Whether you are a graduating student, the parent or grandparent, graduation is an important stepping stone in our lives for all involved. My daughter just happened to be the parent of two daughters graduating this year; one from college and one from graduate school. She had some very wise words to pass on to her daughters and for that matter anyone stepping into the world of the working class. A Chemical Engineer, she has worked her way to a position of high responsibility. I am proud to share her words with you.
- Advice for the new college graduates.
Both of my daughters are graduating from college this weekend, Alex on Saturday and Rachel on Sunday. In honor of this, I'm making an uncharacteristically long Facebook post for all the college grads out there making one more huge step further into adulthood. These are things I wish someone had told me when I was trying to find someone, anyone who would take a chance on hiring me when I was a new engineer with no experience, as well as during those first few years of my career. This is some of the very best advice I have to offer to you. All of it was learned laboriously and painstakingly in the School of Hard Knocks.
- Despite great effort and initiative, you may face a lot of rejection, especially in the early stages of your career. Don’t spend a whole lot of time being puzzled by this. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes the result was in your control. Sometimes it wasn’t. It doesn’t mean that things will never work out. They just didn’t that time. Sometimes you win and you get what you want. If you didn’t win, but you’re paying close attention, you’ve likely learned something that will benefit you in the future. Sometimes you’ll look back and feel relieved that you didn’t get what you thought you wanted at the time.
- When you do get a job, arrive early. Stay late. Learn everyone’s name. Go out of your way to find things to help with, even if they seem like really small and inconsequential things. You’ll earn the reputation of someone who is dedicated, hard-working, nice and helpful. People will notice this (because it's kind of rare) and be eager to come to you with opportunities to do more.
- Expect that you will have a failure at some point when you try to do something hard and new. Expect that you might have an epic failure. If you’re like me, expect that you’ll have multiple epic failures. When failures happen, do the following. Pick. Yourself. Back. Up. And keep going. Regardless of how painful and discouraging it was, pretend to be completely undaunted on the outside by whatever happened, no matter how you are feeling inside, and hold your head high. Tomorrow will go better. Remember that the real mark of a person’s character is not that they stumbled, but how they conducted themselves as they recover and stand straight again.
- As your supervisor, the things I want the most from you are a great attitude, determination and your very best effort; one could simply call all of this Hustle. So show me your Hustle. Every day. My job is to coach you, guide you, support you and give you the tools you need to help you have an excellent career. I will stand behind you, next to you or in front of you as the situation calls for, and I will be the one cheering the loudest when you achieve results. Remember this though; I am not willing to invest one iota more at making you successful than you are willing to do on your own.
- Identify a colleague whom you most admire and emulate their behavior. Look for a mentor to learn from. Make sure that you’re the kind of person people want to help and invest in.
- There will be times during your career in which you feel like you're way over your head and you have no idea what to do. Act the part, performing whatever task that overwhelms you in the way you think it should look, and it will get less scary. At some point acting the part will turn into playing the part and all of the sudden you realize - you're doing it. For real. And doing it well.
- Instead of dismissing a co-worker who may not be as capable as you, view working with them as an opportunity to help them grow and improve. Be kind to people; you never know how they might play a role that could be helpful to you in your future.
- Don’t ever take credit for someone else’s efforts. Be generous in sharing credit for your successes with those around you, even if they didn’t play as big of a role in the achievement as you did.
- Take responsibility for your mistakes and shortcomings. If you screw up, own it and learn from it and vow not to repeat it in the future. Apologize if you've done something that merits it.
- Too many people have been told that they need to follow their passion, and find a job doing what they really love. I hold the unpopular position that this belief is highly overrated. Maybe you didn't get a job that cures cancer or will arc into the next technological marvel. Maybe your friends got jobs that sound infinitely more impressive than yours. There's a lot to be said for having a job that pays the bills, and if you've been able to land a job that does more than pay the bills it's pretty awesome to support your kids and be able to fund charities you believe in and go on a cool vacation once in a while. The real secret here, though, is to figure out that you don't need to have a job that you love to feed your passion and change the world. There are far too few leaders in today's workplace that we can look up to and use as everyday role models. Show up quietly every day and bring 40 hours of unwavering character, honesty, hard work and solid values that can't be shaken to your workplace. Be kind. Invest in others. Help someone who is struggling. Show your colleagues what it means to be a person that others can count on no matter what. That, my friends, is a rare and magical thing that is much harder to achieve than it sounds; and if you're able to do it, you will find that it is tremendously rewarding.
- A career can bring money, power, fame, titles. At the end of the day, however, all you have that is truly meaningful is your name and your reputation and your integrity. Strive for these things first (and the rest will take care of themselves in a manner that you will find is perfectly adequate.)
- Advice for the new college graduates.
Both of my daughters are graduating from college this weekend, Alex on Saturday and Rachel on Sunday. In honor of this, I'm making an uncharacteristically long Facebook post for all the college grads out there making one more huge step further into adulthood. These are things I wish someone had told me when I was trying to find someone, anyone who would take a chance on hiring me when I was a new engineer with no experience, as well as during those first few years of my career. This is some of the very best advice I have to offer to you. All of it was learned laboriously and painstakingly in the School of Hard Knocks.
- Despite great effort and initiative, you may face a lot of rejection, especially in the early stages of your career. Don’t spend a whole lot of time being puzzled by this. Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes the result was in your control. Sometimes it wasn’t. It doesn’t mean that things will never work out. They just didn’t that time. Sometimes you win and you get what you want. If you didn’t win, but you’re paying close attention, you’ve likely learned something that will benefit you in the future. Sometimes you’ll look back and feel relieved that you didn’t get what you thought you wanted at the time.
- When you do get a job, arrive early. Stay late. Learn everyone’s name. Go out of your way to find things to help with, even if they seem like really small and inconsequential things. You’ll earn the reputation of someone who is dedicated, hard-working, nice and helpful. People will notice this (because it's kind of rare) and be eager to come to you with opportunities to do more.
- Expect that you will have a failure at some point when you try to do something hard and new. Expect that you might have an epic failure. If you’re like me, expect that you’ll have multiple epic failures. When failures happen, do the following. Pick. Yourself. Back. Up. And keep going. Regardless of how painful and discouraging it was, pretend to be completely undaunted on the outside by whatever happened, no matter how you are feeling inside, and hold your head high. Tomorrow will go better. Remember that the real mark of a person’s character is not that they stumbled, but how they conducted themselves as they recover and stand straight again.
- As your supervisor, the things I want the most from you are a great attitude, determination and your very best effort; one could simply call all of this Hustle. So show me your Hustle. Every day. My job is to coach you, guide you, support you and give you the tools you need to help you have an excellent career. I will stand behind you, next to you or in front of you as the situation calls for, and I will be the one cheering the loudest when you achieve results. Remember this though; I am not willing to invest one iota more at making you successful than you are willing to do on your own.
- Identify a colleague whom you most admire and emulate their behavior. Look for a mentor to learn from. Make sure that you’re the kind of person people want to help and invest in.
- There will be times during your career in which you feel like you're way over your head and you have no idea what to do. Act the part, performing whatever task that overwhelms you in the way you think it should look, and it will get less scary. At some point acting the part will turn into playing the part and all of the sudden you realize - you're doing it. For real. And doing it well.
- Instead of dismissing a co-worker who may not be as capable as you, view working with them as an opportunity to help them grow and improve. Be kind to people; you never know how they might play a role that could be helpful to you in your future.
- Don’t ever take credit for someone else’s efforts. Be generous in sharing credit for your successes with those around you, even if they didn’t play as big of a role in the achievement as you did.
- Take responsibility for your mistakes and shortcomings. If you screw up, own it and learn from it and vow not to repeat it in the future. Apologize if you've done something that merits it.
- Too many people have been told that they need to follow their passion, and find a job doing what they really love. I hold the unpopular position that this belief is highly overrated. Maybe you didn't get a job that cures cancer or will arc into the next technological marvel. Maybe your friends got jobs that sound infinitely more impressive than yours. There's a lot to be said for having a job that pays the bills, and if you've been able to land a job that does more than pay the bills it's pretty awesome to support your kids and be able to fund charities you believe in and go on a cool vacation once in a while. The real secret here, though, is to figure out that you don't need to have a job that you love to feed your passion and change the world. There are far too few leaders in today's workplace that we can look up to and use as everyday role models. Show up quietly every day and bring 40 hours of unwavering character, honesty, hard work and solid values that can't be shaken to your workplace. Be kind. Invest in others. Help someone who is struggling. Show your colleagues what it means to be a person that others can count on no matter what. That, my friends, is a rare and magical thing that is much harder to achieve than it sounds; and if you're able to do it, you will find that it is tremendously rewarding.
- A career can bring money, power, fame, titles. At the end of the day, however, all you have that is truly meaningful is your name and your reputation and your integrity. Strive for these things first (and the rest will take care of themselves in a manner that you will find is perfectly adequate.)