Fortt Knox

Twenty-five years ago, the man who is now CEO of the world's largest maker of computer chips was an engineer at the company. And he made an error that almost got him fired. "I wiped out the output of an entire factory for a week," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich tells me in the latest episode of the Fortt Knox podcast. "I'm lucky to be employed at Intel, sometimes I say." But instead of dooming him, his handling of the problem influenced the company culture, helping to birth a system called "Copy Exactly" that's become a part of its identity. Krzanich went on to make a name for himself as the executive responsible for all of Intel's factories, a job that prepared him to be CEO. It happened in the 1990s; Krzanich was in his early 30s. At the time, Intel was just beginning to hit its stride with a strategy that would make it the world's top supplier of chips for personal computers. His job was to transfer the chip manufacturing process from one facility in New Mexico to the one next door. It didn't work. Production ground to a halt. And for an agonizingly long time, he had no idea why. "It went all the way up to the CEO. And my boss at one point walked into my office and said, 'You have about two more weeks to figure out this issue, and if you don't, I've got to let you go.' And luckily, and friend of mine and I, we said we're just not going to sleep until we solve this. And then, sure enough, we found the problem about a week into that two week time period." What sets Krzanich apart as a leader isn't just the way he rallied in a situation like this, though our conversation did unearth some gems that should help anyone navigate a career crisis. What sets him apart is the no-frills approach he brings to his work, and the adaptability that has allowed him to push his career – and now, Intel itself – in unexpected directions. Here are just a few of the concepts we explored in a fascinating episode of Fortt Knox: Reality Beats Résumé Krzanich grew up in San Jose, California, just miles from Intel headquarters. He didn't go to an Ivy League school: He got his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from San Jose State University. The prestige of a college's brand on a résumé doesn't impress him. "I've told my daughters this; my older daughter's about to go into college. It doesn't matter what college you go to. The thing that was great about San Jose State was, I got connected with some very good professors," he says. He did research for their projects on the side. "When I went into interviews, I could talk about real work that I'd done, not just textbook stuff." That informs how he deals with job candidates today. "I ask real simple questions that just tell me, does this person know how to think?" This Gets You Fired Krzanich had some more advice. "The other thing I tell my daughters is, I've had to terminate or fire more people for being difficult to work with than being dumb." 'I've had to terminate or fire more people for being difficult to work with than being dumb.' Now wait, a minute, I say to him. CEOs of Intel haven't exactly distinguished themselves by being easy to work with – the legendary Andy Grove comes to mind. So what does he mean? "I think if you don't give people the tools and the expectations for success, and yet hold them to some value, then you're difficult to work with. I think the one thing about Andy was, if you listened to him, if you tried to understand him, then you actually understood what the expectations were. They may be hard, and you may not have been able to do it, but you at least had a chance. The difficult bosses – the ones that have been hard for me to work for – have been the ones where, I never knew what success meant." In other words, it's okay to challenge your team. But it's also important to recognize the value of their different perspectives, give them the tools, and clearly define success.

A new year's a time for goals and dreams. A time to make things happen. A time to roll with life's setbacks and turn things around. Broadway veteran Rory O'Malley (The Book of Mormon) did that in spades in 2016. The year started with him landing a lead role as Bill Gates in a musical, Nerds, that was supposed to make its Broadway debut in the spring. But just as the cast had finished learning the production, an investor pulled the plug. How's this for a turnaround? With his schedule suddenly cleared, O'Malley ended up landing the role of King George III in the smash hit Hamilton, which had just become a cultural force. In the latest episode of the Fortt Knox Podcast, as O'Malley shares his story, he also offers some tips that will help you get the most out of the year ahead. Stream audio of the conversation below, and follow this link to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Be ready for lightning to strike "It was one of those moments when there was no way to put lipstick on this pig. It was horrible." That's how O'Malley describes the moment on March 8 when the lead producer broke the news to the cast of Nerds that Broadway wouldn't be happening after all. "Two days after getting back to L.A., my agent called and said, 'Rory, I know that you just had a really hard experience on Broadway, but would you ever consider coming back to Broadway?'" Someone who saw him run through the Bill Gates role wanted him to join the Hamilton cast. O'Malley got on a plane and flew back to New York. Don't fixate on just one path "My number-one advice to young people is to relax and to chill," O'Malley tells me on the Fortt Knox podcast. Relax? Do people still do that? The point, he says, is that often the path to your dream gig isn't direct, and there are other jobs you'll have to do along the way. Sometimes your dream even changes. "You should be striving for excellence and education and learning, and be open to whatever path that journey and education takes you on." Stay satisfied, stay hungry "It's not a bad thing to know when your dream comes true," O'Malley says. After his Tony-nominated performance in The Book of Mormon, he told people that it was the best professional experience he would ever have. They recoiled in horror, as if he'd told them his life was over. That wasn't what he meant. He meant that other great things would happen, sure, but he felt no pressure to top this. "You don't get to being an actor without having an out-of-control ambition. ... I did have to make a decision in my mid-20s if it was more important to me to be happy or working as an actor. And I know that those two things don't have to be one or the other, but you do have to decide what's more important." For more on how O'Malley landed his role in The Book of Mormon, his take on Hamilton's place in Broadway history, what happened when Mark Zuckerberg showed up to the theater with Melinda Gates and more, subscribe to the Fortt Knox podcast.

A car accident convinced a teenaged Diana Aviv that she had to leave home and fight for the poor and forgotten. One she caused. "As I pulled out, I hit him, and he went into the air and did somersaults and crashed to the ground," she remembers. She, a white Jewish teen, had hit a black bicyclist in apartheid South Africa in the early 1970s. "When we went to the police station, I went to the white entrance and he had to wait and go in the black entrance. And the police officer said to me, 'You tell me whatever you like, and that's what will be what happened.' And I decided I couldn't live in a society where I couldn't take the consequences of my actions, which was to get in trouble because of what I'd done. ... This was as contaminating to me as it was for him. Just, the consequences were easier for me – but they weren't, because how could I live with myself? And I decided then that I had to leave." Today, Aviv is CEO of Feeding America, the third largest charity in America by donation value, at more than $2 billion annually. As I learned when I sat down with her for the Fortt Knox podcast, her journey to that position is a study in how leading with your emotions as well as your head can bring world-changing results. Passion beats titles Not long after the car accident, Aviv did leave South Africa to attend college and engage in anti-apartheid activism in New York. A couple of decades later, South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and planned to visit New York. Around that time, as a mid-level staffer at a Jewish organization, Aviv caught wind of a chilling development: A local rabbi among those planning to protest Mandela's visit because he had been photographed with Yasir Arafat, Fidel Castro and Muammar el-Qaddafi after his release. She feared if the protest materialized, it would sour relations between blacks and Jews for a generation. On her own initiative, without any real authority, she made a phone call that paved the way for a remarkable thaw. (Hear the details in the podcast.) The lesson: You don't have to be in charge of an organization to make a big difference. Reason can't smother feelings In another job, Aviv headed an organization that advocated for battered women. Through her experience working with the women, and after consulting a friend with expertise in the field, she realized that 9 out of 10 women returned to their abusers, whether the men changed or not. So Aviv had an epiphany: The men needed counseling. She would get them to submit to it either by court order, or by begging the women to delay their return as leverage. "I said we're going to start a counseling program. And it's not for us to judge. It's for us to work with people and to see what it is that they need, and to help them, and to stop being part of the women's liberation movement that says 'Men who are ...' and all of that." By working against convention, she got abusers into counseling, and helped more women to heal. Guilt is cheap I asked Aviv the one thing she'd want people to change this holiday season and in 2017, to help Feeding America and organizations like it. Her answer surprised me. "The one thing I'd say is, don't feel guilty," she said. Why? "Because guilt only works so much, and then at some point there's a reaction to the guilt and a resentment toward guilt." What should you do instead? In our conversation, Aviv gives some concrete suggestions.

Sanjay Poonen grew up lower-middle class in India and pushed past rejection to become one of the most respected executives in Silicon Valley; he's now chief operating officer at VMware. Jay Simons' detour before law school took him playing piano across Asia – and inspired him to ditch law for tech, where today he's president at Atlassian, one of the industry's hot young companies. For most of us, the path to success isn't going to be a straight line. But those who make it learn a lot of lessons you can't capture on a résumé. So what qualities separate the best from the average? I sat down with Poonen and Simons for the latest episode of the Fortt Knox podcast, and the two executives shared some wisdom from their journeys that should help others along the way. Traditional qualifications aren't everything After undergrad, Simons thought he'd be a lawyer. But a lawyer mentor offered him important advice: Slow down and be sure. A few years of international travel and playing piano taught him a few things, including that his passion wasn't in law. It was tech. After he landed back in the states, he moved to California and snagged a tech job where risk-taking and a global mindset paid off. Rejection is part of the drill Poonen applied to three U.S. schools for undergrad. One accepted him. He also applied to a bunch of business schools and got rejected by all of them ... except Harvard. Winning, it turns out, isn't about being offered every opportunity, it's about making the most of the ones we get. Do what fuels you Simons runs to work every day, and still practices the piano days he's in town. It's part of his routine. Poonen likes to focus on helping the needy in his community – especially when he's going through a rough spot in life, and he might be tempted to simply mull his own problems.

Sebastian Bach is a big dude. You know how celebrities are always supposed to be smaller than you think? Jon Bon Jovi's about my height, and I'm 5'8". I met him in a restaurant in San Jose, Ca. a decade ago. Sebastian, the ex-Skid Row frontman, is huge. 6'3". We're at 30 Rock, the NBC Universal mothership in New York, where he's just popped out of shooting a segment with Access Hollywood. He's kindly agreed to meet me after, in what feels like a giant closet, because it's quiet, and you know, I'm recording a podcast. Here's a guy who joined a band in the mid-'80s, debut album went multi platinum, second album debuted at number one. He was the prettiest of the metal pretty boys, and he earned a bad-boy reputation, too. But the most remarkable thing? He changed. Skid Row broke up after Sebastian booked them as an opening act for KISS, which the other band members thought was beneath them. And of course, after Sebastian himself attracted a lot of the wrong kind of controversy with his temper and his mouth. That didn't help. But that was just the beginning of his story. Bach went on as a solo act, did some reality TV, and did four major turns on Broadway. He scored a recurring role on Gilmore Girls. Along the way, he picked up a few lessons he shared with me on Fortt Knox.

Actor Bradley Whitford talks his latest project with National Geographic, healing the political divide, and what you see him in next. In Fortt Knox's Podcast Edition, CNBC's Jon Fortt talks with leaders and influencers who make things happen. For the Live Edition of the show, check out Jon Fortt's Facebook Page.

This week on the Fortt Knox podcast, I want to get a little personal. Instead of hearing from a business leader or celebrity as usual, you're going to hear from someone closer to home. My home. The United States right now is struggling with how to respond to the scourge of terrorism -- and how to relate to Muslim Americans here at home. It's something my family has a unique bit of experience with. And this being the days after the Thanksgiving holiday, and after a presidential election, it's a good time to reflect on family. And the country. The voice you heard at the beginning of this episode was my cousin on my dad's side. Omar. I'm a Christian. My faith is an important part of my life. I try to study my Bible regularly, I attend church weekly. My father is a retired pastor and chaplain. My grandfather was a pastor, too. Omar and his siblings are Muslim. His parents converted before he was born. It's fair to say religion has always been a source of tension in our family, but especially over the last 20 years. Through it all, we've tried -- with mixed results -- to keep the family together. So I asked Omar if he would sit down and talk to me for Fortt Knox about something we can all relate to at a time like this: The struggle to find common ground in the face of fundamental differences.

Lisa Su, AMD CEO, on how she went from engineer to the corner office. In Fortt Knox's Podcast Edition, CNBC's Jon Fortt talks with leaders and influencers who make things happen. For the Live Edition of the show, check out Jon Fortt's Facebook Page.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, on how he got where he is and what makes him tick. In Fortt Knox's Podcast Edition, CNBC's Jon Fortt talks with leaders and influencers who make things happen. For the Live Edition of the show (which debuts the week of 11/14), check out Jon Fortt's Facebook Page.