Wow, that introduction reminds me of what Abraham Lincoln reportedly said after similarly glowing words… “Don’t waste time responding, the audience will find out the truth soon enough.”
Welcome. And congratulations! Please give yourselves a round of applause. Tonight is your night to celebrate your accomplishments in the study of business.
Hopefully you will all be as successful in applying the lessons you learned in school to the outside world. The world of business. And what a world it is.
Make no mistake, this world desperately needs you. For over the past decade, we’ve seen corruption and dishonesty sweep across the top echelons of this great nation’s business like never before. Or maybe not.
What if I told you that a congressional investigation found that a certain entrepreneur held controlling interest in 341 directorships in 112 corporations (insurance, trading, manufacturing, transportation, and utilities) with a capitalization totaling $22 billion. Would you be surprised? Would it just be another Enron? Or Anderson? Or Tyco? Would it surprise you to learn that the investigation took place almost a 100 years ago and the guilty party was J.P. Morgan?
In truth, the America at the turn of last century was no better than we are today. Sweat shops abounded, little children worked 14 hour days, great masses of immigrant workers were exploited under horrible working conditions fostered by the great bastions of capitalism Vanderbilt, Gould, Harriman, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan to name a few. These men made their personal fortunes on the backs of economic slaves. Bribery, violence, insider trading, election fixing, thievery, and scandal swirled around them. And none were proponents of free market, working feverishly to build monopolies, and to ruin their competition at any cost.
Had they tried it today, maybe they would be in jail, not immortalized as statues. What a difference some decades make. Yet, the sins of our economic past do not excuse nor do they overshadow the current situation we find ourselves in. And it is within the power of each and every one of you to change the course of this runaway train, to stand against inertia, and to boldly strike out in search of excellence.
Theodore Roosevelt--the Republican Roosevelt, president in the first decade of this century--spoke of the "malefactors of great wealth" and embraced a public, political role for the government in "anti-trust": controlling, curbing, and breaking up large private concentrations of economic power.
You can work to change a culture of unaccountability to a future full of accountability. You can work to replace greed with integrity. Special interests with independence. Insider with objectivity.
So here are some tips from 20 years of business…
1. Find what you enjoy and do it.
If you do what you love, you never have to work another day of your life. It amazes me how many people continue to work at jobs they hate simply because they have convinced themselves that they have no other choice. Do not let the opinions of others become your reality. Do not let the opinions of others become your reality. Find what you enjoy, and do it.
2. Act with integrity at all times
Martin Luther King Jr. said "Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?" The mess that the business community is facing today is directly a result of a lapse in integrity on many levels and in many fields. So to excel in the new age, be guided by strict integrity. Do the right thing every time. It's just not worth it to play it any other way. Why not follow Mark Twain's advice, "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
3. Keep your word, do more than you promise
It is getting harder and harder to find people that do what they say they will do. What's worse, people often act as if they can say and promise anything to move an agenda along, and then come through on nothing. Maybe the current political climate has aided this epidemic. After all, politicians make numerous promises and claims, but most of us know that they won't keep them. So why should we? To stand out in a crowd, you need only to keep your word. To truly excel, you need only to do more than you promise. Combine the two, and you will be way ahead of the crowd.
4. Work for the best, hire the best, be the best
You become what you are surrounded by. Thus, work for the best. And if you find out that you aren't working for the best, find the best and get a job with them. Apart from the TV series, apprenticeships are rare today as we have moved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. But pretend that it is many years ago and you want to be a silversmith. You need to find a mentor. Could you even imagine intentionally seeking out the worst silversmith in town to learn from? Of course not! Then why would you work for a second rate company? If you don't shoot high, you'll always fall short. And when you are in the position to hire people, wouldn't you want the best? And when you look back at your career, don't you want to say that you were the best too? Work for the best, hire the best, be the best.
5. Be easy to work with, the world owes you nothing
Thomas Jefferson said that "In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current." Life's way too short to waste on people with complexes and chips on their shoulders. Be a pleasure to work with and you'll get farther than if you are a miserable worker. People help people they like.
6. Act like an owner
Cary Grant said that "Destiny is not necessarily what we get out of life, but rather what we give." When you act like an owner, when you take ownership of an enterprise, it becomes second nature to excel. After all, it's your baby. When you act like an owner, the business becomes important to you on a higher big-picture level. You won't think to say "That's not my job" you'll concentrate on making the entire organization better. You'll pitch in to get things done. You'll resist the urge to blame outside sources and you'll work towards solutions instead.
7. Set goals, write it down, get it done
Will Rogers had it right when he said "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Again, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. So you need to set goals. By the way, set them high. Wouldn't it be horrible to set your goals low and achieve them, knowing that had you set them higher, you probably would have achieved them as well? The best technique with goals that I've found is to write them down. So set goals, write them down, and get it done. Getting it done is the part where most fail. They give up too soon, only moments away from the winning run. So keep at it. Always.
8. Be sincere and respectful to everyone, at every level, all the time
My grandfather always insisted that we try to treat everyone equally. From the doorman to the president, everyone deserved the same respect. So be courteous to all. You never know who can help you. In fact, you never know who is influencing decisions. When I hire people, I always check with the receptionist for her feedback. Candidates are going to represent my firm, and if they aren't nice to the receptionist, we assume that they have bad manners or poor social skills, and they don't get asked back for a second interview.
9. Think outside the box
A pretty bright guy, Albert Einstein, said that "Our significant problems can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." So I suggest that you imagine possibilities beyond your box. Push yourself to find better solutions, better ways. Look outside your industry and adapt great ideas from wherever you find them. Never be satisfied with mediocrity.
10. Network with your fellow businesspeople and expand your horizons
Stay in touch with your friends and acquaintances, especially your alumni. Look around. You are surrounded by tomorrow's business leaders. The people that will help mold the future of business. Sitting to your left and right are the future business people that you will interact with someday. The more people you know and stay in touch with, the easier business will be. It's not what you know, it's not who you know, but whom you can reach out to.
11. Give back to your community
Winston Churchill said that "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." Find a cause. And give what you can. Time is often much more valuable than money. We are all so much more than business people. And to stay connected to that human side is so very important. Keep your perspective balanced. Volunteer. Make a difference. Whatever your cause, give some time and energy, and make a difference.
12. Most important speaking tip
Finally, here is the most important thing I've learned from speaking in front of audiences all across the country from Manhattan to Phoenix. It's a quote from Dorothy Sarnoff "Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening." I'm done.
