It all began with a summer job after my freshman year of college. I had a paid internship at Yankelovich, Skelly & White, one of the pre-eminent market research firms, now part of Kantar. I knew nothing about research or marketing or polling. But I knew how to work hard and to say yes to any task. During my first week, another intern and I sat in a windowless office, putting labels on 10,000 envelopes. And then we stuffed those envelopes with materials, which, when completed, returned, and tabulated would be used to gauge employee satisfaction at one of the largest U.S. paper manufacturers. So began my career in marketing research, where no task was too small.The person who taught me that is one of my dad’s oldest friends. From the day we met, I’ve looked up to and admired him. Generous to a fault, he’s a self-made man who enlisted in the Marine Corps as soon as he finished high school. After he served, he earned a degree in accounting – while working as a bricklayer erecting a suburban Bloomingdale’s store. A decade or two later, he could afford to buy anything in the store. Hard work and determination shaped the cornerstone of his work ethic. It’s one of things I admire most about him – so much so that that I adopted it early in my career. When I was struggling in a college econ class on money and banking, he called to pump me up, and pointed out that no one would ask or care about the grade I received. His advice was to keep my head down, study hard, and stay the course. It was probably the best advice anyone would ever offer me.Pointing out that no one can buy time, he’s always been generous with his. It’s all about putting others’ needs ahead of one’s own, and it’s become a cornerstone of my leadership style. It helps me ensure that individual team members are able to do what they need to do and to be successful as they do it. I truly believe that when team members are clear on the tasks ahead, and able to get those tasks done, I can succeed at getting my own work done. In other words, paying it forward always pays off.