They say, “Never meet your heroes.” This adage may be due to the disappointment found when someone you idolize doesn’t match up to your expectations. There should be a corollary to this axiom: “Sometimes, you’ll be surprised and delighted to learn that a high-profile person is amazing.”

In a wide-ranging interview with Dr. Robert Langer, the multibillionaire cofounder of Moderna, the biotech startup that helped save the world from the Covid-19 pandemic.

As an executive recruiter, I’ve interviewed thousands of high-powered professionals over the last two decades. It's rare to find uber successful people who still possess humility and gratitude.

Langer, in addition to being a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a chemical engineer, scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. He famously cofounded Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna, and owns a roughly 3% stake, worth about $2.6 billion.

The MIT professor, who still regularly goes into the lab, has also founded more than 40 other companies. He holds around 1,400 patents and is one of the most published and cited scholars of all time.