Jill B. Smart University of Illinois College of Business Champaign, Illinois Commencement Address December, 2008 Thank you very much Dean DeBrock, distinguished faculty and staff, and especially the College of Business graduates and your families and friends (the support system!!). This is a very special day for all of you…the graduates, and those who played a role in getting you here, and I feel privileged that I have been asked to share this day with you. I first stepped foot on campus in 1977 (yes, 31 years ago) as a freshman, moving into FAR. I still spend a lot of time here in Champaign-Urbana, as my orange and blue blood has meant I have not strayed too far from my alma mater in the 27 years since I was sitting in your seats, whether it has been to cheer on my favorite sports teams, participate in the Alumni Association Board, work with the Dean and students in the College of Business, or to help teach a class. But coming back for this commencement has made me reminisce about my days here, and the impact that my 4 years here have had on my life, both professionally and personally. The University of Illinois gave me opportunities I never dreamed of having, both while I was here, and after I left. My sister and I were the first two people in our family to attend and graduate from college, so it was an opportunity to change the course of the Bellavia family. It was an opportunity to venture out on my own, having lived in the same house my entire life, driving only to a few states in the US for family vacations. It was an opportunity to learn, and to learn ‘how’ to learn. It was an opportunity to live in a community filled with diversity, and learn about the world outside of the state of Illinois, without ever having to leave the state at all. And it was an opportunity to form what has become a life long connection to an institution which changes peoples’ lives every day. As I prepared for today, I thought about when I sat in your seats, looking up at the stage, and listening with rapt attention to the words of wisdom – the philosophical pearls, the brilliant diamonds of advice – which were bestowed upon us….And I can't remember any of them. Back then we only had one commencement ceremony in Assembly Hall, with all 10,000 or so of us, seated according to the College we were graduating from. And the thing I remember most is the chanting war. One college, I believe it was the College of Education graduates were chanting “We Had Fun, We Had Fun” to which we from the College of Commerce and Business Administration (as this College was known back then) responded with “We Have Jobs, We Have Jobs”. Now, you have to remember that this was the year 1981, and the national economy was in a deep recession. And jobs were not as plentiful on my graduation day as they were just four years earlier when I arrived here. Sound familiar? Clearly with the world economy in turmoil, with oil and other commodity prices going up and down like yo-yos, with a new administration taking over in Washington, DC, etc., etc., no commencement address would be complete without mention of the broader global context into which you are about to march with your newly-minted diplomas…..And, now that I've mentioned it, we can move on. Not that I'm making light of the situation. The current economic challenges are very real, very large, and very thorny. And the financial mess is just one of the myriad of serious problems facing humanity and our planet. However, my aim today is not to catalog the world's ills, nor give you my opinion about how to solve them. Instead, I intend to answer the age old question of “what I wish I had known when I sat where you sit”. In other words, it is now my turn to bestow upon you precious gems of knowledge and insight which have been forged from my own years of experience. You, of course, will not remember them. In fact, most of you won't even understand their full meaning until you stand in my shoes and look through my reading glasses. So my goal today is to have you hear one thing that you will carry with you as you venture out of the ‘hallowed halls’. Just one. But I will give you 3 to choose from. Number one. I'm going to deliver these as bullet points because I'm a consultant AND a baby boomer, a clear recipe for someone who thinks in PowerPoint. Number one: The world is run by those who step up. You may have seen this on a bumper sticker as "The world is run by those who show up". Showing up is certainly half the battle, but I think it takes a bit more effort from there. Stepping up means pushing yourself. It means moving forward even when you doubt your own abilities. It means, to paraphrase Eleanor Roosevelt, "doing the thing you think you cannot do". One of the pivotal moments in my career was when I was asked to lead a large project for the first time. I was scared of the responsibility. I didn't know if I was ready. I feared I would be discovered as a P.U.R.E. – that's an acronym for "previously-undetected recruiting error". But my inner voice, and the steady encouragement of my mentor, drove me to accept the challenge. Yes, the project was a success. But then again that depends on how you define success! Yes, at the end of the day I delivered, and had a satisfied client. But it was not the smoothest project. I bungled. I stumbled. I needed a lot of support. But nobody died along the way. I had stepped up in spite of my doubts, and with some help, was rewarded with a chance to learn from my mistakes. Asking for help is a sign of strength and confidence, it is not a weakness. And remember, you don’t get what you don’t ask for!. Have faith that you can do whatever you drive yourself to do. Successful people are people who stepped up. And let me clarify what I mean by "success", lest you assume I mean raking in the money or leading a corporation. To me, a "successful person" is someone who is actively taking steps down the path to achieving his/her life goals. Your goal may be to start your own business and then take it public. Or your goal may be to live a simple life off the grid, raising llamas and selling their fur. No matter what your goals are, at some point you will be faced with doubts and insecurities about your ability to achieve them. I urge you to step up and face those challenges. One of my favorite Chinese proverbs is “Fall down 7 times….get up 8”. There are several ways to fall down. You can trip over your own feet. You can trip over something or someone that is in your way. Or you can be pushed down. I have experienced all three. One of my favorite movies is Rocky, the story of a come from behind boxer from Philadelphia. In the movie, Rocky Balboa says “It is not how hard you can hit, but how hard of a hit you can take and still get back up.” So when you fall down, or when you are hit, get back up….step up. Number two: The most valuable thing you can give someone, or something, is your time. Each of us has a finite number of hours left. Time is not a renewable resource. You can't make more, you can’t buy more, and you can't retrieve that which you have already spent. So I urge you to choose how you spend each hour. Live your life with intention. Make a difference. To put this in business terms, your time has a greater opportunity cost than anything else. Make sure you are maximizing your personal ROI on each hour invested. That doesn't mean you need to be generating income at all times. It means you should use your time to pursue the returns which are most important to you. Those returns might be emotional rather than fiscal. An hour spent lazing barefoot in the sun may yield a higher return than an hour spent closing a mega deal. Only you can decide what will bring you the greatest return on any given hour. Not your family, not your friends, not your mentors…you must choose. You may regret certain choices, you may change your mind. That's okay. The point is to live your life consciously and deliberately. But remember that you live here with 6.6 billion other people. Your time can make a difference to hundreds or thousands, or more, of them in your lifetime. Give people the best gift ever. Give people your time. Listen to them. Make them feel like your priority when you are giving them your time. You will get much more in return for that time. And this thought brings me to my final point. Number three: Treat others the way they want to be treated. This is a variant on the golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated, and I believe the distinction between the two is critically important. Unfortunately, it took quite some time before I even saw the distinction, let alone internalized it. I have always worked very hard, probably too hard, and am a bit of a perfectionist. My work is one of my top priorities. Looking back at the start of my career, I can say that I assumed my co-workers shared my priorities. However, it was not a conscious assumption. I simply was not aware that people were deliberately choosing other priorities. So, imagine what happened when I first began managing projects. I expected from others no more and no less than I expected from myself… unfortunately for them. But I delivered the projects on budget and on time, had very satisfied clients, and I continued managing others as I would manage myself. Until the day came when my mentor pulled me aside and shared with me the fact that I had earned a nickname among those who had worked with and for me. The nickname was "Ajilla the Hun". Remember I said I had the chance to learn from my mistakes? Well, I learned, and have been learning ever since, that different people are driven by different priorities and preferences. And in today’s borderless, flat world, understanding just how others want to be treated takes a lot of time (something we have already talked about today!). And remember, not everyone will give top priority to treating you the way YOU want to be treated. And to that, my advice to you is to “take the high road”. Ok, so what does “take the high road” really mean? To me, it simply means doing the right thing. As the West Point Cadet prayer says. “Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.” Choose your battles. Don’t sweat the small stuff. People will certainly test your ability to take the high road. And to those people, I suggest you take a deep breath, and smile at them. Let them pass you on the road, and let them cut you off. Chances are they will not get to their destination any faster than you will. Closing So in summary, your three choices of “what I wish I knew when I was in your seats”: 1. The world is run by those who step up. 2. The most valuable thing you can give someone, or something, is your time 3. Treat others the way they want to be treated Let me close with a little story. Early in my career with Accenture I worked in our government practice. One of my clients was a large government agency which required me to spend a year commuting to Kansas City every week. I discovered my first week there that there was only one type of radio station that I could get on the car radio as I drove to and from the airport each week. And that of course was country music stations. This 24 year old was not a country music kind of girl. But it grew on me, and I became a huge fan. There is one song that touches my heart every time I hear it. It is by Martina McBride and it is called In My Daughter’s Eyes. I happen to have a daughter, a teenager now, and the first time I heard the song, I realized that Martina was singing words that I felt every time I looked at my little girl. Martina sings: “In my daughter’s eyes I am a hero I am strong and wise and I know no fear But the truth is plain to see She was sent to rescue me I see who I wanna be In my daughter’s eyes In my daughter’s eyes everyone is equal Darkness turns to light and the World is at peace I find reason to believe in my daughter’s eyes..” Well, today, in you, and in your eyes, I see who I want to be. I see who and what I want our world to be. I see opportunity. I see acceptance of diversity. I see a yearning to make a difference. I see demand for change. I see passion. And I see hope. And I hope for you that when you look in the mirror, and look in your own eyes, you see those things. Today, 27 years from today, and 27 years after that. Class of 2008, by your presence here today as a graduate of one of the finest institutions of higher education in the world, you honor your family, the faculty and staff, and the alumni of the University of Illinois who have come before you. And for that, I congratulate each and every one of you, and wish you health, happiness, and much success, however you choose to define it. Thank you.