Today a former student happily surprised me with a visit to my office. Most of the time when I get visits from students, they want help with something - which is fabulous, that's why I'm here. But this one just wanted to share some news - he's two semesters from graduating and has already landed an amazing job in management that’ll be waiting for him when he's done. If you met this student back when I met him, you'd have been kinda shocked.
He was a Fine Arts major. I admire art in much the same way I admire brain surgery - I'm so grateful it exists and that people do it well because I wouldn't and shouldn't even attempt it on purpose. But I suspect this student's parents might not have been super thrilled with the choice of major in terms of making money after college.
Somehow, he stumbled into one of my business classes. It wasn't easy for him, but along the way he found out that he really liked business. Then he switched his major. That's gotta be a little bit like switching from living in Northern Alaska to Southern Mexico - pretty jarring. He struggled a bit but stuck with it. After a few semesters he landed an internship, where he subsequently led the company in revenue as an intern. He was the only one offered a job at the end.
I'm so glad he was open to trying something different. He did the brave thing and I admire him. I also hope that he keeps making art, because he's really great at it.
I've been a Shakira fan since I first heard some of her early music while on a rickety bus in western Venezuela in 1995. The early version was emo-Shakira - black hair, angsty lyrics - kind of a post-grunge Columbian Alanis Morisette. Here's an example of some of those lyrics from an excellent song called "Si Te Vas"
I really enjoy the strong focus on dental hygiene there - that must've been a dating deal-breaker for our young Shakira.
Years later she would write a song that’s actually relevant to this post called "Try Everything". It was from Zootopia, a movie that I can only assume was filmed inside a large zoo of some sort. In that song she sings about trying and failing but getting back up. There are a lot of songs in that specific genre. Eminem's "Lose Yourself" lands much the same message while discussing spaghetti. These songs still inspire me, even as an old man.
I think the message of trying a bunch of things, failing, and then trying more things is pretty core to a fulfilling life.
But sometimes we have to try things even when we don't choose them . . .
My first big job out of college was doing purchasing for a Pfizer Animal Health plant in Lee’s Summit, MO. My degree in International Relations, where I mostly wrote papers about terrorism and Russia, clearly made me super qualified. It was cool though - I had a desk AND a computer. Our spreadsheets were made with Lotus 123 (which sounds like a recreational drug no one should take) and the internet was still trying to figure out what it would be when it grew up. (I'm not sure we are better off with what it chose to be.) I recall that one of our suppliers wanted us to use their website to make our orders instead of emails, faxes, and/or phone calls. This was a big deal. I tried to figure it out, but the plant managers were pretty nervous to "put information on the internet where everyone could see it".
It occurs to me that now we "put everything on the internet SO THAT everyone can see it." That's an interesting intellectual journey. Again, not sure we made a good call there…
One day, after I'd been there for a year, my boss called me into his office. Then he asked me to close the door. You guys, he never asked me to close the door. That's when I knew something was up. He then let me know that there would be an announcement that the plant was closing, and we would likely all be losing our jobs. My panic was immediate and strong. We had student loans to pay, rent, a toddler and were contemplating child #2.
It's not rational, but I felt like a failure.
Surely, my boss read my face and didn't really skip a beat before he said:
"But you're going to jump in your car right now to head over the Sprint campus where you'll meet with my wife who works there."
I did as I was told - didn't even ask questions. When I arrived on the sprawling campus in Overland Park, KS, I found her big office. She was simply incredible. A couple weeks later they hired me to be a "network engineer."
There's absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing, in my background that says - this guy should be a network engineer. But they let me do it and I figured a few things out. The first thing I had to learn was that there were no trains involved. I thought engineers worked on or drove trains. I didn't even get an engineer hat, but I had a job I had no business doing. It was a bit like the two times I was asked to "do" my daughter's hair. Poor girls. I hope they've forgiven me.
That fateful day, even though I didn't go looking to try something totally new, ended up being absolutely pivotal for my career. Nothing linear about it. Here's the quick summary:
Go to college with thoughts of being a high school history teacher and basketball coach
Serve a two-year mission in Venezuela with 10 months of that as the "financial secretary" (this might've been the craziest one)
Graduate in International Relations with a focus on research in terrorism, politics and national security (seemed interesting, but utterly unmarketable without grad school. I guess I hoped they'd just post the Secretary of State job or something)
Purchasing at Pfizer (because the temp agency sent me there)
Network Engineer at Sprint (the story from before, still no cool hats)
Finance at Sprint (still can't believe they let me do this)
HR at Sprint (1.5 years that was totally fun)
Finance at Microsoft for 12 years (HR was a blast, but let's get back to finance at a way more stable company)
Faculty position teaching business courses at BYU-I (again, still can't believe they let me do this every day)
My point is this:
None of us are just one thing and our life journeys are just that, journeys. I don't think they were ever meant to be obvious, straight lines. We're all way too complex for that.
I worry about my students who seem so eager to declare what they aren't. "I'm not a numbers person" or "I'm not creative" or "I'm not a reader" (this is what I hear sometimes when I assign any reading that is more than a few dozen words) These folks are way TOO young to say things like that. Heck, I think most of you reading this may be just a little guilty of making declarations of what you aren't. I know I am. But so many of the best things I've done started out as things that I had no business doing.
So, as Shakira teaches us, "take really good care of your teeth and they'll take care of you":
I won't give up, no, I won't give in
Till I reach the end and then I'll start again
No, I won't leave, I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail
What's that thing you've been thinking to try, but haven't yet?
I'm gonna go see if someone will let me get one of those hats and "engineer" a train!
Thank you for guiding so many students! Especially ours! Sincerely, much less stressed parents