I’m reading the Steve Jobs biography and one of the stories that really struck me was from Tim Cook.
“[Cook] convened a meeting with his team, and the discussion turned to a particular problem in Asia. ‘This is really bad,’ Cook told the group. ‘Someone should be in China driving this.’ Thirty minutes into that meeting Cook looked at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, and abruptly asked, with a trace of emotion, ‘Why are you still here?’”
[Fortune Magazine, November, 2008 Via Business Insider]
According to the book, Sabih Khan got into his car, drove to the airport (presumably via home to get luggage and a passport) and got on the next plane for China where he was based for the next little while and was promoted to one of Tim Cook’s most senior deputies. The idea of dropping everything and relocating internationally (did Khan have a family?) based on less than 15 words was so powerful, yet unorthodox, that I had to make a quick graphic.
