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. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Penny Pritzker, the secretary of commerce. In her opinion, “If you want to get fired, here’s what you need to do: first, lie, cheat or steal. But the other thing that will get you fired is if you have a problem and you keep it to yourself.”

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

Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times

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Bryant: What were some early influences for you?

Pritzker: On the weekends when I was younger, I would sometimes go with my dad to the office. I would play on the adding machine, and then we would walk across the street from the office to our motels. He’d send me into the ladies’ room and he’d go in the men’s room to make sure they were clean. I grew up in the motel business, and it evolved into hotels. [The Pritzker family built the Hyatt hotel chain.] I wanted to build businesses from the time I was little.

I grew up in a household that revered building businesses. It wasn’t thinking about leadership; it was more about building something. To build something, you ultimately have to lead.

Bryant: Were there specific insights that your father would pass along to you?

Pritzker: One thing he would talk about is how, when you’re building a fast-growing business, the bellman might very shortly be the general manager. He was focused on talent, and that you need to realize that talent doesn’t necessarily come in at the top, and that it’s maybe somebody you grow. He had a real appreciation for the person who is passionate, committed, energetic and wants to learn, as opposed to the person who’s already done everything you need them to do. A lot of my approach to hiring came from that experience.

Bryant: What was your first management role?

Pritzker: After I got my law degree and business degree, I went to work for my family, and I spent two years at Hyatt doing a training program. I was really interested in real estate — one reason was that nobody in my family was doing that. I was looking for a place where I could be successful doing something that was my own.

There was an idea floating around the office to start a senior-living company. This is 27 years ago, and the industry didn’t exist. So I started that business, just me and a secretary. There was just a white sheet of paper, and the industry was just a white sheet of paper, too. I had never hired anyone. I’d never fired anyone. I had to put together a strategic plan, figure out the product, how to market it and how to get it built. I learned by doing.

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.

His more recent book, Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation, was also published by Times Books (January 2014). To contact him, please click here.