Start with the one who did everything right.

Best public school in the county.

4.1 GPA.

Her parents framed and hung her SAT score above the fireplace.

Four years at the university that was a reach for most.

The right internship.

The right recommendation letters.

A top-tier graduate program, from which she finished with honors, awarded her a diploma and $187,000 in debt.

She climbed the ladder in the exact sequence the system promised. But she graduated into a job market with no room for her, and took an entry-level role requiring an undergraduate degree and paying like it did not, while the interest on her loans compounded faster than her career.

Her support system told her credentials were armor.

They were wrong.

But she is here now.

She is the fastest learner in the room.

She has spent her entire life performing at the highest level within structures built by others.

Now she is learning to build her own future because she must…

We’ve spent our lives learning to do work that computers simply couldn’t do, yet.

Companies are becoming tech stacks.

We are all becoming companies.

- j -