Graduating to the Next Level

With an academic theme, read on for commencement advice from #BillGates , tutorials from #AngelaDuckworth on #Grit , and topics like #ActYourWage and the #AftermathEconomy . The MAD newsletter aims to help you Make A Difference in your #leadership , your team and your organization.

In this Issue:

1.????Graduating into Leadership

2.????Required Reading

3.????Who is minding the future?

4.????Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

5.????Econ Recon

Graduating into Leadership

May and June mark graduation time.?College graduates are offered (most times) valuable advice from well-known people during commencement. This week’s issue shares a sampler of commencement speaker wisdom and other advice valuable to leaders and those they lead.

Advice I wish I’d been given. By Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

It may strike some as odd that a college dropout would be asked to give commencement speeches…unless that dropout is Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Gates dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft in the mid 1970’s. In a post on his GatesNotes site, he offers a summary of a commencement address he gave a few weeks ago at Northern Arizona University. He remarks that?“the advice I shared with the class of 2023 is advice I could have used myself.”?

Take a few minutes as shares?“5 things I wish I heard at the graduation I never had.”

Will You be Lucky or Smart? By Michael Lewis, author of Money Ball, Liar’s Poker and The Big Short

This 12 minute??2012 Commencement Address at Princeton? ?is a favorite.?Lewis warns his audience?not to overestimate their competence, or underestimate the role of luck in their lives...and by way of illustration relates the chance encounter at a dinner party that launched his own remarkable career,?and the moral obligation to share a little bit of one’s luck.?Funny and insightful.

The Importance of Making Your Bed. By Adm. William McRaven who organized the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Ladin

A few years ago, retired Navy Seal and Admiral McRaven?offered grads at the University of Texas?at Austin some advice on changing the world, including?not underestimating?the number of people whose lives will be affected by theirs and?the importance of starting every day?by making your bed properly?(no kidding).??

Click here for the video and transcript of the Admiral’s talk? ?which was featured on the WSJ editorial page as well. This one went viral!?

Required Reading

I did not read this book until after I graduated. I wish that a professor or course included psychiatrist Dr. Viktor Frankl’s masterpiece, Man’s Search for Meaning , in which he shares what he learned as a prisoner in WWII concentration camps about?the one thing you always have complete control over. Most of our decisions will be driven, consciously or otherwise by?what we believe?and?how we respond to what life presents us. Add it to your required reading list.

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Who is minding the future?

This article from Chief Executive Magazine explores?the leader’s existential question: who is minding the future ? It begins by warning “It's time to face a tough truth: we might have emotionally healthier employees in the future, but they may not have a place to be employed.”??

In my opinion, another piece of required reading for every businessperson.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

From the TED site: “Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school.?She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled.?Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.”???

Spend 6 minutes on her TED talk for a quick tutorial on what may make or break your life:?“Grit-The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” Her research applies to people beyond seventh grade.

Econ Recon

The “Aftermath Economy”:?Known as the Aftermath Economy, this is a period of low-to-no growth as the economic aftershocks of the pandemic subside. Read 4 ways CEOs can get recession ready and find a path to grow forward.?

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Wishing you a productive week!

Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair, Facilitator, & Executive Coach

Find me easily at: 847.404.7325,?[email protected] , Twitter:?@STinnish, LinkedIn:??www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish , Website:??https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish ??