Transcription
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Very generous. Wow. Thank you so much. What an honor to be here with you and to congratulate you on this extraordinary day and your parents.
I got a call from Dean Tatar asking if as a Republican I believed in free speech. I said, "Dane, of course I believe in free speech." He said, "Good. I'd like you to give one. Now, I don't have to tell you uh that this is one of the most tumultuous times in American history. In the face of that, I hope that you may be among the most consequential graduating classes of the Harvard Business School. Let me tell you why that is. Turbulent times are, yes, times of threat, but also of opportunity and need. Disrupting technologies are the technologies that pro p pry open closed doors. Change understandably frightens those who made it at the top under the old rules. But change isn't how an upstart displaces the entrenched order. In an era of uncertainty and turbulence, the creative, the perspective, the bold will find enterprises ripe for transformation. Some you may buy and shepherd their renovation. Some you will join to invigorate as an agent of change. And perhaps others you'll actually bring into being. Some of you may even find ways through turbulence to write our national soul. Perhaps more than ever, the need for your leadership is as great as your opportunity. So, with that as a charge, I'd like to offer a few words of personal advice.
Don't worry too much about setbacks. I once did a reference check on an HBS grad named Tom Steberg. He uh had asked my firm to invest in his startup company. In doing the background checks, I found that his life was not without reversals. He had been fired by his two prior employers. Nevertheless, we decided to invest. His startup, Staples, the office supply supertore, became a multi-billion dollar business that earned us almost 10 times our money. I've painfully learned that success in a career and in business is subject to serendipity, to chance. Of course, hard work, solid analysis, and determination can lead to fortune. But plain old bad luck can derail the course. Recessions can intervene. Competitors can frustrate the bestlaid plans, and regulators and legislators can cause havoc. At the same time, serendipity can transform a bad choice into a triumph. Quite a number of years ago, my firm bought the yellow pages phone directory of Italy. Talk about a bad decision. The soontobe ubiquitous internet would of course wipe out telephone directories. But deep in the text of the closing documents was a provision we hadn't focused on. The purchase contract transferred to us the Italian phone phone company's entire rights to the internet. Now, as you might imagine, we eventually sold those internet rights back to the phone company, but we did so at a price many times that we'd paid for. So, two observations. First, successful people are rarely as smart as they would have you believe. And second, underachievers are not necessarily less. So don't overestimate your brilliance if you achieve a success. And don't underestimate your brilliance if you have a slip and fall. Both are part and parcel of life in the real world.
Now, another word of advice. Choose good people. If you're comparing opportunities and one is led by someone you admire, choose that one. One of the lessons of my life has been to see how great is the influence of a leader. I served for some years on the board of Marriott International. In a customer survey, Marriott associates were graded by the customers as showing more care for their guests than were those of our competitors. I I wondered how that could possibly come about. One day, I accompanied Bill Marriott on a visit to one of his hotels, this one in Western, Massachusetts. Rather than secluding himself with the general manager in his office, he went into the kitchen, into the laundry, the back office. He shook hands with the associates, looked into their eyes, asked them what their ambitions were. His genuine concern for the people who worked at his properties had somehow helped shape the culture of an entire company of 170,000 people. If you become a leader, surround yourself with good people, people you admire, and also with people smarter or more able than yourself. Bob Gates served as Secretary of Defense under two presidents. one a Democrat, one a Republican. He was asked, "What's the single most important quality of a president?" His answer was not at all what I expected. He said, "The single most important quality of a president of the United States is to recognize that you're not the smartest person in the room." Now, my success in business and later in politics was in large measure due to the qualities of the people around me. Yes. Over time, I discovered my strengths and weaknesses, but the abilities and wisdom of my colleagues made all the difference. Choose to hire and work with good people.
Now, one word of advice that truthfully I didn't follow. Be unfailingly positive and optimistic. My partners used to joke about something we called tie flapping. When we had a business we'd invested in that was having trouble. I would start flapping my tie like this in feigned fear. During one of my campaigns, whoops, don't want to lose that. During one of my campaigns, I met a guy who did just the opposite. Jim Leo graduated second in his high school class. Second from the bottom. He borrowed $25,000 from his father to start a restaurant business. Finding that he couldn't afford a restaurant for $25,000, he put a stainless steel table in his garage, started making sandwiches, and delivered them to college kids in the neighborhood. Key to his business was his exceptionally cheerful personality and overwhelming enthusiasm. Today, his restaurant coming company, Jimmy John's, has 2,700 locations. Now, I came across Jimmy John while I was on vacation in the Bahamas one time. He was on a yacht. I saw him up there. I said, "Jimmy, is that you?" He looked down. "Mitt, is that you?" I said, "Yes." I said, "Jimmy, did sandwiches pay for that yacht?" He said, "No, no, no. Extra cheese paid for this yacht."
Now, I was playing a game of Monopoly the other day. Each player was intently focused on the board, as you might imagine. We loved it when a competitor landed on one of our squares that had a hotel. Winners showed off by ostentatiously counting out our $500 bills. But of course, we all knew that this is just a game. And far more important than winning at Monopoly was our relationship with the people around us. In some ways, I hope you know your career is like a board game. Yeah, there's strategy, but also luck, and it's sure fun to win, but the people in your life are far more important to your happiness than all your hotels and your bank account. This I firmly testify. The true measure of wealth in life is the people you love and your friends. And that kind of wealth doesn't come easily or automatically. It's often centered in your family. Two of the most difficult jobs in the world are that of a spouse and a parent. My wife Anne was asked to speak on a panel here at Harvard Business School about her choice of career. She'd chosen to be a full-time mom to our five sons. She explained that her her career had required her to become a part-time nurse, educator, chef, engineer, negotiator, and psychologist. And of my greatest accomplishment is having raised good sons. The president of my church once said this. There's no success that can compensate for failure in the home.
Now, one more word of advice. Find purpose. Meaning, have a grand purpose in your life. Over my lifetime, my purpose has expanded or narrowed as my opportunities have and circumstances have changed. At first, my life's purpose was to make Anne happy and then to raise good kids. And that added to these was service to my faith and then to my country. If my sole purpose had been business or money or promotions or elections, I would have been poor indeed, regardless of the size of my bank account. Remember what Marley said to Scrooge? Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence were all my business. I know that this graduating class comes from many countries. Whichever is your home, remember that your nation needs you. Your energies and initiatives in endeavors of all kinds will propel the economy and the economy funds our schools and our ability to care for others. International security, helping building a nation's economy is public service. But there's more to a country than its economy. To be a great nation, it must also be a good nation. A shining city on a hill, if you will. The world needs good men. It needs good women, good leaders, good parents raising good children. There is no national success that could compensate for failure to be a good and noble people. Congratulations to this great class. We have high expectations for you and are confident you will succeed. This is what I hope for you and from you. Thank you so much.