A practical commencement address for making smart choices
/
Like many parents, I have kids who will graduate from their respective schools during this period of COVID-19 uncertainty (Tim from grad school and Becky from high school). Neither knows if or when they will have a formal commencement ceremony. That got me thinking about the many commencements I’ve attended over the years; some were entertaining, others just long, but few featured speakers with useful insights.
In light of this, I decided to offer the commencement keynote I wish I had received. No lofty platitudes, just eight bits of practical advice for navigating the future. These are things that I had to figure out for myself in the decades since my own graduations.
1) Be an exception. You want an exceptional set of opportunities? An exceptional career? Most places are designed to efficiently handle a large group of requests the same, whether the task is approval to move ahead with a project, manage a budget, hire talent, give a promotion, etc. You can try to circumvent the process when it doesn’t make sense, but that’s not a great idea. Instead, find a reason that your case is an exception. Once you are in an exception category, you can get almost anything done that’s reasonable.
2) You get the job you are doing. If you want a promotion or a great new assignment, prove you are up to it. Volunteer to assist, invest some effort, and demonstrate your ability. That’s far more effective than just asking to be given something. As Edison once said, “don’t be afraid to earn more than you are paid.” Earn the job and it will be given to you.
3) You get what you measure. As your career progresses, you will find that people pay the most attention to things that are inspected by others. Create a consistent set of metrics around the “critical few” things that matter most because they have a disproportionate effect on the outcomes you seek. That also means your metrics have to be balanced so you don’t succeed in one area at the expense of something equally important. Measure constantly and publicly. People will focus on what is measured.
4) Take risks when the cost of failure is low. Every decision involves some kind of risk, so take the biggest risks (with the most upside potential) when your downside is limited. I left a good job and started a company at a time when I knew I could get another job if needed. It’s also worth remembering that risks accumulate, so if you are taking a lot of risk in one area, don’t simultaneously take risk elsewhere.
5) Time is the enemy. There will always be competitors, but they are just competition. Your enemy is time. Efforts that take a long time allow other things around them to change— business priorities shift, people take on new roles, economies rise and fall. If you don’t have a sense of urgency and execute while the conditions are right, the conditions will change. A boss of mine used to say “the longer it takes, the longer it will take.”
6) People who can’t communicate work for people who can. This is extremely important. Learn the art of public speaking. Learn to organize your thoughts with mind maps and write clearly. Avoid jargon and use analogies when communicating with people who don’t deeply know your space. Join Toastmasters. Read Tufte’s books. Learn the art of communicating to others.
7) Life is long and your industry small. Be nice to people. You may meet them again, and they will remember whether you cared about them and their challenges – or just yourself.
8) Make smart choices. This neatly summarizes the seven things before it. Life is a series of choices and consequences. Sometimes people express this as “you make your own luck.” It’s true. Understand the likely (longer-term) outcomes from your actions and decisions, vs. focusing on just the immediate result. You influence your outcomes far more than you think.
That’s it. No lofty visions, no inspirational platitudes. Instead, you have eight bits of practical advice that can be applied throughout all aspects of your life and career. It took me 35 years to find and distill these, so you just got a 35-year head start. Use it to do something great. Make smart choices.
Lou Steinberg is Founder & Managing Partner of CTM Insights, a cybersecurity research lab and early stage incubator