Recently, I saw a familiar face in the news — this person was appointed as a leader of a major global corporation. And I remembered that I had interviewed him at McKinsey!
Before this interview, my manager told me, “Be careful! He is not known to be very nice.”
Anyway, I started the phone interview and every time I asked a question, he would respond with a counter-question (e.g., “What does your question really mean?”).
Clearly it was to put me in my place and show how little I knew. But honestly, it was so unnecessary! Which rookie consultant in a new sector has any idea about what they are talking about?
But this was not the only interview I did — I spoke to a dozen experts and almost all were very respectful, except for two. Incidentally, both of them have thrived in their careers, especially this person.
But haven’t we been told that nice people are the ones who succeed in life? I think many successful people are genuinely nice but a non-trivial percentage are not. In reality, all kinds of people succeed for all kinds of reasons.
Then why should we be nice to others?
Because we can. Because we wanted others to be nice to us when it mattered.
Whether it helps us or not is irrelevant.
– Rajan