Robert Essner (Miami, 1969) [former Chairman and CEO of Wyeth Laboratories]: What's the connection between studying history and running a large industrial research corporation? And probably the content of the study of history had very little to do with it.

You know, being able to know the date of something or why something happened or understanding ancient history (Greek and Roman history) probably didn't mean that much, but the skills that I picked up learning to be an historian probably helped me: the ability to find data, to amass data, to analyze data, to be critical of sources.

In business, one person will tell you one thing. Someone else will tell you something else and, you know, with an historian's training, sometimes you can get to something that approximates the truth.

So, I think my advice would be study something that you love, study something that you'll be good at and then just from all the people that I've known in my life and all the careers that I've watched closely, talented people with energy, with some skills and with a sense of how to make their way in the world can do very well, no matter where you start.

[September 2010]