There is a plethora of professional advice floating around the internet this time of year. As the celebrities and politicians are called upon to do commencement speeches, each tries to boil down the essence of their success into short 20-minute speeches.
This is a very difficult thing to do.
How can a high-performing person really summarize a complex career into a few choice nuggets that could be taken and applied by the graduates he or she is addressing?
Most can’t do it (and I believe I would probably be in that group). Instead of offering something meaningful or profound, they fall back on platitudes or focus on issues that most normal people can’t really apply.
Each year, I try to find a couple of these commencement speeches that rise above the norm and, at least, border on being profound. I’ll share two of my favorites from this year in the WorkPuzzles ahead.
Why should you care about graduation advice?
I would argue that much of the advice that is being offered to graduates could be applied to the new agent interviews and to new agent coaching. Many of the new to real estate candidates and agents are dealing with the same issues as the new grads:
How do they use their talents and training to make an impact in the professional world?
My second “favorite speech” this year was not a speech at all, but instead a Twitter rant done by Marc Andreessen. He was responding to the widespread notion that grads should follow their passions in the pursuit of their careers (see an example here).
The Twitter dialog was captured by Rob Wile a couple of weeks ago and documented in a posting on Business Insider. Here is Marc Andreessen’s advice for graduates this year:
Tweet #1: Thesis: "Do what you love" / "Follow your passion" is dangerous and destructive career advice.
Tweet #2: We tend to hear it from (a) Highly successful people who (b) Have become successful doing what they love.
Tweet #3: The problem is that we do NOT hear from people who have failed to become successful by doing what they love.
Tweet #4: Particularly pernicious problem in tournament-style fields with a few big winners & lots of losers: media, athletics, startups.
Tweet #5: Better career advice may be "Do what contributes" -- focus on the beneficial value created for other people vs. just one's own ego.
Tweet #6: People who contribute the most are often the most satisfied with what they do -- and in fields with high remuneration, make the most $.
Tweet#7: Perhaps difficult advice since requires focus on others vs. oneself -- perhaps bad fit with endemic narcissism in modern culture?
Tweet #8: Requires delayed gratification -- may toil for many years to get the payoff of contributing value to the world, vs short-term happiness.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think Twitter might be a good thing. If it causes people to articulate their thoughts in such a concise and meaningful way—it would be a great thing.
This is simple and profound advice that every candidate and new agent needs to hear. If your new agents all bought into this mentality, you’d hire many more top performers!
Later this week, I’ll share my favorite commencement speech from this year’s graduation season. After reading the transcript, I immediately sent it to my four oldest kids with a note that said, “You've got to read/watch this…”
Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.
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