rainmaker

'make it stick' (三人の共著)を読んでいます。 'Get Beyond Learning Styles' の章から引用します。

Out of college, Bruce went to work for Kodak as a microfilm salesman. In his third year, he was one of five top salesmen in the country. That was the year he found out how much his branch manager was making: less than Bruce made as a salesman, if he factored in his company car and expense account. It pays better to be a rainmaker than a manager: another lesson learned, another step up Bruce's winding stair. He quit to join a brokerage firm and sell stocks.

マネージャーより "rainmaker" の方が実入りが良いと言っていて、セールスマンのBruceを指していますが、 "rainmaker" を辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: a person who makes a business grow and become successful:
・Collins Dictionary: an influential employee who creates a great deal of business or revenue for his or her firm: The president has several rainmakers among his advisers
・Vocabulary.com: If someone has a reputation as a rainmaker at work, it means that she has an almost uncanny ability to generate new business, attract clients, gather investments, or otherwise help the company succeed.
This figurative meaning of rainmaker is the most common, especially in the business world. Rainmakers have a magic touch, or extremely good luck. It's as though everything they're involved with at work helps their employer make money. The original sense of rainmaker is literally "person who makes the rain fall," and you can also use it for a Native American leader of ritual rain dances or a scientist who seeds clouds to make rain fall.

雨を降らすインディアンの祈祷師からできた言葉なのですね。