Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / The Self-Sufficient Mindset A&T Builds | Wesley Grammer
Transcript
- Malcolm: So what's something about not generally not HPCUs in general, but what's something specific about ANT? That has shaped how each of us has approached engineering or work. And yeah, I can go ahead, take it, you know, whenever. Wesley Grammer: Thomas, you wanna get started? Thomas: yeah, I I I can answer. how it shaped my approach to engineering or work, honestly, just to not wait on people. my experience at AT. Like, and you know, in school they always talk about teamwork and and rely on your team and you know, they try to enforce people doing their roles and assigning roles and you know, you someone's always gonna be the timekeeper. Someone's always gonna be the note taker, right? Stuff that doesn't I'm gonna be honest, it doesn't matter. Like BS roles, people just basically backpack backpacking riding along. you know, I'm I'm trying to think of an NBA reference. I can't think of one right now, but somebody riding the bench to a chip. Wesley Grammer: Yeah. Thomas: Jordan Clarkson on the Knicks. I forgot he was on that team. Malcolm: Yeah, Jeff Jeff T. Jeff T wan Milwaukee. Jeff T. Wesley Grammer: Yeah. cool. Thomas: Yeah. Shout out Jeff Teague, man. I forgot he was on that Wesley Grammer: J T. What you said thought you said J T. Thomas: team. Malcolm: Go ahead, bro. Thomas: But but like do you know, just like learning that everybody on your team is not on your team. And when you get to corporate, I think those lessons apply differently. Like in school is one thing. When you get to corporate, bro, everyone has their own personal agenda, everyone has their own thing they want to do, their own people they're trying to impress, their own way that they're trying to get by or, you know, whatever to screw you over or make themselves look good. it's not actually about how much work you do, how good your work is, or how hard you work. Like none of that matters. We're gonna keep it honest. unless you are doing your own thing. And in school it's the same thing. So I think it taught me to just fight for myself, put the team in a good position to succeed, try to set it up so that, you know, if even if I do make the plate for someone else, I I also put the fork on there so they can feed themselves. to just keep stacking that that type of mindset. So getting the corporate, it's a lot of like bad work by yourself, like how how much you really finna put in. pause on your on your own accord, and you know, just just like just being able to be self sufficient. so I would say that that's kind of what it taught me. And my approach to engineering work is just I really learned that between a combination of A and T and internships, honestly, just to like sometimes you gotta take a step back, reevaluate and then and then get back in the game. And really just a lot a lot of it just boils down to determination, covering covering your basis. Wesley Grammer: Yeah. That's real. I mean, obviously from my perspective, I haven't kind of seen the corporate side as much, being that kind of my only exposure has been internships for three month stints. So I don't really know to the extent kind of how that's like tr carrying over to the corporate side, but kind of coming from AT to obviously Georgia Tech now, as a PWI, I feel like What I appreciated about ANT and kind of what it taught us was to to care about kind of the the the people that is affected by the work that we're doing just as much as we care about the work that we're doing. Like I feel like the fact that they preach like the the the community aspect that's pre sets, HBCUs, like the the fact that they always told us to to look out for one another and to keep people's best interest in mind at all times. Like that kind of stuff really sticks with me now. Like working with people who not necessarily obviously it like Georgia Tech's still a great school with a lot of great people, but because it's so much so much bigger, it's harder for a singular school to kind of create a overall overarching message like that they want kind of want to preach to their students. So a lot of people get lost in the ability to not only care about the work that they're doing, but care about the kind of people that they're doing it with and doing it for. So I feel like A ANT and HBCUs really preach to us, like, yeah, go out, go out there and do whatever you're gonna do, but make sure that it's kind of with a purpose and that you're reaching back and actually doing something meaningful with whatever success that you accumulate or get. and I kind of have taken that with me through my graduate experience. Like obviously Still we're we're all still very early in our process in terms of reaping the fruits of our labor of the work that we're Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Wesley Grammer: putting in. But I I will always keep in the back of my mind kind of the lessons A and T and HBCU's taught me to always care for the person next to you as you're kind of building towards whatever goal that you have and always prioritizing the people just as much as the work, if not more. Malcolm: Yeah.