Tell me about a time you achieved something difficult against real obstacles.

Before my MBA I taught physics at a public high school where most students qualified for free lunch. I wanted to start a robotics team, and we had no budget, no workshop and no one who'd built a robot, including me. A competition kit and entry fees cost about $9,000 a year. Money was the first obstacle. The district said no, so I went to local businesses. Most of them turned me down, but a few came through with money and a place to work. The second obstacle was that I didn't know what I was doing. Our first season went badly. I almost quit then. What kept me going was that 14 students showed up the following Tuesday anyway. In our second year we qualified for the state championship. Four of the seniors from that team went on to study engineering.

Before my MBA I taught physics at a public high school where most students qualified for free lunch. I wanted to start a robotics team, and we had no budget, no workshop and no one who'd built a robot, including me. A competition kit and entry fees cost about $9,000 a year. Money was the first obstacle. The district said no, so I went to local businesses. I visited 23 of them in six weeks with a one-page pitch and two students. Nineteen said no. A machine shop owner named Walt gave us $2,000 and, more useful, his shop floor on Tuesday nights and one of his machinists. The second obstacle was that I didn't know what I was doing. I spent that summer building the previous year's kit robot in my garage from online videos, so I'd be one step ahead of the kids. In our first season the robot's arm failed in the opening match and we finished 31st of 36. I almost quit then. What kept me going was that 14 students showed up the following Tuesday anyway. I had them write down everything that broke and why, and we rebuilt the season plan around that list, with a full practice match every two weeks. In our second year we qualified for the state championship. We finished ninth of 48, and the team is still running, with the district now paying for it. Four of the seniors from that team went on to study engineering. The thing I'd do differently is ask for help sooner. I lost most of a year trying to learn it all myself before I found Walt.