The Mrkonich file
Marko Mrkonich
President and managing director
Littler Mendelson PC
Born: I was born in a town called Thief River Falls, Minn. The nickname of the high school sports teams is the Prowlers — which today sounds like a felon in waiting, but it’s a nocturnal cat that was sort of the logo. I don’t know that a school would knowingly pick that these days. I grew up in Duluth for most of my childhood.
Education: Undergraduate and law degrees, Harvard
What was your first job as a child?
My first job with a paycheck was cleaning schoolrooms and desks in the summer time for the Duluth School Board. I was 16. I learned, to a certain extent, no matter what you’re doing, showing up on time and prepared is important.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wasn’t even picky. I probably wanted to be a pro football player.
What has been the best advice you’ve received?
It’s interesting, because over the years I’ve been fortunate to have had many people share many pieces of wisdom. There are two I would say — one is from my father, which was, ‘Work hard every day, and people may not agree with you, but they’ll respect you.’ And [the other is,] ‘Worry about yourself and what you’re doing — don’t get caught up in looking at what other people are doing, because that’s a recipe for disaster.’
What’s your favorite board game?
Trivial Pursuit, because I think that it’s social and I just have a fondness for trivia.
