Two years I worked as a consultant for a fortune 500 data storage firm. I was hired to figure out what was going on in a small analytics division. See just about all upper management had passed through the same small team. It was nicknamed the "Stud Farm"

I remember watching a team meeting from behind a two way mirror and seeing an arrogant manager berating his team and demanding ideas before proposing his own. I talked to all team members after and conducted a survey. Thats when I met Alfred.

Alfred was a highschool dropout making 26k a year. He was a whiz with excel and everyone in the group came to him to polish up their spreadsheets. The other members called him awkward, pessimistic, and weird. I asked to look at his emails and noticed a startling fact. Just about all the ideas the manager had implemented had started off as Alfreds ideas.

After delving deeper and interviewing others execs promoted through the "Stud Farm" I learned Alfred was responsible for launching no fewer the 16 careers well into the 6 figure range and even the CEO of another successful competing startup. His emails and ideas always predated whatever idea the manager implemented the following week.

While everyone on the team oozed optimism, Alfred was realistic. He was the only one at each meeting who had an objective view of situations. When the group was nearly laid off only Alfred was aware of how grave the problem was. He was summarily punished and bullied by his colleagues for being "negative" and having "a poor attitude."

I did my best to plead Alfred's case to upper management. He was a 10x employee. His stock was undervalued. But no one could see past their own perceptions to look at facts. He was a highschool dropout. He was quiet. He spent all of his time doing work instead of documenting his accomplishments.

And for this he will waste away in a cube farm making other people successful.

This study had an opportunity to examine how the Alfreds of the worlds could be better utilized. Instead it took the safe route to prove what we already know.

A year after I last spoke to Alfred my firm hired him. In the past month we've had two major promotions from his group... neither was Alfred.