, he hired his buddy from college to be his second-in-command. He wasn’t happy with his other corporate gig, so he was more than eager to move over. He worked in this business for another 15 years and then retired to a lodge in Tahoe. Over time, as the business grew and they moved into an office building, the business hired more brilliant people that had the same skills.

For the first few years, the business continued to grow. Everyone who worked there was satisfied and things were good. It grew into a bustling “small” business, the kind that dot all of Orange County, CA where I offer my services. Because everything was looking up, they did not notice the imbalance that grew in the business. After all, everything was going well. Even as the problem slowly became more apparent, everyone just assumed that someone “at the top” was handling it.

That was the way the business ran… until the day it came to a screeching halt. They would like to say it was a surprise, but it really wasn’t. Now they were stuck and they needed something, or someone, to get them unstuck. They needed someone who could see the simplicity of the actual problem, present it in an orderly way, and convince the entire team to work together to solve it. What this business owner needed was a capable right-hand-man (or woman).

Now we just dropped our son back off at college. He won’t be working for this business owner. He might not even work for any business owner. Maybe he’ll pursue a career in an entirely different field. We don’t yet know. What we do know, however, is that he is learning valuable skills, skills that thousands of other students are learning in the top colleges and universities in this country. Even many STEM students could be learning these skills, but these are skills that are primarily taught in the humanities. They are the ability to understand how people get along and to use that ability to get them to continue to get along.

Well, that was my attempt to synthesize this article into a single sentence. Hmmm, maybe I should ask my son for some pointers on how to express that a little better…