The following piece about MassTLC member Ace-Up was originally published on Forbes.
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Will Foussier moved from his native France to London after college to take a job as a financial analyst at Raymond James. But it wasn’t all he hoped it would be.
“I didn’t feel very challenged in my role, I started to be bored,” Foussier said in a recent telephone conversation from Boston. “I wanted to do something more meaningful.”
Foussier decided a career in the non-profit world might be just the ticket. He applied for a position at The Clinton Foundation in New York and got it. Now he had a different problem.
“I was terrified,” Foussier remembered.
Foussier developed what he refers to as “imposter syndrome.”
“Once there, as my first time in an American working environment, among high-profile individuals, I felt I didn’t have the skills and confidence I needed to succeed in my role,” Foussier said.
High-Profile Individuals
Among those high-profile individuals were Bill and Hillary.
Foussier was not yet fluent in English, and felt overwhelmed by his role trying to convince companies to form humanitarian missions – no mean feat even for fluent English speakers.
A friend suggested to the young Frenchman that he reach out to a coach to work on his communication and public speaking skills.
“It was such a transformational learning experience that it made me realize the impact coaching could have if deployed to emerging leaders at scale in organizations, with the right experts in the right way,” Foussier said.
The outline of a startup was forming.
