We are near the end of our discussion with CFO Svai Sanford when he permits us to unlock one last door to his past.

Unbeknownst to us, 20 minutes earlier, Sanford had handed us the key to its lock in the form of a short story.

The story had begun with Sanford receiving a job offer, to which he had replied, “Are you sure? I do not have any experience in this sector.”

His future boss had replied: “You will figure it out.”

At first, we were left wondering whether there had been something more that the future boss had known about Sanford—perhaps a piece of contributing evidence that had made him feel confident that Sanford could acclimate and succeed.

“There’s something in me that has always allowed me to figure things out,” Sanford had confided.

Sanford’s choice of words—“something in me”—had been interesting. Certainly, there is no shortage of problem-solving exercises along any CFO’s path, but he had already told us that his career track had likely been different from that of other CFOs—and we had sensed that the “something” to which he had been referring had not yet been disclosed to us.

Still, as Sanford had helped us to check off the requisite CFO career milestones via his engaging and modest narrative, we eventually had heard about his arrival in the C-suite—which for a moment had led us to consider how Sanford’s success story is not remarkably different from that of other CFOs.

However, that’s exactly why it’s so remarkable, or so we later realize.

As we enter the final minutes of our discussion, we learn that Sanford had arrived in the United States as a 13-year-old refugee from Laos, who with only a 3rd-grade education had entered a Kansas City high school while not yet speaking a word of English.

How does someone enter the C-suite some 20 years later after having surmounted such adverse circumstances?

Here’s where we find the key that Sanford gave us.

We think of the 13-year-old Sanford and hear the words of his future boss, “You will figure it out.” –Jack Sweeney