What TSMC’s founding can teach us about rejection

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STORY
How rejection made the world’s most valuable semiconductor company

You may have heard of TSMC—the world’s “most valuable” semiconductor company that makes chips for Apple, NVIDIA, and more.

(Or, if you haven’t, just know this: if you own an iPhone, you’re an indirect customer of TSMC. Their chips power most modern Apple devices.)

But did you know that TSMC might not exist had its founder, Morris Chang, not been rejected from his “dream” PhD program?

It’s 1955. Chang had just earned his master’s in mechanical engineering from MIT. He had just one goal at this point: to continue at MIT for a PhD.

But he failed the qualifying exam—not once, but twice.

“Forced” to enter the job market, Chang joined Sylvania Semiconductor (a now defunct company) and transitioned 3 years later to Texas Instruments (the company behind that TI-83 calculator you may remember from school)—just as the semiconductor industry was taking off. 

Over the next 25 years, Chang worked his way up to various management roles, got his PhD (not from MIT but from Stanford) thanks to TI’s sponsorship, and eventually became VP of TI’s “entire” semiconductor business.

Despite what seemed like a “fast track to the C-suite,” however, Chang’s career took a turn: he was passed over for a promotion and moved to a staff role. Having been “put out to pasture,” Chang resigned.

Then the phone calls started coming in. Shortly thereafter, Chang became president and chief operating officer of General Instruments. 1 year after that, the Taiwanese government approached Chang with a bold proposal: Come to Taiwan and start a semiconductor industry. Chang said yes.

In 1987, 32 years after his MIT rejection, Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC. It’s known as a “pure-play foundry”—meaning it sells chips to companies you know (like NVIDIA)—and it's the largest semiconductor foundry in the world.

UNSPOKEN RULE
When one door closes, another opens.

What Morris Chang taught me is that rejection is merely redirection. It’s an opportunity to explore paths we wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

How do you apply this lesson to your own career and life?

• If you got passed over for a job, follow up with your interviewer or point of contact. Ask, “Are you able to share with me the top three deciding factors that separated me from the successful candidate? I'd love to know the areas that I most need to work on…” Then, keep this feedback in mind as you continue on your job search. (And in the likely event you don’t get an explanation, move on! Greener pastures await.)
  

• If you got passed over for a program (e.g., grad school), consider whether you actually needed the degree or certificate to get the job you want. Chances are, unless we’re talking about law, medicine, or a field that requires a certification, you don’t. You just need experience. Go on LinkedIn and find someone who was previously in your current role and who is now doing what you’d hoped to do after that program—and ask them for a conversation.
  

• If you got passed over for a promotion, revisit your Three C’s, try finding a mentor if you don’t have one already (like Ken Frazier), riding someone else’s coattails (like the Prime Minister of India), or revisiting your “promotion campaign” strategy (like politicians). And while you’re at it, consider making a lateral move as I explain how to do here. It worked for Morris Chang (and the former President of Ford, as I discuss here) and it might just work for you.

Who knows: you may just end up at an even better destination than what you had in mind.

See you next Tuesday for our next story and unspoken rule!

—Gorick

What’s an “unspoken rule”? They’re the things that separate those who get ahead from those who stumble—and don’t know why. You can learn more about these rules in the workplace in my Wall Street Journal bestselling book called—you guessed it—The Unspoken Rules.

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Gorick Ng
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Harvard career advisor | WSJ bestselling author | Fortune 500 keynote speaker | First-gen

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Sources

1. world’s most valuable semiconductor company

2. chips for Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, and more.

3. rejected from his dream PhD program?

4. mechanical engineering from MIT.

5. got rejected

6. he failed the qualifying exam.

7. job at Sylvania

8. Taiwanese government approached him

9. “put out to pasture”

10. Chang (L), undated, at Texas Instruments.

11. Morris Chang