What stands out to me now isn't the negotiation. It's the fact that someone believed I could do something I wasn't entirely convinced I could do myself.

The CEO saw potential in me long before I fully recognized it. Looking back, I realize how often that happens in leadership. Sometimes other people see our capacity before we do. Sometimes they see strengths we've dismissed as ordinary because they've always come naturally to us.

At the time, though, I wasn't thinking about potential. I was trying to survive each day without anyone discovering how much I didn't know