Misfit
In September of 1993, with my arrival in New York from Moscow, one thing was crystal clear — the “comfort zone” was gone once and for all. It dawned on me what a true blessing it was — this loss of comfort — only about two decades later. In 1993, everything was an uphill battle.
With barely any English, zero maturity, and a wardrobe from the Soviet days, my first work opportunity was with a group of opinionated and direct New Yorkers. Boy did they offer me a very immersive experience. Their own immigrant stories resting comfortably in distant memories, my new coworkers were “local” and I… a “misfit”.
What creeped slowly into my limited skill-set was the ability to seek and find efficiency in every task and process. I learned how to closely observe my current environment and ask “why”, repeatedly, unapologetically, persistently. “Just do it the same old way” was not enough, never satisfying. Making small but useful adjustments made work meaningful.
College came the following year. It was time to pick the “right” teachers as I observed most students discussing this “strategy” at length. “Who’s good for this one?” was a question posed and answered all around me. I think my sheer naïveté, shyness, and poor knowledge of English were a blessing in disguise. I registered for whatever was available based on my schedule and academic requirements. The interest in observing and asking “why” became even more necessary because my instructors varied greatly in character, ability, and style.
Serendipitously, Patricia Iacobazzo was the instructor in my Speech class who helped me understand the value of observation, inquisitiveness, adaptability, vulnerability, and spirit. Not only did she make me sweat profusely in front of the class while calmly pointing out the number of “ums” and “ehms” I uttered, she also gave me an assignment to deliver Martin Luther King’s famous speech “I have a dream…” in front of an audience during a competition, in a new scary language. I felt my jaws lock and my cheeks get numb because of anxiety multiple times during the first semester — especially in Speech class. All the while, my sense of being a misfit was being validated by peers and instructors. My questions seemed odd to most and my assessment of different issues presented in class often diverged from that of my peers and even instructors. I had no choice but to make this misfit persona work for me. This is why I ended up in a very small minority of students who had paid a professional resume writer when the time came to seek career opportunities. This was one of the reasons for Paul DeMatteis to have called me in early 2000… and change my life.
His decision to hire me came with yet another reminder about a label put on me. Paul’s boss was concerned that I was from Russia and wanted to put me through a polygraph test — something typically reserved for government agencies when hiring new talent into sensitive roles. Remember, this was after the “Cold War” had ended and before the relationships with Russia soured again.
I’m sure Paul grinded his teeth a few times because I knocked on his door constantly with multiple questions. Understanding how to do this more tactfully came later, sadly. Yet, his door remained open and patience never waned. In a couple of months I had written my first set of standards for improving protection of financial instruments and transactions, helped address a few crises, built relationships with OSAC analysts, took over production of all incident reporting, and found a huge mistake in our executive travel expense system. My nickname was quite proper for a misfit — “KGB”.
After a few years of learning from Paul and the rest of our fantastic team (also a bunch of misfits by traditional norms), while putting my skills to the test multiple times in corporate politics, supporting our investigations team, building counter-surveillance measures, working through a huge rush to upgrade our asset protection program immediately after 9/11, and creating the first interactive incident management tabletop exercise, an unusual challenge arose. Our team partnered with folks from several other functions to design and implement the first of its kind third-party due diligence program because our company had caught the outsourcing “bug”. While most peer organizations were relying on generic questionnaires or, worse yet, still collectively scratching their heads about prudent controls, we had come up with a risk rating system for third-party service providers and were already conducting field visits of high-risk outsourced operations before our company could sign their contracts. This was a great example of misfits at their best — asking “why”, using lateral thinking, and coming up with innovative solutions.
Fast-forward a couple of years, my first assignment as a consultant was to review asset protection controls at a huge international law firm. My misfit skills helped once again when I delivered a draft report to my boss and mentor for review. Aside from traditional protection measures he expected me to cover, I included findings about the firm’s information protection and financial management controls. He was skeptical, but let them through to the client. It was good to receive their baffled but appreciative comments. Looking at vulnerabilities in these areas hadn’t even occurred to them. One of the vulnerabilities was related to leased computers for field case management and no protocols for wiping data off hard-drives in these machines before returning them to the leasing vendor. This helped me understand that lawyers — with all their education and intellect — were just people like the rest of us.
Moving to Asia was yet another test of my misfit acumen. When a large international company suffered an IP loss, they asked for help with starting up their IP / trade secret protection program. Our first meeting was a bit intimidating— a team of several PhDs headed by the global divisional president. My colleagues and I started breaking down the client’s key IP into individual tangible pieces and processes. It was a new undertaking for everyone because until our meeting the client team treated their IP as a single piece of information. About 15 minutes into our exercise I noticed how the scientists in the room leaned in… wideyed. We all were looking at one of the processes for the manufacturing of the final product. One PhD pointed a finger at the whiteboard and said, “I can literally syphon the entire IP at this juncture — there’s no protection here whatsoever.” …Bingo!
Why am I sharing all this?
I have written before about the danger of labels. They create unnecessary adversity for any recipient and demonstrate mental laziness of those who apply them. I’ve been exceptionally lucky to have figured out a way of using my “misfit” label to help solve different problems and learn from diverse sources of knowledge. Imagine for a second if a label given to me had been “naysayer”. This is why I’m trying to help the next generation of young and aspiring professionals in asset protection and other fields to avoid using labels and to dismiss them for the benefit of their personal and professional development.
However, labels are still alive and well in the asset protection industry. They distort qualifications of excellent talent and reduce practitioners’ ability to accept and understand diverse opinions, thus negatively affecting continual learning and overall progress of our profession.
I’ve had and continue to have an “uphill battle” as a practitioner and as a person because of labels put on me out of convenience (or mental laziness) and with limited perspective-taking. So, in 2020, my call to action for professionals in asset protection and beyond is as follows:
- Always assume positive intent. This will help you better connect with others and understand their perspective.
- Learn “label” words and build a habit of stopping yourself whenever you’re tempted to use them. Your interactions will be kinder and deeper as a result. To learn about habit-building, go to www.jamesclear.com.
- Read / listen to: (a) “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell, (b) “Growth Mindset” by Carol Dweck, (c) “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, and (d) anything by Brene Brown.
- Study design thinking at www.interaction-design.org or through other sources such as the d.school at Stanford.
Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2020.
Thank you for your attention.
Soar above mediocrity!
