Two Grains of Wisdom for The New Graduates
Once in a long while, you come across a story whose essence sticks in your mind forever. Such was a story in the Daily Texans campus newspaper that I read shortly before I finished my master’s program at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) 27 years ago.
I remember reading that article while riding the shuttle bus from the UT Married Student Housing apartment to the campus. The newspaper reporter had interviewed a successful businesswoman (whose name I unfortunately forgot) and asked her to give some advice to the new graduates. She shared two grains of wisdom, and looking back through my career, I found them to be wise — not for everyone, maybe, but certainly for the university graduates who will join the brainy workforce.
So, I’d like to share her advice here, and I added my commentary. Hopefully they are useful to this month’s new graduates — and to everyone who is climbing the professional career ladder.
Advice #1: Whenever You Have to Choose Between Time and Money, Always Choose Time. You Will Never Regret It.
If you want to be successful in your career, you have to work hard; there is no way around it. To work hard is also to honor the talents, skills, and education that God has given you and to give back to the society.
But, as cliché as it sounds, there is much more to life than work. To spend one’s life chasing money is to be poor as you’ll miss out on the richness of life. A life of constant work will also deprive you the chance to reflect whether your career ladder is leaning against the right wall.
This issue may sound remote at the beginning of your career. But inevitably, there will be times later when the constant lure of double overtime pay, cash for unused vacation days, a prestigious title with a demanding workload, a lucrative pay for a remote job away from your family, or a pile of stock options in a workaholics-yet-dazzling start-up company is difficult to resist. At that time, you’ll have to make a hard decision between money (which we all need) and the precious gift of time. All I can say is, choose wisely.
Advice #2: Who You Work for Is More Important Than What You Do.
The people we interact with daily have a big influence on us, we all know that. Yet when we consider a job, we mostly think of its roles and responsibilities, its benefits, and the company behind it. They are important, of course, but even more is the person we work for.
Understandably, you don’t always have the luxury of choosing who your boss is, especially early in your career. But as your career progresses, you’ll have a better view. When you see a leader with an admirable character (inside and outside work) and an inspiring vision, consider working for him/her. A good leader will develop not just your skillset, but also your character, and he/she will grow you to be a leader yourself. (Conversely, a bad leader will deprave your soul and — if you are not strong enough — will drag you down with him/her.)
Many stories can illustrate this (just read about people who worked for a great figure), but the Bible story of Matthew came to my mind. He was a finance person with a plump job in Capernaum, working for the biggest enterprise of the time, the Roman Empire. Had he stayed in that job, he would simply have been a forgotten man. But he made a fateful decision to leave that job and work for an itinerant preacher named Jesus instead, and he changed history.
Matthew’s story also reminds us that ultimately, we all work for God. At the end of our lives, it is to Him that we have to give account of how we’ve used our talents, education, and time in this world.
Congratulations to the new university graduates this month! All the best in your career, and may the Lord help you make wise decisions along the way.
Originally published at http://rsatrio.com on May 17, 2021.
