Back in the early days of my first profession, I worked for a wireless telecommunications company, which since has become T-Mobile. I was based in Atlanta, and we were deep into deploying their towers and associated equipment. It was a huge effort on a very short timeline. We had a vendor assisting with the acquisition of property for cell towers, leasing and regulatory compliance. One Saturday, I had to run over to the vendor’s office to collect some documents (I can’t recall exactly what) and when I entered the lobby, I found an older gentleman on his hands and knees in dirty jeans, ratty boat shoes and a t-shirt, scraping stuck gum out of the carpet of the lobby. As I hadn’t been to their office before, I enquired of him the directions to where I needed to go and he helpfully provided them. I collected what I had come for, and on my way back out of the building, I thanked him and said goodbye.

I thought nothing more of that exchange until about 6 months later, as we were celebrating the successful launch of our network in Atlanta, when the president of that vendor came up to me at the party and introduced me to his father. To my surprise it was the older man who had been scraping the gum off the lobby carpet.

Turns out, he was