Welcome to Edition #91 of Gorick's newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 8 min
STORY
How the son of a janitor became a Fortune 500 CEO
In 1954, Ken Frazier was born in North Philadelphia to Clara and Otis, a homemaker and a janitor with a third-grade education.
At the age of 12, Frazier lost his mom.
At the age of 24, Frazier graduated from Harvard Law School—and became a litigator at a law firm called Drinker Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia.
At the age of 56 (33 years after graduating from law school), Frazier became CEO of Merck, the world’s 4th largest pharmaceutical company and #67 on the Fortune 500.
Fortune 500 companies employ roughly 31 million people worldwide.
500 of those people hold the CEO title, meaning that a normal person has a 0.0016% chance of becoming a Fortune 500 CEO.
Roughly 9% of CEOs—or about 45 of the Fortune 500—are lawyers. This meant that, as a lawyer, Frazier had a 0.00015% chance of becoming a Fortune 500 CEO—but made it happen anyway.
How?
By finding a mentor—and then attracting a sponsor.
The mentor he found
When Frazier arrived at Drinker Biddle & Reath, he did what he knew best as a working-class kid: work hard.
“I thought I could be successful by my skills alone,” Frazier recalls. But then his second-year performance evaluation came—and he was in the middle of his associate class.
Having gotten tip-top grades his entire life, Frazier was shocked. “It was the first time I got an average [review]. In school, I was always better than average.”
Convinced that he’d never make it in corporate law as an African American, he decided to move into a public sector job as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. But, before taking the job, Frazier sought out a second opinion. So, he contacted Melvin Breaux, the firm’s first Black lawyer and partner.
In a single conversation, Breaux convinced Frazier to stay at the firm. He also challenged Frazier’s perspective on how to build a successful career. It wasn’t that Frazier lacked competence or commitment. It was that he lacked compatibility.
“Until that conversation, I didn’t understand the rules of engagement,” Frazier recalls. “[Breaux] helped me understand that there were social aspects to being a lawyer. If you want to have clients, you have to be the kind of person clients want to be with.”
And so Frazier started building relationships with Breaux’s help—first with his colleagues and then with partners at his firm. Within a decade, Frazier was promoted to partner at a firm he had expected to quit. And it all began with a single mentor that Frazier didn’t know he could have—and didn’t know that he needed.
The sponsor he attracted
During his very first year in corporate law, Frazier got pulled into working with one of the firm’s biggest clients: Merck.
Frazier could have been like the countless nameless and faceless associates who were assigned to Merck. But no: thanks to Breaux’s mentorship, he “begged his way onto the courtroom floor, where he notched up his first legal victory on Merck's behalf.”
Frazier went on to defend Merck again… and again… and again—until he became Merck’s “point person.”
As Merck’s go-to outside legal counsel, Frazier suddenly also became the point person for someone else who’d go on to change his career and life: Roy Vagelos, Merck’s CEO.
The more Vagelos got to know Frazier, the more Vagelos “believed Frazier had greater potential”—so much that he poached Frazier for a VP role in Merck’s in-house legal team. Frazier was 38 at the time.
“Believing in Frazier’s ability to learn,” Vagelos became Frazier’s sponsor—his career cheerleader. Vagelos then “strategically placed [Frazier] in positions where he would be able to observe the firm’s operations” while Vagelos himself “used his power and influence to put Frazier into positions where he could get the experience he needed.”
In 1994—2 years into hiring Frazier—Vagelos installed Frazier as VP of Public Affairs, a job that allowed Frazier to not only be the company’s spokesperson but also work with Vagelos more closely.
But then, that same year, Vagelos retired.
In many cases, the retirement of a sponsor can be devastating for one’s career. After all, you now have to start all over again with someone new.
But no: whereas every other executive said goodbye to Vagelos and never talked to him again, Frazier applied the skills he once learned from his old mentor and did the opposite. He not only stayed in touch with Vagelos but also stayed in touch with “every exec who ever worked at Merck.”
Back at Merck, Frazier continued to attract cheerleaders.
During the tenure of the next CEO, Raymond Gilmartin from 1994 to 2005, Frazier was promoted from Assistant General Counsel to General Counsel. Frazier also not only worked closely with the new CEO, but also led Merck’s legal team to defend against thousands of lawsuits related to the “Vioxx crisis.” In the end, Frazier “saved the company billions.”
Then, when Gilmartin stepped down, Frazier continued attracting his cheerleaders—this time with CEO Richard Clark from 2005 to 2011. But because Frazier had gotten so good at building relationships, he didn’t have to start from scratch with Clark. The two had already worked together.
Under Clark, Frazier leapfrogged in his career. He moved from General Counsel to Executive Vice President (EVP), effectively turning him from lawyer to business leader. A year later, Frazier got promoted to EVP and President of Merck's largest business, Global Human Health.
By the time Clark retired in 2011, Frazier—closer to Clark than ever—became a shoo-in for CEO. The company’s press release said it all: “Thanks to the close partnership Ken and Dick have developed over the last decade, we expect this leadership transition to proceed smoothly.”
Frazier’s journey from lawyer to CEO was possible because of his hard work, yes. But he didn’t defy the 0.00015% odds on hard work or talent alone—he did it with the help of mentors and sponsors.
UNSPOKEN RULE
Find your mentors and attract your sponsors.
As we’ve discussed before with my story on legendary genetics researcher Mary-Claire King, career success comes down to 3 ingredients: skill, drive, and luck.
What Frazier taught me is that there’s a surefire way of boosting all 3, all at the same time: finding a mentor and attracting a sponsor.
What’s a mentor? It’s someone who knows something you don’t and who can help you figure out what you don’t know you don’t know—but should know.
In Frazier’s case, his first mentor was Breaux—a partner who’d go on to show him how to go from “book smart” to “street smart” in corporate law.*
What’s a sponsor? It’s someone who has the authority and access to open doors for you. They’re the ones speaking up for you when you’re not in the room.
In Frazier’s case, his first sponsor was Vagelos—the then-CEO of Merck who’d go on to get him hired and get him promoted.
*Breaux was likely a sponsor for Frazier at some point as well, though sources suggest he took on a predominantly mentor-like role.
Without mentorship and sponsorship, Frazier would have never had…
A) the skills to make it to partner and to lead a business
B) the drive that comes from knowing that he’s capable of so much more
C) the luck that comes from being at the right place at the right time
But here are the challenges:
- Few people will walk up to you, tap you on the shoulder, and say, “Hey, I want to be your mentor.” You need to find them.
- Few people would say “yes” if you walked up to them and asked, “Hey, I want you to be my sponsor.” You need to attract them.
Want to find a mentor?
1. Find someone who can see you as an earlier version of them—and ideally someone who can relate to your background, challenges, and goals.
E.g., Breaux was a fellow African American lawyer who had presumably struggled to become a law firm partner—but made it. Who’s your Breaux?
2. Give an excuse—and ideally one that they’d have a vested interest in discussing.
E.g., Frazier contacted Breaux for a second opinion on a career decision that risked breaking the pipeline of African American talent at his law firm. What’s your excuse?
3. Turn one big open-ended question into a longer conversation—and ideally one that can lead to many more follow-ups even after the meeting ends.
E.g., Frazier turned his career decision into a broader question about his future at the firm. What’s your open-ended question?
Need ideas on how to start the discussion? Here’s a card from my HOW TO SAY IT flashcard series from the Rewarding Relationships booster pack (use promo code ‘bemyvalentine’ for 15% off until February 28):
Want to attract a sponsor?
1. Ask yourself, “Who’s the gatekeeper standing between me and where I want to go?”
E.g., If Frazier wanted to go in-house with Merck, his gatekeepers were the client contacts he was working with daily. If Frazier wanted to become CEO, his gatekeeper was the outgoing CEO. In Frazier’s case, all paths led to one person: Vagelos.
2. Ask yourself, “What can I do that’d show this gatekeeper that I’m qualified to be their protégé?
E.g., If Frazier wanted to become a law firm partner, he needed to show that he was willing and capable of not just doing the work but selling the work. He needed to show Breaux—and eventually Vagelos—that his navigational skills were at least as good as theirs. Otherwise, why not put your precious political capital behind someone else?
3. Find an excuse to work with them—and continue working with them.
E.g., We don’t know if Frazier ever worked with Breaux, but I’d be shocked if they didn’t. And we already know how much Frazier worked with Vagelos: every single day.
It will take time—and plenty of trial and error—to find a mentor and attract a sponsor. After all, it takes a decade to become an overnight success. But keep at it as Frazier did and you, too, may defy the odds.
See you on Thursday for our AMA of the week!
Gorick
What’s an “unspoken rule”? They’re the things that separate those who get ahead from those who stumble—and don’t know why. You can learn more about these rules in the workplace in my Wall Street Journal bestselling book called—you guessed it—The Unspoken Rules.
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Sources:
- Ken Frazier was born in North Philadelphia
- 4th largest pharmaceutical company
- #67 on the Fortune 500
- Fortune 500 companies employ roughly 31 million people worldwide
- Roughly 9% of CEOs—or about 45 people—are lawyers
- “It was the first time I got an average [review]. In school, I was always better than average.”
- A young Ken Frazier, date unknown.
- Melvin Breaux, the firm’s first Black lawyer and partner.
- “Until that conversation, I didn’t understand the rules of engagement”
- During his very first year in corporate law
- “begged his way onto the courtroom floor, where he notched up his first legal victory on Merck's behalf.”
- “point person.”
- “believed Frazier had greater potential”
- “Believing in Frazier’s ability to learn”
- work with Vagelos
- “every exec who ever worked at Merck.”
- “Vioxx crisis.”
- “saved the company billions.”
- “Thanks to the close partnership Ken and Dick have developed over the last decade, we expect this leadership transition to proceed smoothly.”
- "My job is to make sure that 10 and 15 years from now people aren't going to say, 'Oh, do you remember Merck?'”
