ABSTRACT

Dennis had always been a perplexing protégé for Tom. In their meetings, Dennis would sit on the edge of his chair and talk rapidly, quickly scrawling long notes as they talked. He would always thank Tom and say how great the meeting was. At the same time, Tom felt like there was a lot about Dennis he didn’t know. Whenever Tom would ask about what Dennis wanted out of his career at the company, Dennis would go quiet, his eyes darting around the room, before he would brighten back up and switch topics quickly, usually to an article he had just read in the Harvard Business Review. Dennis seemed to resist talking about longerterm career plans, leaving Tom to wonder why. He was about to get his answer.