I should say — because this is the part that matters — I had been at my company for eight and a half years. I started as an associate. I was now a senior director. I had turned down two jobs to stay there. I was the obvious internal candidate for the VP of Strategy role when our previous VP left in May. Our CEO, a woman named Heather Mirren who had hired me personally eight years earlier, had told me privately that the job was mine "pending a proper process." The proper process took three months. At the end of the proper process, Heather called me into her office on a Tuesday in September and told me that they were going to offer the role to an external candidate. A man named Marcus Cole. Stanford MBA. Seven years at McKinsey. Three years leading strategy at a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. "The board wanted external perspective," Heather said. "I'm sorry. I know this is disappointing. We want you to work closely with Marcus as his number two." I did not cry in her office. I cried in the bathroom, for eight minutes, and then I washed my face and I went back to my desk.