Besides having one of the coolest names in the biz, Tracy Britt Cool managed to become Warren Buffet’s right-hand-women simply by sending the billionaire a letter when she was 25.

Okay, so perhaps there was more to the young women’s rise than just sending a simple letter, but her ascent in the corporate world is an example many people can learn from. Even if you might never have heard of her.

After graduating from Harvard Business School in 2009, she mailed a letter to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett asking for a job at the legendary firm. The iconic billionaire was so impressed with her, that she was invited to join the company as his financial assistant, something that many people with decades of experience would sell their souls for.

But Britt Cool kept her cool, and once she got her foot in the door, she quickly proved herself a force to be reckoned with.

She soon became the chief executive of Berkshire holding Pampered Chef, and built a reputation for quickly solving problems at struggling companies, prompting Buffett to nickname her “the fireman.”

The infamous letter, and the tremendous success that it’s led to, is the stuff aspiring entrepreneurs daydream about. Britt Cool knew it was a one-in-a-million shot but as the blonde woman put it, “The risk was pretty low — in that someone was going to say ‘no’. So why not try?”

Britt Cool spent much of her childhood working at her family’s farm stand in Manhattan, Kansas, where she says she heard the word ‘no’ a lot.

“It was such a great training ground, because you have to sell your produce, and you have to talk to people. You have to ask, and you get rejected a lot because people aren’t interested in something,” she says. “I grew a thick skin. I didn’t have any issue with people telling me no.”

As a high school student, Britt Cool began writing letters to different organisations she wanted to learn about. “I wanted them to send me brochures and pamphlets. A lot of them didn’t respond.”

In college, she began writing to executives at companies she admired. “I found that when I productively and proactively reached out to people — and respectfully — that the vast majority would not respond or say ‘no’, but a small group would say ‘yes’.”

“I wasn’t doing it because I wanted a job. That’s not why I reached out to people,” she says. “I was doing it because I wanted to become more thoughtful. In Berkshire’s case, it evolved to that.”

For Britt Cool, finding those yeses is about having the persistence to endure a lot of no’s – “It requires the discipline and the time and the energy to do it. And to invest in that.”

It paid off big time, and in 2020, Britt Cool cofounded her own investing firm, Kanbrick.

There are some valuable lessons to be learned from this young woman. So, if you’re having a hard time during this dumpster fire that is 2023, just remember that tomorrow might just say yes to you.

[source:cnbc]