There is a quote by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. that doesn’t get examined nearly enough – “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.” It’s a crucial, simple insight that I struggle to reinforce in my head: paradoxically, failure is an integral component of success.
About a year ago, a friend introduced me to Saagar Pateder’s excellent blog (another UT Student) – I’ve taken a bit of inspiration from his corner of the internet. His rejection resume, in particular, I’ll blatantly copy: it’s a fantastic concept that attempts to cut through the glossy veneer we all tend to coat on thick over the internet.
Here’s mine (updated Nov. 2023):
Miscellaneous:
Nat Friedman’s AI Grant
Universities
Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Yale, U. Chicago
Organizations
CYC, Blazers (twice), Texas Spark Magazine
Internships
Year 1
Equinor, Textron, Boeing, Redwood, Austin Growth Capital, Blue Sage, Vista Equity, Ancient Art, others that don’t come to mind.
Year 2
Blue Origin, SpaceX, AGI, Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing, CACI, NASA, Intuitive Machines, Odyssey Research, Austin Research Laboratories, Tesla, Molecula, Point72, Citadel, D.E. Shaw, Goldman Sachs, Palantir, PWC, Deloitte
Year 3
McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Oliver Wyman, Space Angels, Virgin Group (lol), Point72, D.E. Shaw, Palantir, Ruanne, Cunnif & Goldfarb, Sequoia
Jobs
(I include those that ghosted me in the second group)
BCG, Bain, McKinsey, SpaceX (so many times), Blue Origin (finally succeeded here), Boom, Firefly, Palantir, Brandes, CACI (3x), ARA, Boeing, Odyssey, Virgin Group, Boring Company, Lockheed, L3 Harris, Axiom, Anduril (2x), Tesla, Google, Redfin
TuSimple, World Quant, Akuna, DeepCast.ai, KNIME, Airbus, ARFL, Workrise, Noosphere Ventures, Space Angels, Seven Eight Capital, Privateer, Exquadrum, Q2, Relativity, Muon, Stratolaunch, Spinlaunch, Hermeus, Cesium Astro, Aurora, Katalyst (though they were nice enough to reschedule my interview after I ghosted them first..)
Awards
I don’t even know what awards I’ve been in the running for, to be honest. Don’t think it’s much of a list. We didn’t even get to compete in the 2019 Deloitte Case Competition, and I didn’t make it beyond Freshman honorable mention in the 2019 Texas Charity Pitch.
And funnily enough, after writing this list for the first time in 2022, I’m disappointed it isn’t much longer. 🙂
To Be Determined 