Chet Kapoor is an Indian businessman who worked as an intern for Steve Jobs at NeXT. Since then he has been part of several companies, although his most notorious decision was undoubtedly when he obtained sell your Apigee business to Google for over $600 million.
He received an engineering degree from the University of Arizona, although for him the most important thing for his development was not that, but his practices with the founder of Apple. This is how his career towards success in the business world began. and so he recommends anyone who wants to achieve something like that to do so.
“The people you work with define you”
In a recent interview with Fortune, Kapoor talked about his business, his future, and most importantly where he came from. When he was little and still in India, he began to read with interest “The Return to the Little Kingdom”, a book that tells how Steve Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple and made it the giant it was then. He decided he wanted to be like them.
In 1983, he moved to the United States where, after a few years of study has been accepted for an internship at NeXT, the company Jobs founded when he was fired from Apple and paid $100,000 for a logo. He explains that he was sort of the guy’s sidekick. “Whoever brought the coffee to whoever brought the coffee,” he said with some sarcasm. Of course, always a few meager meters from the one who was his hero.
Kapoor thinks that’s what made his career so successful and he recommends it to everyone. He even goes so far as to say that you should pay to do an internship with someone who inspires you, and that this investment is much more profitable in the long term than any other what we can do
For the employer, if it is necessary to choose, it is better to invest in practices than in studies
“What I tell college graduates is find a group of people you really want to work with, convince them they need you, and then pay them to let you work for them. that you’ll earn working with really smart people will pay you dividends you can’t imagine.It’s not the company you work for, it’s the people you work with that define you.
He understands that not everyone is in a financial situation that allows him to do something like this, but He says in that case it’s even better not to race and jump straight into action. Anyway, he made one, and he thinks the best way is to combine the two, but if you can’t, better work.
“Think about it, right? College grads just paid $200,000 in tuition. And I’m talking to them at the end of senior year, saying, that’s not really a good use money. Let me tell you how they could have used it: Focus on people with whoever you work with, because it will change your career.
It is obvious that Kapoor The internship with Steve Jobs made his life so much better. I’m sure you weren’t the only one involved, and I don’t think everyone is a billionaire now. It takes a lot more: work, effort and a bit of luck. Still, it’s true that working with people you admire who can teach you and help you improve is one of the best things you can do to increase your chances of success, but nothing is guaranteed.
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