It Starts With Clients

Day 1 The Star of Your Show

On the third day at my new job, something stopped me dead in my tracks. It happened as I walked to the coffee machine.

I stood in the hallway outside of Scott Cunningham's office, entranced. Staring through the half-open door, I watched Scott take a phone call from the CEO of one of the firm's best clients. His feet were up on his desk, bathed by the morning light from his window. He was like a confident jungle cat, basking in the sun. For Scott, work wasn't just interesting—it was downright fun.

I had just finished business school, and that August I began work for a leading management consulting firm in Boston. Scott was a senior partner and former Harvard Business School professor. Still in his 40s, he had big bushy eyebrows and an absurdly thick head of unruly, dark hair. He oozed relaxation. As he spoke on the phone, he periodically crumpled up used Post-it Notes and pitched them into his waste can.

Why was I so taken by this scene? Because Scott was a supreme rainmaker. He had been instrumental in growing the firm from its early days. He knew lots of CEOs and other top executives, and they frequently called him for advice. When Scott wrote proposals, the project was already sold—the proposal was just a memorandum of what he had already agreed upon with the client. No competitive bids, no torturous “Requests for Proposal” (RFPs) to endure.