When my dad dropped me off for work experience at an accountants aged 15, he looked me in the eye and said:
Matt, whatever you do — don't be a lemon.
I had absolutely no idea what he meant.
A few years later, standing in an assessment centre for a graduate programme at a bank, it hit me.
What is a lemon?
You've seen lemons. They're in every office, every gym, every lecture hall.
The person who arrives and waits for someone to tell them what to do. Who sees something that needs doing and walks past it. Who blends into the background when the situation needs someone to step forward.
But here's the real danger.
If you look to your left, and you look to your right, and you don't think you've ever actually met a lemon...
You might just be the lemon.
The guy by the window
I arrived 15 minutes early to the assessment centre. A group of candidates were huddled on sofas, looking terrified. In the corner, a guy was standing by the window with a coffee, completely alone.
Everyone ignored him.
So I grabbed a coffee, walked over and started a conversation.
It turned out he wasn't a candidate. He was the lead assessor. While everyone else was waiting for the official start, I was already building a relationship with one of the people who held my future in their hands.
When everything goes wrong…improvise
Later in the same assessment, we had to research a topic and present using flip charts. I messed up. I got so deep into the research that I forgot to actually write the presentation. When the assessor walked in — the same guy from the window — I had nothing.
A lemon would have panicked. A Navigator improvises.
I quickly scribbled three words on a flip chart and just talked.
Afterwards he looked at me and said:
That was powerful. Most people use flip charts as a crutch — but you forced me to actually listen.
I nodded and pretended it was by design rather than out of desperation.
None of that took talent. It took arriving early, walking over and deciding not to wait. Don’t be a lemon.
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