Why ‘Grit starts at the copy machine,’ is still great advice, according to Evite CEO David Yeom

The first three days of my career were spent in front of a copy machine. I was fresh out of college, newly hired at Arthur Andersen in downtown Los Angeles, convinced I was about to dive headfirst into the high-stakes world of auditing and consulting. On my first day, I arrived prepared to use every tool I’d just learned at school to impress my peers and superiors. Instead, I stood there for three days, copying stack after stack of audit and tax documents. Thousands of pages. One after another. “Is this what I worked so hard at school for?” I wondered. I didn’t know it then, but that job set the tone for everything that came after. Pushing through fear Arthur Andersen was not a gentle entry into the professional landscape. Peak consulting season meant routine 100-hour work weeks. The environment was demanding, fast-paced, and intense. Though the copy machine days were humbling, what came next forced me to confront a major fear. At 22, I was deeply shy. Public speaking was something I dreaded. Yet the job required it, again and again, in the form of regular client and team presentations. I found myself at a fork in the road; push through the nerves, or fall behind. So I pushed thro…