Just two years after his appointment as director of marketing services, 35-year-old Tom Conant started thinking about leaving his job and enrolling in law school. He had fantasies of addressing the bench in an attempt to persuade the judge to side with his position. Tom imagined how it would feel to demolish the opposing lawyer by asking the witness penetrating questions that led inexorably to the conclusion he sought. He couldn’t wait to get started.

A version of this article appeared in the May 1983 issue of Harvard Business Review.