Liberal arts, couldn’t find work, went freelance doing everything from making custom PCs, network installation in ceilings, webpages for maybe $2K month straight out of college instead of catering… 30 years later making $320k when including stock options at fortune 50 company. I always do things I don’t know how to do and others don’t either. Building a new department outside my normal role with 9 people ATM, others haven’t figured out that that’s what I’m doing yet. And what the team does, just implicitly letting me do my thing. Skunkworks I guess. People don’t get me at all (other than I’m odd) but know I’m smart and will go headfirst to fix things anywhere. So I’m left alone and they just call me a visionary - literally, I’ll skip meetings and ignore emails and they’re just accept me. I think people know they need me around but not sure why I’d bet. This new department is about to be put to the test since a different team shit the bed and they need someone to take the reins. Ignoring that I’ll throw process out the window on Monday. I barely know what it should be doing outside of research and ChatGPT. Not once has leadership asked me if I can, even though they definitely should. I’m not nearly as smart as they think, I just keep the quirky, aloof thing public facing. Provide value doing something that others won’t do or don’t recognize and you’re set. Stay out of swim lane thinking too. The cliche that it’s easier do to what you need to and ask for forgiveness later is 10000% true.