The first office job I had was in the mid- to late-1980s when I worked for parts of two summers at IBM’s headquarters in Armonk, New York, outside New York City. When I worked there, the storied company was in a period of decline, but the lessons I learned raised me up.

IBM was a dominant icon of American industriousness for a long time. The name “Big Blue,” which originated from its logo, stood for the idea that evolutionary innovation, creativity, and dedication can accomplish amazing things. And it did.

When I worked at IBM as a temporary worker, it was still a white shirt and dark tie kind of place. My corner of the company was on a picturesque campus dedicated to training new and rising IBM-ers in the IBM way.

My short time there over two summers taught me the power of hard work, dedication, for the need to think. Thinking was so crucial to the company, it was everywhere, even on the notepads they gave out that I still have.

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. developed IBM in the early part of the 20^th Century. In 1915, he said in frustration from a day at work at National Cash Register in Dayton, Ohio, “the trouble with every one of us is that we don’t think enough. We don’t get paid for working with our feet — we get paid for working with our heads…Knowledge is the result of thought, and thought is the keynote of success in this business or any business.”

This is the founding philosophy of IBM, and it informs my work today. Watson had a “THINK” placard posted prominently at the company’s headquarters. The block lettering would begin appearing on signs in offices and plants throughout the company. “Thought,” Watson would say, “has been the father of every advance since time began. ‘I didn’t think’ has cost the world millions of dollars.”

Soon, “THINK” signs adorned the desks and walls of countless IBM offices, the company published an employee magazine called THINK, and many IBMers carried pocket-sized notebooks with “THINK” embossed on the cover. I had one, too. By the1930s, the motto was ubiquitous in IBM offices and factories worldwide.

IBM has undergone profound changes over the years, returning to the powerhouse it once was. Thanks to leadership and thinking.

Thanks to IBM, I learned early on what an office culture was like, especially one as storied and transformational as IBM.

“Those who set out to do what others say cannot be done are the ones who make the discoveries, produce the inventions and move the world ahead.” Thomas J. Watson, Sr.