Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. He has found that “the difficulty in starting companies is not just about finding the right technology, but also getting the timing right.” Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Jim Dolce, chief executive of the mobile security firm Lookout. To read the complete interview, check out other articles, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

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Were you in leadership roles when you were younger?

I wasn’t in a leadership role until well after college. I went to school to become an engineer, and this was around 1984, so the field of computer engineering was just starting. A lot of high school students going into college don’t really know what they want to do when they get out. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I envisioned myself sitting in a cube every day designing things. But, ironically, I didn’t do it for very long.

What happened?

I kept getting pulled out into the field, engaging with sales guys. A product I had developed became popular, and the sales folks would ask me to go on calls with them. I liked sitting in front of customers, and that pushed me to the sales and marketing side of the business.

And tell me about your life before you went to college.

I played sports. I lived in a small town in Rhode Island. You got home from school, and you went out and played ball. In winter, the ponds would freeze and you played hockey.

And what about your parents?

My parents got married very young, right out of high school. My mother was a housewife; my father was a salesman. He spent 40 years at the same job, working for a public utility in Rhode Island called the Providence Gas Company. That’s how I learned respect and admiration for the profession of sales.

What were some early leadership lessons for you?

I thought that the more time and effort I put into something, and the harder I worked myself, the better it was going to be and the more I would accomplish. Over time, you learn to work smarter and work through others. I’m also a lot more patient now.

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To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.