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Props to Anaqua CFO and COO Justin Crotty for allowing us to first zero-in on his early career chapters when the economy showed no mercy.\xa0 Crotty, who joined the leading provider of intellectual property management software and services, about three years ago, launched his career with a tech consultancy at the height of the dot.com era. In his mid-20s, he took on the role of project lead for a prickly client that all of his colleagues ducked (a professional development approach he advocates). Crotty says he \u201cwound up failing pretty miserably \u2026 I drove the project into the ground.\u201d But the failure steeled him to dust himself off, get the project across the finish line, and devote himself to mastering project management, expertise that serves him extremely well in his dual role.\u201d Those skills \u201chave been a key part of my success. I still conduct daily standup meetings with my team and ensure that we\u2019re getting things done, managing our plans \u2026 and focusing on delivering good experiences.\u201d This candor and relational creativity probably should be expected from a finance executive who points to the flick Slumdog Millionaire for a career-development comparison. \u201cThroughout that movie the protagonist has all of these experiences that come together in ways that he wasn't expecting \u2013 and ultimately for the better,\u201d Crotty adds. \u201cThat\u2019s the way my career has unfolded.\u201d