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PUBLICATION

Title:	ITT Commencement Speech
Source:	ITT Commencement 2006
Publish Date:	03/24/2006
Author:	Russ Jones

Thank you; I am honored to be here with you today on this very important day in your life.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article called “The Accidental Career.” It was based on the William Hurt movie with a similar title – “The Accidental Tourist.” For those of you not familiar with the 1988 film, the movie plot is about the life of Macon Leary, a travel writer, who seems to be asleep walking through life. Macon Leary, in the movie, writes travel books for people who want to travel with minimal fuss and as little impact as possible on their lives. My article concept was that for the first 11 years after I graduated from college, I wandered aimlessly from one career to the next to the next to the next – without having a game plan or career objective. Finally, quite by accident in 1983 I ended up in the career transition, career coaching/counseling business.

Having gone from store management for the Kroger Co. to sales and marketing for Colgate-Palmolive Co. to the executive search business, I found myself searching for something better. I was at a party in Winfield and was engaged in a conversation with the host whom I had met that evening. We discussed our work – mine in the executive search firm I was anxious to leave and his as the owner of an outplacement firm. I hadn’t considered the outplacement business as a career option, but a couple of weeks after the party, I received a call asking if “I had ever had an interest in the outplacement business?”

I know you have to be wondering why I would be discussing my career in the career business when it doesn’t appear that this is a direction that any of you are leaning.

My point is that it took me three careers and 11 years to get to a place for passion for my career – and 22 ˝ years later it is obvious that my choice to get into the career business was the right one.

In the mean time, I made many of the same mistakes that many of you will make in failing to find and follow your passion. Having a career based largely on accidental or coincidental events is certainly not the way I would suggest that any of us plan our lives. In previous generations, our workers allowed their organization to do their career planning for them. In Cliff Hakim’s book “We Are All Self-Employed,” he explores the concept that in today’s society each of us has to take responsibility for our own careers. As I graduated from Illinois in 1972, my classmates made job choices based upon the strength of corporate retirement programs. At 2 ˝ years with my first employer – I had stayed longer than any of my classmates.

A Northwestern University study shows that on average, you will change employers 7 times during your careers. So let me provide you with some ideas that you may take with you as you move to the next phase of your careers:

1) Define success. Success is not defined by how many dollars you earn or how many toys you accumulate, by position or influence – but in personal satisfaction. W Clement Stone once said that “Success is simply setting goals and achieving them.” Recently I read that success is achieved when an individual achieve satisfaction in his or her life.” It is a personal – not a societal standard.

2) Get Involved – Build a network. You will find, that nothing in your life will be as important as building a network of personal friends and professional colleagues. Over 70% of people today find their positions through their network of contacts. Long term, much of your life satisfaction will be derived from your ability to make and maintain relationships. Keep in touch with the friends you have made here – join professional associations and community organizations. Get involved – when the opportunity presents itself take on a leadership role. It is not “whoever dies with the most toys, but who dies with the most friends that wins.” And being a friend means being there for them when they need your assistance.

3) Without passion for your work you will soon find out that you are just going through the motions. Purpose driven people find others that share their purpose. If your work is your passion, you will be energized by your work.

4) Commit to the long term and remain true to your commitment. Too much of our world today focuses on instant gratification. In H. Jackson Brown’s book, Life’s Little Instruction Book, he said, “Be an instant success; it will take about 15 years.” Most failures in jobs, start up companies and relationships because we don’t give them enough time. Give yourself credit for good thinking - there was a reason you moved in a particular direction – give it time.

5) Don’t compromise who you are or what you stand for. Some of our greatest stresses in our lives come from being in environments that ask us to be someone or act in ways that are not within our character.

6) Take time to evaluate who you are and what aspects of your work provide that greatest satisfaction. Consider often your personal and professional objectives and determine obstacles you must overcome to achieve them. Life is not pain free – but about pain management. There will be difficulties and those who learn to live with, but not dwell on their particular issues will find a more satisfying life.

7) Give back. Be a mentor. Respond to requests for assistance from those who aren’t working as well as the executive search firms that may be asking you to be a resource for them. Even if not interested, provide information or contacts and keep those contacts alive.

8) Maintain a positive attitude - The sooner you learn to forgive and recognize that things in life happen for you and not to you – your life will be richer and more fulfilling.

9) Take risks – don’t be afraid to take qualified risks. There is a risk/reward factor in every decision and you need to be constantly assessing.

10) And finally: This is an old Irish proverb that says, “Live every day of your life as if it were your last, and one day you will be right.” In 1986 I spent eight days in the hospital with viral pneumonia. Some weeks later as I was recovering, I was told that the early diagnosis was Legionnaire’s disease – which is usually diagnosed with an autopsy. From that time on I was aware of my mortality the need to make every moment count. In a recent speech given by Steven Jobs, he said, “Death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. It is likely that death is the greatest invention in life. It is life’s change agent it clears out the old and makes way for the new.” That new is you. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Occasionally, some of us are able to find our calling by simply being in the right place at the right time. Relying on luck or happenstance to do our career/life planning for us can be dangerous – Your life simply is worth too much and too important to risk.