In this episode of “Humble Beginnings,” we chat with Gil Smith, senior director of government health program development at Philips (and a rancher), about his upbringing as a latchkey kid in a broken home in Rhode Island. Always the “new kid,” Smith attended nearly nine different schools growing up before settling in a welcoming high school while living with his grandparents in Pittsburgh.

His story is a unique one, navigating different family dynamics and ways of life, while harvesting bits and pieces of each experience, and fatherly and grandfatherly advice and guidance. Smith would enroll in university, only to drop out shortly thereafter and join the Navy after an epiphany at a baseball field back in Rhode Island.

The journey that followed is filled with timely yet unexpected opportunities. He’d later find himself as a Medical Service Corps officer, a presidential appointee, deputy chief of operations at the White House and more. His experience spans both the federal and private sector space — but most interestingly, it’s the people and events that truly changed the course of his life and career along the way. Nearly every turning point in his life involves influential moments, people or happenings — good and bad.

“Who made a choice to change the direction that you’re going in today, and how can you be that person?” Smith says.