John Roos provides some career advice in our video supplement.Take one of his suggestions and tell me who would best benefit from this developmental advice (e.g. what might a person be going through t

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

John Roos is the chief executive officer of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and a member of the

Executive Management Committee and Policy Committee. Prior to becoming CEO in February 2005, John

had been the firm's managing director of professional services. He has been a partner at the firm since

1988.

John's corporate practice focuses on the representation of growth companies in the corporate finance and

securities areas. He represents both privately held and public companies across a broad range of industries,

including electronics, computers and software, and life sciences.

He has represented many major Silicon Valley companies during mergers and acquisitions, initial public

offerings, strategic alliances, and joint ventures. He also has represented numerous start -up and early -stage

companies in venture capital financings an d other private placements of securities.

“Let me just quickly go through four, five things that are takeaways or advice I want to give you. Number one is,

tak e risks. It's a given. You will never regret it, particularly while you're young. Don't think twice about it. Take the

risk. That's what built these great companies. Number two, don't be afraid to take a step back in your career if you

think it will help y ou move forward in the long run. And I use myself as an example of that. I was a litigator down in

Los Angeles. When I came up here, I came to Wilson. And Wilson wanted me to be a litigator, and they said, "If

you do litigation, we'll make you a partner wi thin one year," which was unheard of at the time. But if you decide to

do corporate, which in all honesty we don't need corporate lawyers right now --and by the way, at the time we were

50; we're now 600 --you're basically starting your career over because i t's a new discipline. I made the decision to

start my career over. And it is the smartest thing I've ever done. And whenever I had a chance to give anyone advice

in any industry, I'd say, "Never hesitate to take a step back if ultimately it's what you want to do and you think it will

propel you forward." Third, and this is from John Wooden's book --when I became the CEO of Wilson Sonsini I was

given all these management books and everything. I actually read a lot of them. But what he said is, "It takes 10

hands to make a basket." And that's true. No matter what company you go to, there's the visionary, there's this, that

and the other thing, there's always the star, but you surround yourself by good people, give credit to other people. It

takes 10 hands to ma ke a basket. The next thing is --and this has been important; I've felt it in being the CEO of the

firm and I see the best CEOs in the Valley --let everyone reach for the stars. We have an unbelievably incredible

talent pool right here in the Silicon Valley. The best CEOs, the best entrepreneurs are the ones that give everyone

the opportunity to reach for the stars. Because as I said, merit rules out, and sometimes you will be surprised at who

in the end actually reaches the star. So give everyone the opportu nity to do so. Two more things. Little things really

matter. They build into big things. And that's execution. You can have the greatest management team in the world,

the greatest idea in the world, the greatest Three Circles on the napkin, or whatever you r strategy is, and if you don't

execute the little things, it doesn't make a bit of difference. Your company will fail. And finally, and probably the

most important, is integrity. Integrity matters more than anything you will do in your career. Because it is a small

ecosystem, because you develop networks all over the world, if you maintain your integrity and maintain your

values, and they will always be put to the test, but if you do, you will never look back. ”