Kathryn Minshew

Uh, no, I mean, it was terrifying.

Um, can you quantify it?

Well, so when I left McKinsey, I had $25,000 in savings.

And I was thinking about possibly starting a business, but I didn't have an idea I was in love with yet.

And so I got this offer to move to Rwanda and work for the Clinton Health Access Initiative on vaccine introduction.

And that was essentially a net neutral offer.

So what they said was, we'll give you the flexibility of only working for us for six months.

And we will give you an incredible, incredible experience.

But they said, as a result, we'll pay all of your expenses, fly you there, housing, food, et cetera.

But we're not going to pay you a proper salary above and beyond that.

It'll just be net neutral.

And they were a nonprofit.

And I said, that sounds great.

I would much prefer to have the flexibility and not have the cash.

Uh, 25.

Okay.

I think, yeah, 24 and a half or 25.

Exactly.

And I will say when I started at McKinsey, I had almost nothing in my bank account, but I lived as if I was making half of my salary because I knew that I wanted to do something that might not pay a lot of money.

I wasn't sure whether it was moving to Africa, whether it was starting a business, whether it was something else entirely, but I've always thought that savings are freedom.