College was easy for me. I seldom had issues understanding what was being taught. This gave me the luxury of putting in only the amount of work I cared to. I diligently studied the courses the interested me and got an A grade, while sauntering through the others and being satisfied with a B grade. I was in for a reality check.
When I started at Lehman, I would similarly do stellar work on the things that interested me and a half-assed job on the rest. I quickly found out this wouldn’t fly. I was entrusted with work that had implications worth millions of dollars. And unlike college, which I paid to attend, here I was being paid a lot of money to produce this work. The message was clear: “There’s no room for B-grade here.”
I’ve since taken that message to heart and it has become a way of life for me. Whenever I take on a role, I do it with a sense of ownership, responsibility and pride. Either care enough to do an A-grade job or find something else to do.