By 1984, Diana and I knew exactly what we wanted my next job to be. We just didn't know where it would be. After acquiring some new responsibilities outside the laboratories during the last few years at Merck, I'd become intrigued by what made the company tick. And what might make it tick even better. Those experiences with on-the-job training whetted my appetite for an executive role somewhere. Neither my education nor my experiences before Merck had prepared me to become a “suit,” but that's what we decided my next job would be.

Fortunately, Diana and I were practiced at surviving these transitions together. In a sense, we repeatedly relived the NIH years, when I'd started with a textbook and launched my explorations in biochemistry and enzymology. I'd started at square one, with all its attendant doubts and insecurities. About ten years later, we made a less drastic turn into a university career. Add nine more years and we were headed to the Merck Research Laboratories to immerse ourselves in drug discovery in an unfamiliar corporate setting. Each time there'd been a few big problems and thousands of little problems for both of us to solve.

As I survey that trajectory, it seems evident that at each shift in direction we were captivated by the complexity of the problems and spurred by the results we hoped to achieve – results that would make a difference to a large number of people.