“Yeh, I know who you are. You got nothing!” bellowed the gruff CEO at the other end of the line before he slammed the phone down. It was 1997. I was a 33-year-old Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wyoming trying to find a job at the country’s leading commercial air transport consultancy in New York City. My qualifications: none. My dis-qualifications: many. No Excel, no database skills, no business or air-transport background or financial analysis experience. Still, I was determined to move on from the academy and get into business. So, using print journals, newspapers, and an …