Originate, Motivate, Innovate

CHAPTER 7Intuitive Decision Making

The Journey Is Real

When I first moved to the DMV area, I got a job working in the logistics office of DHL coordinating trucks and handling other similar duties. I had applied to a job at the patent trademark office with no luck, while one of my best friends from college had gotten a job offer for the patent trademark office. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. Seeing my frustration, he spoke to the hiring managers on my behalf; thanks to his intervention, the hiring managers took an interest in me and asked me to send over my resume—once again showing the value of having a champion in your corner. My friend came over to my mom's house and helped me update my resume, and then I emailed it to them.

Days went by and turned into weeks, and still I heard no response. I started feeling antsy again, seemingly having been rejected by the same team twice, but I put it out of my mind—until, one night, I had a dream. In my dream, I found I had misspelled a word in the email I sent to the group of hiring managers. When I woke, I dismissed the thought as silly, but over the next couple of days the sense that something was amiss kept nagging at me, until I finally decided to give in and check the email I had sent.

Sure enough, I had misspelled a word.

Even though it was weeks later by this point, I rewrote the sentence and sent off a follow‐up email—“I just realized that I misspelled a word in this email. I wanted an opportunity to correct it.” ...