Thomas Gaither, an MBA student at UNC, spent five years in financial reporting at an investment bank before business school. A trip to Southern Africa showed him affluent MBA students beside joyful children in impoverished villages, shifting how he sees what he has. He advises stepping out of comfort zones and argues that happiness requires permission, not perfect conditions.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Thomas Gaither with us. He's an MBA student at the University of North Carolina. So welcome to the show, Thomas.
Hey Tyler, thanks for having me on.
Of course, thanks for coming on. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Spanish. Well, as you mentioned, I'm getting my MBA from the University of North Carolina, and I was lucky enough to participate in a program this past year for a global immersion. And the one that I took place in was in Southern Africa. So we went to 3 countries in South Africa, uh, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. And when we were over there, we were really focused on meeting companies, and we did a few touristy things, but we also got to go into the villages there and see kind of the real way of life in some of the poorest areas of the world, really. And it was just such a stark contrast, all of these MBA students over there who are focused on getting really high-profile and high-paying jobs and focused on schoolwork and were preoccupied with this and preoccupied with that, and meeting all these people who have just absolutely nothing, and they are the happiest people in the world. They just could not be more excited to have us over there and to show us around. And the kids were jumping all over us and they were just thrilled to have us there. And it really made an impression on us and made us kind of take a step back and think, you know, we have a lot more than we're leading on and we should probably be more satisfied with what we have.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, I'm kind of between a few industries right now as I'm getting my MBA. So my background has been in finance. I worked in financial reporting for an investment bank for about 5 years, but I'm doing my MBA program right now, and I'm also a summer intern up here in Chicago in the airline industry. So I'm kind of hitting a few different, few different areas. As a graduate student, I would say that my advice would be to make sure to put yourself outside of your comfort zone, and I think that actually applies to a lot of different aspects of life. My program is extremely social, which is not inherently up my alley. I'm more of an introvert by nature, but To really fully embrace the program, I've had to practice being more social and going to events by myself where I don't know who's going to be there, and putting up— putting yourself outside of your comfort zone really just allows you to be open to new experiences and building relationships that might not be obvious to you from the start. I'd say from an intern perspective, my advice would be to network as much as possible and to be honest with the people you're networking with and talk to them really what you want out of your career and what you want out of their company. It's get to know people and learn as much as you can about your company.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
I had two here. My manager in my last job used to tell me to make sure you always have an opinion. It's easier to teach someone something if they've proven their interest and they've stated an opinion, even if you don't agree with it. I'll give you an example. If my manager would ask me to go out and research something and come back with a solution or a suggestion as to what I think should be done and he disagrees with it, he's able to say, well, this is why I disagree with you. These are the steps I think we should take. This is why I've taken this stance versus if I didn't have anything to offer him or if I'm saying, you know, I see both sides equal, I don't have an opinion on this. It's much more difficult to teach someone in that stance. The other one that came to mind is don't keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. That's something my dad used to say to me a lot. That's, that's really hard to put into play when you work for a large or old company, but companies and economies and industries, people all evolve and you have to adapt to continue being successful.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say to stop meticulously planning out your future and enjoy what you have. I sort of talked about this earlier when we were talking about Africa, but this is something that's proven true to me, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. I think having plans and goals is healthy, but you can overdo it in a way that you might kind of— well, I think I've looked back years later and thought I felt like I neglected my surroundings and I didn't really make the most of where I was at different aspects of my life because I was so concentrating on getting to the next step. So, I think enjoying what you have and not being too anal about planning out your future.
And, in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
From what I can tell, you won't be and can't be happy unless you allow yourself to be happy. And, I don't mean in the sense kind of building off my last question, I don't think in the sense where you need to go out and make sure everything's in order to allow for happiness. I think Rather, you need to look around and see what about your life is a source of happiness. I think, like I said, I did so much planning on what could make me happy, and I've had to look back and think, you know, I actually had a lot going for me at those stages of my life. I could have been very happy. I just decided not to be. So I think you can be happy in a lot of different scenarios as long as you allow it.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
This one was kind of tough to answer. I read a lot of true crime books, so I don't— I'm usually not gaining a lot of life lessons from those. But I have sort of an unorthodox pick for this question in that I'm going to talk about Rob Delaney's book. So Rob Delaney is a comedian who's really made a name for himself on Twitter. And, in part, by just being very candid and open and honest about what he's going through and who he is. He wrote a book that's an autobiography and it's very much the same. And, he just did such a great job of putting himself out there and laying all the cards out on the table and just saying, "This is my life and I've done some really stupid things and this is who I am as a person." And, people have just loved him for it. And, that spoke to me and I think subconsciously that kind of made me think that's I should probably work to stop making, stop building myself up in a light that's maybe inaccurate. And I should be more honest with people as well.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I feel like I have two answers to all these questions, but I have two answers to this question as well. My dad, I think he likes to say this to me when he thinks it's time to kind of bring me back down to earth. He says, Thomas, I was once told, before you have kids, you don't know a damn thing about a damn thing. And he is very aware that I don't have kids. So I think he likes to use this to kind of bring me back down if I'm getting ahead of myself. I think more practically, there's a quote that I love that Michelle Obama kind of resurfaced, and it's, when they go low, we go high. And I'm sure there's countless variations before and since she said that, but I think that's such a strong and simple quote about doing the right thing, even when faced with someone who might have done you wrong. And she did a great job of kind of bringing that back to the surface.
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Best place? I have a Facebook that I'm not really on too much. I have a Twitter and a LinkedIn and an Instagram, all under my name, Thomas Gaither, or @TRGaither on Twitter. And I'm active on all those.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us.
Thank you so much.
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