"How I Made It: Michael Silva"
August 10, 2010
Mr. Silva is chief of staff of the New York Fed. He provides one more example of the unanticipated productivity of high school guidance counselors.
When Silva told his high school guidance counselor that he wanted to attend a military academy, her skepticism served as an inspiration. "She kind of looked at this scraggly Mexican kid and she tried to direct me to shop class, which was sort of a gift, because it pissed me off," he recalled. "I didn't look like much, but I was a pretty determined little guy." The little guy got into the Naval Academy.
(After getting a large number of hits to the article, the Los Angeles Times has apparently removed the article from their site--or at least made it too hard for me to find--so, fine, I'll link to the Google cache version. Thanks to Art for pointing out the original link didn't work.)