Throughout his career, Robert F. Smith hasn’t shied away from making big decisions and taking risks; and the results have been spectacular.
In 2000, when Smith left Goldman Sachs to start his own private equity firm, a few eyebrows were raised—why would anyone ever leave Goldman Sachs? Fast Forward 20 years later and his firm Vista Equity Partners has more than $57 billion in capital investments, and Smith himself has a net worth of more than $5 billion – making him one of the world’s richest people. In short, he knows a thing or two about success.
After graduating from university with a degree in chemical engineering, and a masters in business at the University of Colombia, Smith worked at various companies including Kraft General Foods, where he gained four patents; two in the US and two in Europe. After, in 1994, Goldman Sachs, the elite investment bank, came calling, and Smith accepted. At Goldman, he worked in the bank’s tech investment banking branch in New York and then Silicon Valley – he advised household tech companies such as Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft on over $50 billion of mergers and acquisitions activities. Smith knew his talents and his niche, and Goldman gave him the platform to showcase them. He became the first person at Goldman to focus purely on mergers and acquisitions of technology and software companies.
For most, being in charge of their own division at one of the world’s most recognised and celebrated institutions would have been enough; but for Smith, he had the skills, potential and knowledge to do more—his mind was made up, and no one was going to change it. He left Goldman and set up Vista Equity Partners with Brian Sheth in 2000.
At Vista, technology is King
Smith’s private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, focuses solely on technology and software companies. It invests and develops businesses focused on using tech to create value, new businesses, or helping to solve some of the world’s issues. Today, Vista Equity Partners is one of the world’s largest and most well known private equity firms – it has over $57 billion in capital investments. At first, when he decided to create his own firm, eyebrows would have been raised—some may have even laughed under their breath. 20 years later and Smith has undoubtedly proved his critics wrong.
So how did he do it? Here are 5 pieces of advice he gives to all young professionals, and which you’ll need to follow:
1. You need to recognise and use all your skills
By his own admission, Smith used his diminished hearing in one ear to heighten his other senses – making him more focused and increasing his attention to detail. Understanding and evaluating your skillset is important; it will let you know what skills you have and more importantly, which ones you need to improve or acquire. It will also give you a very good indication as to who you need on your team, depending on what skills they have.
Taking a good long look in the mirror and asking yourself what skills you have, and which ones you need to improve or acquire is no easy task – in interviews, it’s the one question most people find difficult to answer. No one likes examining their abilities in detail, but it’s something that’s very important if you’re to become as successful as Robert F. Smith.
In appraising your skillset, one thing is needed above all: Honesty.
2. Give yourself the best chances of succeeding
In our how to get a job in recession article, we told you to pick growing industries when looking for jobs—and Robert F Smith agrees. After all, great minds think alike.
To achieve the level of success that he has, you’ll need to give yourself the best chances of succeeding by picking promising sectors and business industries which are projected to grow in the long-term. For Smith, one of those industries is software technology – “where vast wealth is being created is with private companies in software technology” he said, in an event with young professionals. And by all indications, he’s right. In the current economic climate, software companies continue to dominate markets, create new and innovative products, whilst making millions and billions of pounds for their all-important shareholders.
To capitalise on the technology boom , Smith thinks you need to learn about “computing power and connectivity since every company will be facing this dynamic change”. By focusing on growing and promising industries, you’ll give yourself the best chance of coming up with innovative products, services or solutions that create demand.
3. Learn to take risks
By leaving Goldman to start his own venture, with no guarantee it would turn out well, Robert F Smith practised what he preached. For Smith, taking risks whilst you’re young is even more important. Smith liked to solve complex problems, and he wanted to make a career out of it; he only discovered that by taking as many risks as he could.
From consistently calling about a position he applied for, to leaving his engineering career to get an MBA from Colombia Business School (a move that would ultimately make one of the world’s richest people), Smith has consistently taken risks. “So what makes me tick? I didn’t want to be ordinary. I wanted to create something that had not been done on this planet,” Smith said. Taking risks doesn’t mean jumping into any and everything – that can be as detrimental as not taking enough risks. In Smith’s words, “take thoughtful risks”.
4. Recognise the importance of diversity, and work to increase it
In the wake of recent events, diversity has become increasingly important to companies – from large banks to technology titans, everyone is looking at ways to increase the diversity of their people.
For Smith, black professionals and entrepreneurs have a big role to play in increasing diversity. Like others, Smith’s rationale for stating Black professionals have an important role to play is easy to understand: to become successful, you first have to get through the door. As such, Black professionals have a role to play in helping people ‘get through the door’, not through favouritism or giving people easier paths, but by creating processes and institutions which value equal opportunity above all else.
“We must get as much mass pushed through the system by opening up the process as wide as you can. We need to take that approach instead of going retail in which corporations only select one or two exceptional students from elite schools”. By doing so, the traditional way of hiring people will be dismantled and diversity, which allows for companies to come up with innovative and profitable ideas, will be achieved.
5. You’ll need to make sacrifices
It’s no secret that to achieve success, the like of Smith, you’ll need to make some sacrifices – for some, it might mean giving up the weekly Netflix binge and for others, it might be something more serious. For Smith, it was work-life balance: “Our world isn’t designed for spectacular success and a balanced life” he said in an interview.
That might not be a sacrifice you’re willing to make, and that’s perfectly fine – everyone is different in what they desire.
Robert F Smith made some sacrifices and by all accounts, it turned out well. Who knows, you may be next; and we’ll be the first to write about it.
After reading this, you may go looking for a new role. Here’s how to get a job in a recession