From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Christine Lagarde on timing and opportunity

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

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Christine Lagarde on timing and opportunity

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(upbeat music) - Would love to understand your own career, how you think about your path. You started as a lawyer. You have moved well beyond law. Did you always know what you wanted to do? Or do you think in long sweeps, this is where I want to be in 15 years, this is where I'm going to be in five years. How have you forged your own path? - Very randomly. And I think it's been more the result of the right time, the right person. - What do you mean the right person? - Well it's often been a question of circumstances. I was determined to be a lawyer because I wanted to fight the death penalty. Now when I became a lawyer, the death penalty had been removed from the French legal arsenal. So that part of my career ambition was gone. So I became a business lawyer. And I had prepared myself for that. But then after that, gradually, I moved into management. And the firm was not doing well. And the policy committee at the time, of the largest law firm in the world, Baker McKenzie, asked me if I would consider becoming the chairman after having been on the executive committee for three years. And when I'm saying it was the right time, for me, it was just the right time. And I decided to just leave my client base, ask my partners to give a hand and make the decision. - Did you have any doubt about doing that? - No. And I was probably unbelievably presumptuous in saying yes and taking the risk. The same happened when I was recruited by the French president and prime minister to join the government in France. I just packed my bag and left. With the support of my partners at the firm. And in a way the same was true again when I was asked to join the race for the managing director of the IMF position. So it's been one thing after the other. Where circumstances prevailed. I met the right people. Had the right determination. And just jumped. - What do you recommend for people when they think about their own career? People must come to you for advice all the time. - I think they should be prepared to change gear, to change path, and to take risks. I think professional life is also about that. I'm sure that many of them sort of scheme and determine and plan. I think you have to leave a little bit of space in your life to random. To the opportunity, to the impulse. That's been my life. But maybe it doesn't work out for others.

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