Focus

People who understand their natural abilities, as well as skills they need to work on, can make much smarter decisions about their education and career options.

I learned this first hand when in 1999, 16 years into an exciting career that took me around the world, I needed change. At the time, I was with Accenture based in the Silicon Valley. I loved my job marketing the most innovative technologies to the most innovative companies of the time, but the fast growth of the business and non-stop travel was slowly killing me. I told my boss that something needed to give, or I was going to have to leave the company.

Accenture asked me to take the Highlands Ability Battery to better understand my natural abilities so they could identify other opportunities inside the company. I was skeptical. Afterall, I’d read all the award-winning self-help books. I was not sure an “Ability Battery” was going to help. I was wrong.

The results of my Highland Ability Battery gave me the greater self awareness and courage to redirect my career to “starting businesses.” Accenture made me the first employee of its new venture capital unit in Palo Alto. That experience led to me to start my own e-commerce venture in Austin, Texas. On the back of my e-commerce venture I started a digital business for a global agency which attracted incredible clients and grew like wildfire. I went on to start a digital and management consulting firm which also landed Global 1000 clients and grew rapidly. Eventually we sold the company. I was 54 and “retired.”

Experience

Over the years, business leaders, young professionals and students (especially athletes) have asked me to give them advice on their own journeys. During many of these meetings, I found myself wishing they could take the Highlands Ability Battery to better understand their own natural abilities to guide their thinking.

Now that I am able to administer the Highlands Ability Battery, I can combine its results with my own experiences to give leaders, professionals, students and athletes the best guidance possible to chart their paths.