Archive for the ‘Constance Bagley’ tag
Steve Blank’s Philadelphia University commencement address
Steve Blank's commencement address May 15, 2011 at Philadelphia University
Here is the best commencement address I have ever heard or read. It’s by Steve Blank. I’ve written about Steve Blank and his writing before.
I consider his Four Steps to the Epiphany book to be the most important book for entrepreneurs to read.
Blank gave this speech May 15, 2011 at the commencement for Philadelphia University.
Here’s one story from the speech that particularly resonates with me. When Blank was a young man he was in the United States military. He volunteered to go to Thailand and he kept volunteering once he got there. His enthusiasm and curiosity paid off, as you’ll see:
“Once again, I was going to see where the road would take me. Volunteering for the unknown…which meant leaving the security of what I knew…would continually change my life.
Two weeks later I was lugging heavy boxes across the runway under the broiling Thailand sun. My job was to replace failed electronic warfare equipment in fighter planes as they returned from bombing missions over North Vietnam.
As I faced yet another 110-degree day, I did consider that perhaps my decision to leave Miami might have been a bit hasty. Yet every day I would ask, “Where does our equipment come from… and how do we know it’s protecting our airplanes?”
The answer I got was, “Don’t you know there’s a war on? Shut up and keep doing what you’re told.”
Still I was forever curious. At times continually asking questions got me in trouble…
once it almost sent me to jail…
but mostly it made me smarter.
I wanted to know more. I had found something I loved to do.. …and I wanted to get better at it.
When my shift on the flightline was over, my friends would go downtown drinking. Instead, I’d often head into the shop and volunteer to help repair broken jammers and receivers. Eventually, the shop chief who ran this 150-person shop approached me and asked, “You’re really interested in this stuff, aren’t you?” He listened to me babble for a while, and then walked me to a stack of broken electronic equipment and challenged me troubleshoot and fix them.
Hours later when I was finished, he looked at my work and told me, “We need another pair of hands repairing this equipment. As of tomorrow you no longer work on the flightline.” He had just given me a small part of the electronic warfare shop to run.
People talk about getting lucky breaks in their careers. I’m living proof that the “lucky breaks” theory is simply wrong. You get to make your own luck. 80% of success in your career will come from just showing up. The world is run by those who show up…not those who wait to be asked.
Eighteen months after arriving in Thailand, I was managing a group of 15 electronics technicians.
I had just turned 20 years old.”
I think most success people have is the result of them doing more than is expected, and I admire Blank for selecting such a concrete example from his past to illustrate this point.
While I’m mentioning important books, the book I consider the second most important for entrepreneurs to read is The Entrepreneurs Guide to Business Law, by Craig E. Dauchy and Constance E. Bagley. I used to work with Dauchy at Cooley LLP. He’s one of the most respected members of that firm, so I place a lot of faith in what this book has to say.
