A lucky decade at Qualtrics

A little bit of my story and a lesson about the role of luck

When I joined Qualtrics back in 2014, I believed that my success depended entirely on two things — my effort, and my skill. As I move on to my next adventure, I’d like to share something that the past ~10 years taught me time and time again:

Luck matters. A lot.

Goblin Valley, 2025

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My path to Qualtrics

In September 2014 I was on my way back to BYU for my senior year. I had just completed two great internships: one at a hedge fund and one at a bank in NYC. I had an offer in hand to officially start my career on Wall Street, making good money in a role that would take me around the world. It was any finance student’s dream… or at least mine, prior to that summer.

Something felt off. I think the nature of the work dulled things I liked about myself. Some of my best friends visited me that summer and I had such a hard time relaxing and connecting with them. It was embarrassing. I was also surprised that the work didn’t stretch me to be smarter or more creative. It felt like Wall Street would make me grow in the ways it needed, which were different from the ways I wanted to grow.

So, I started looking at other options. My uncle got me excited about the tech industry and opened me up to going into sales. Then a family friend sealed the deal by connecting me with Qualtrics, which was headquartered 10 minutes from my apartment. He passed along my resume and I got a part-time job as an SDR, cold calling potential customers for 20 hours a week as I finished school.

And, I sucked at it. But I loved it. It pushed me outside my comfort zone. And Qualtrics’ way of doing business was so different from what I’d seen before (in a good way)¹.

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Learning my lesson

Sales didn’t come naturally for me. I worked hard. I studied the craft. But I never felt like I had the control over my success that I did in school or previous jobs. I did well enough to get a few promotions, to help open up a new office, and to not get fired. But, it was hard.

And it was during that time that it hit me: there is a lot of luck in sales.

It might sound obvious, but it was a big realization for me. There were important factors outside my control like the accounts in my territory and my personality. Not to diminish the need for effort and skill, but there were other ingredients.

Anyway, I eventually moved from Sales to Operations. During my onboarding, a coworker asked me to take over a customer ROI modeling program that had landed on his plate. Little did he know², I had wanted to be involved in this work for years because of my finance background.

Within 6 months, this side project had snowballed and my boss (the GOAT) told me it was my new full time gig. 6 more months and our head of sales told me to start hiring people³. So in under a year, I went from wrestling with my quota to building out a team of value engineers, doing what I thought was the coolest job on the planet.

4/7/22. Presenting at company all-hands. My favorite day at Qualtrics.

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Three flavors of luck

Anyway, the rest of the story isn’t as interesting so I’ll get to the point: Much of what we call success is due to factors outside our control⁴. And I got hit with the lucky stick many times. Here are some big ones:

#1: Company performance

When I joined, I had no idea Qualtrics was going to grow 10x over the coming years. It was just a local company where I had a connection. Growth creates opportunities and makes everyone look better. I also think it increases the company’s willingness to bet on people (especially junior, unproven ones).

#2: People

I greatly benefitted from some outstanding, selfless managers who trusted me and connected me with opportunities. And a handful of senior folks who took me under their wings and stuck their necks out for me. And coworkers, customers, partners, and vendors who helped me learn and advance my work. And team members who were amazing and made me look good. I would not have accomplished what I did, or enjoyed my work so much, without these people.

#3: Interests and background

One’s interests don’t always help them make money. I just so happened to find topics like decision analysis, causal inference, and sales psychology interesting enough to study in my free time, which made me more effective in my work. And my combination of finance and sales experience was by no means intentional. I don’t think it’s a particularly rare combination, but it is probably rare that someone gets to combine them in a way that is as fun, useful to customers, and profitable to their company.

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Taking this lesson with me

The causes of success are rarely straightforward. This doesn’t stop people from attributing big wins to specific, controllable factors, but I’m increasingly skeptical of attempts to explain success. Skill and effort matter, but luck plays too big of a role.

And that’s it. I get to take many other lessons with me from my time at Qualtrics, but that’s one of the big ones. It means that achievements don’t tell the whole story. Your inputs matter AND there are other factors. Do what you can to maximize your exposure to luck, be ready to take advantage of opportunities, and accept what you can’t control.

1. Fun fact, someone brought me to the Qualtrics office a couple years earlier to hang out on a weekend – I saw the pinball machines, cereal bar, and fridges filled with ice cream and figured it was some kind of scam

2. At risk of inflating this coworker’s already dangerously large ego, he played a pivotal role for me multiple times, and I owe him a lot

3. This head of sales gets a shrine in my home

4. I’m loosely defining success here as how well someone achieves their goals