It's the fall of 2015. I'm excited as I turn left into Apple's HQ2 in Austin, Texas. It's the biggest corporate campus I've personally been on, but it is unoccupied since construction is in the closing stages as contractors work through the final punch list.
This is my first time coming to the site. I'm just a few months into my job at Johnson Controls. I haven't been involved in this project before today, but my boss sent me to attend a meeting. All I know is that it's a meeting to go over the punch list. I'm new, but I've already got a few of these types of meetings under my belt.
I find the parking garage, park next to the row of trucks that is typical at construction sites, and make my way through the campus. As I walk toward the building where the meeting will be held, I admire the details of the campus. It is what you'd expect from Apple: clean, high-tech, and beautiful.
I find the meeting room, open the door, and see what looks to be the board room of this campus. There is a long table in the middle that must seat over 15 people, but the size of the room makes this table look small.
Nearly every seat is taken, and the men are already in discussion. I don't know a single one of them. I double-check my watch to make sure I'm not lateāok good, I'm in the clear. As I walk toward the table, I find a chair toward the end, but as I approach, one of the guys pulls back a chair in the center of one of the long sides, inviting me to take a seat there. I guess I'll be in the middle of the action for this one.
"You the JCI equipment guy?" a burly military-looking man sitting directly across from me snipes as he hands me the punch list, clearly agitated by something.
"Yes sir", I respond.
"Good. What's going on with the VAV boxes? This shit is getting ridiculous."
The room goes silent as I feel the eyes surrounding the table turn toward me. Shit. I have no context for what's going on. No one filled me in on what I just walked into. I hardly know what VAV boxes are, and I definitely don't know how to troubleshoot issues with them. I have no idea how to navigate this conversation. So, I go with the truth.
"Sorry, I'm not familiar with this project or the issue with the VAV boxes. Could you fill me in?"
The man, who was already visibly pissed, is now turning furious as I feel the tension in the entire room build. I can tell he expected my company to send someone familiar with the situation and with answers. Instead, sitting across from him is a clueless kid who couldn't understand the problem even if he wanted to.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." says the man whose name I still don't know.
The onslaught begins. Each man at the table takes his turn berating me on the impact of these VAV box issues on their ability to complete their work and ends by asking when it will be fixed. I don't know much, but I understand construction projects well enough to understand the damage this VAV box issue is causing this group as the issues it is causing them. They also tell me this issue was identified two months ago. Two freaking months. I'd be pissed too.
I'm hopeless. I have no idea how to handle this situation. I don't know the project. I don't know these people. And I sure as shit don't know what's going on with these VAV boxes. I just want to get out of this damn room.
Several minutes pass, and the onslaught cools down as the men in the room begin to realize how truly useless I am. The group moves on through the rest of the punch list, and I get out of dodge as quickly as possible.
My mind races as I walk back to my car. Why the hell was I sent to this meeting? Why wasn't I given any context for what I was walking into? How long have we known about this issue?
I was sent because someone knew what I was walking into. Someone created this mess and knew how bad this situation was. This wasn't one of those "let's throw the new guy in to see how he does" situations. I have been in plenty of those, and this was an order of magnitude more serious. Someone didn't have the fortitude to step up and handle the problem. Neither did their boss. Not only could they not face the situation themselves, they couldn't even muster the courage to shoot me straight about what they were sending me into.
As I reach my car, I'm furious. Fortunately, I've got a few minutes to drive back to the office to cool down. And as I do, a thought hits me. These guys, the ones I work with who sent me into the lion's den, don't have the fortitude to handle this situation. They cowered away from this problem. And that means that if I am capable of handling it, I'll have something they don't. If I'm the guy who can walk into a shitstorm and come out the other side not afraid to step back into it again, I'll be able to handle problems they'll run from.
This idea fires me up. I don't know how to become that guy or how it would play out for me in the future, but I know I admire it now since I clearly loathe the opposite.
So, how would a man I admire would handle the situation I'm in right now? First, he wouldn't say a word to the guys who threw me into the lion's den. Those guys don't get to learn how that meeting played out. They'll always wonder, but they won't have the courage to ask about the details since they didn't have the courage to tell me what I was walking into. Second, he would solve the problem. Next time he's at that long table, he'd have answers.
I'm not that guy yet, but it's clearer to me now who I want to become. I pull back into the office, walk by the men who sent me to the lion's den without saying a word, sit down at my desk, and get to work solving the problem. I'll be walking back into that meeting room next week, and when I do, I'll have the answers.