Shortly after he joined Microsoft 12 years ago in Washington, D.C., Martin Taylor was tapped to help an executive from Redmond make a sales presentation.
The silver-tongued son of a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist was ready to show his stuff. "I was, what, 23, so I was like, 'Steve, Joe, I don't care, some bigwig from Redmond. I just want to go do this presentation,' " he said.
The executive was a vice president named Steve Ballmer, and the presentation was a disaster.
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