New Zealander founded a $1.8 billion rocket company without a degree |
Peter Beck dreamed of sending a rocket into space. In 2006, at age 28, he took a “rocket pilgrimage” to the U.S., his only experience being a manufacturing apprenticeship. Now, he’s completed more than 35 space launches and has a company worth $1.8 billion.
Success was riddled with challenges, Beck says. Getting brought into an established organization like Boeing or NASA was impossible, because, though he had experience building a steam-powered rocket bicycle that traveled nearly 90 mph, he didn’t have a degree.
He even got escorted off the premises. “On the face of it, here’s a foreign national turning up to an Air Force base asking a whole bunch of questions about rockets — that doesn’t look good,” Beck, now 45, tells CNBC Make It.
On the flight back to New Zealand, he plotted his future startup and drew a logo on a napkin. Convincing investors to back someone in an industry where he couldn’t land an internship wouldn’t be easy, but Beck was determined to turn his dreams into reality.
He launched the company, Rocket Lab, in June 2006. Three years later, it became the Southern Hemisphere’s first private company to reach space.
Beck has his precision to thank. “Running a rocket company is kind of like that scene in ‘Indiana Jones,’ where he’s getting chased by that giant ball,” he says. “You have to flawlessly execute, because the moment that you don’t, the consequences can be terminal for the company pretty quickly.” |
Get Ahead: The No. 1 job interview question to ask, says a Google VP
Having thoughtful questions at the end of a job interview can help you stand out from other candidates. But a specific one should “always” be on your list, according to Jenny Cheng, vice president and general manager of Google Wallet.
“Is there anything else that you are looking for in this role that I haven’t articulated yet?”
“Oftentimes, conversations can go so far down one path that you don’t get to cover everything you thought you would, as the interviewer,” says Cheng. “As candidates, we’re so busy trying to stay on top of the questions in front of us that few people will leave the opening to ask, ‘Is there anything else we haven’t covered?’”
Most of the time, in their response, the hiring manager will reveal something that you might not have even realized was important to them, Cheng explains. And if they ask you to clarify an earlier response or elaborate more on one of the skills on your resume, this is your chance. |
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How a 29-year-old making $187,000 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, spends his money |
Aspen Tucker, 29, lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and earns $187,000 a year as a travel nurse. His job doesn’t require a degree and he works just nine months a year. |
The best innovation trick Apple CEO Tim Cook learned from Steve Jobs |
Since Tim Cook became CEO of Apple in 2011, he’s worked to cement his own legacy — but he still admires his predecessor Steve Jobs’ leadership style. “I knew I couldn’t be Steve [when I became CEO],” Cook, 62, told GQ. “And so what I had to do was to be the best version of myself.”
That doesn’t mean Cook couldn’t take a leadership trick or two from Jobs’ book. In particular, Cook said he admired how Jobs held everyone at Apple to the same standard of creativity and boundary pushing — no matter whether they worked in engineering, marketing or any other department.
“One of the things I loved about him was he didn’t expect innovation out of just one group in the company or creativity out of one group,” Cook said. “He expected it everywhere in the company.” |
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