Best 2013 Commencement Speech Quotes for a Purposeful Life

We are amazed that the only time there tends to be great advice given is during life's elations or tragedies.  Well what about the kind of advice that happens when you are able to sit at the doorway of your biggest life opportunities and that advice comes from a well experienced person hoping to give you their best advice right before you are released with all the opportunity and courage that you will likely be able to muster before life gets more complicated?

This advice normally only comes during commencement!

As we perused the different pieces of advice shared thus far from commencements occurring across the United States from some of the most intellectual, seasoned and knowledgeable leaders of the highest influence, we wanted to give you nuggets that we think are applicable to anyone no matter what season of life they are in...


Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter (University of Michigan)

"As you get ready to walk out under the bright lights of the improvisational stage of the rest of your life... be bold. Don't always worry about what your next line is going to be."

David Brooks, NY Times Columnist (Sewanee, University of the South)

"Don't think about what you want from life. Think about what life wants from you. If you're observant, some large problem will plop itself in front of you. It will define your mission and your calling. Your passion won't come from inside. It will come from outside."

Carson Kressley, Fashion Celebrity (Philadelphia University)

"If you live your life only following the path you think is approved or acceptable, or the one you think is expected of you, you'll be making a huge mistake. Not a single successful person... has ever done great things because they played it safe. You've got to be true to yourself."

Darius Rucker, Hootie & the Blowfish (University of South Carolina)

"..find something that makes you want to give 'til it hurts."

Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark (Yale University)

"Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit. I will not give up no matter how dark the days, no matter how big my failure. I won't lose lessons that I could gather while on my knees. I won't lose the lessons I can find in my lowest pits of despair, because when I emerge, it's those lessons that will define my being.'"

Mark Shields, Political Analyst (Saint Michaels College)

"Call your mother...not text, not e-mail--call her. She wants to hear how you sound." [If you become parents,] "spend more time than you judge to be reasonable with your children. Please know that no one in recorded history, on his or her death bed has ever said, 'Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office.'"

Rick Hodes, Physician and Author (Brandeis University)

"Remember this: Run to do good. Create a momentum in the right direction. Get your hands dirty. Wear out your shoes. Don't try to get too comfortable, please!"

Carlos Eire, Author and Professor (Midland University)

"If it weren't for my failures and my painful experiences, I would not be here today speaking to you...It's a way of saying the risks I took brought me here. Failure has brought me to his podium, more failures than I can count...These failures are my trophies."

Steve Case, Co-Founder of AOL (University of North Carolina)

"Be curious. Be open. Be flexible. Let your life unfold as a series of chapters. Don't be so fixated on a specific ending that you neglect to open the door when opportunity knocks."

Arianna Huffington, Journalist and Author (Smith College)

"And remember that while there will be plenty of signposts along your path directing you to make money and climb up the ladder, there will be almost no signposts reminding you to stay connected to the essence of who you are, to take care of yourself along the way, to reach out to others, to pause to wonder, and to connect to that place from which everything is possible."

No matter your age, stage, season or past, these quotes are still applicable in the life that wants to be impactful and fulfill its purpose...

The Supa Group
thesupagroup@gmail.com
www.thesupagroup.com

11 Rules for Success (Part 1 of 2) (Inc. Magazine)

In the February 2013 issues of Inc. Magazine, they shared the 11 Rules for Success by founders of Twitter, Whole Foods, Zappos, Huffington Post, and more.  These people represent the world's top minds in business-- entrepreneurs behind the nation's most dynamic companies, as well as thinkers from leading business schools.

For your quick empowerment and to give you an injection of wisdom, we have summarized the 11 Rules below:

Rule #1:  Do Less (Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger, Twitter and Medium)

When I meet the founders of a new company, my advice is almost always, "Do fewer things." It's true of partnerships, marketing opportunities, anything that's taking up your time. The vast majority of things are distractions, and very few really matter to your success.

Anything I've done that really worked happened because, either by sheer will or a lack of options, I was incredibly focused on one problem. When you're obsessing about one thing, you can reach insights about how to solve hard problems.  If you have too many things to think about, you'll get to the superficial solution, not the brilliant one.

Rule #2  Embrace Accidents (Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos)

At Zappos, we prioritize collisions over convenience by intentionally making exits on all four sides of the building.  It's all about maximizing collisions and accelerating serendipity.

It think you can create your own luck.  The key is to meet as many people as you can and really get to know them.  Meet lots of different people without trying to extract value from them.  You don't need to connect the dots right away.  But if you think about each person as a new dot on your canvas, over time, you'll see the full picture.

Rule #3:  Choose Your Playing Field (Roger Martin, Dean at Rotman School of Management)

Company leaders think that if they have a vision or aspirations, that's enough.  We need to understand the difference between strategy and aspiration. 

The heart of strategy is defining where you're going to play and how you're going to win. A lot of companies don't consciously choose where not to play.  Southwest Airline has one kind of jet.  It flies between smaller airports.  That decision about how to win affected its decision where to play; only in the continental U.S. Otherwise, the system didn't work.

Rule #4:  Fail (Arianna Hiffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post)

Very often, success stops people, because they're afraid of taking a step that leads to failure.  My mother used to call failure a stepping stone to success, as opposed to the opposite of success.  When you frame failure that way, it changes dramatically what you're willing to do, how you're willing to invent, and the risks you'll take.

There's absolutely no one who's succeeded who has not failed along the way.  Reading biographies of the successful people you admire is a great way to put failure in perspective.  Steve Jobs said that being fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to him. 

Rule #5:  Let Others Lead (Micheal Useem, professor at Wharton School and "The Leader's Checklist")

With unpredictable markets, shorter time cycles and an increasingly complex business environment, resilience (the ability to come back from crisis) is the single most important quality a leader needs to possess.

Leadership is a team sport.  You need to build leadership through the ranks, by empowering people to independently make good decisions.  You can't do that if you don't make clear what your vision is.

Rule #6:  Slow Down (founder and CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group)

I'll never forget sitting in the living room with my brother, sister and mom as my dad tearfully told us his travel company was not going to make it.  After that, I always associated bankruptcy with overexpansion.  I think that's why after my first restaurant, it took me 10 years to open a second one.

Now I realize, despite whatever emotional issues led me to go slowly, I gave myself a real gift.  I was able to take a deep dive into the skills of being a restaurateur in a way that I never would have done had I lacked that patience.

It's easy to think running a business has to be a sprint.  If I've learned anything at all, it's that if you're lucky enough to lead a healthy, long life, there's time.

During those first 10 years, I learned the value of allowing a business to develop its soul.  Soul happens almost as slowly as it takes for a baseball glove to break in; you  have to play catch for a really long time.  Time helped Union Square Cafe achieve something very few businesses do, which is essentially, the sense that it mattered in people's lives.  The shelf life of innovation is about two seconds today.  Even if you have the best idea, it's going to get copied.  The thing that cannot be copied is how I made you feel.

We are committed to bringing you the best snap shot wisdom, ideas, opinions and strategies that correlates to our advisory services.  We hope this post edifies your vision and execution plans and stay tuned for Part 2!

The Supa Group

www.thesupagroup.com

Game Changing Focus (A Summary)

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Dennis Kimbro, a lecturer and researcher with specialties in management, entrepreneurship and human potential.  The purpose of our interview was to discuss how individuals can have game changing focus as it relates to leadership, success and wealth.  The webinar interview was conducted as apart of my service as Chair of the Board of the INROADS Alumni Association.

Dr. Kimbro has a long history of data on wealth, leadership and what it takes to succeed.  He speaks to senior leaders at companies and has been featured on NBC and ABC and in Success Magazine and USA Today.

I wanted to provide a high-level summary to you on what it means to have game changing focus during these times!

Question:  Dr. Kimbro, you have interviewed, spoken to and analyzed data on a lot of people over the course of your career including senior executives and game changers as well as people who have experienced exemplary personal and professional success on a global scale.  What critical success factors do these achievers attribute to their success?

Answer:  I have repeatedly found a common thread amongst these people and it includes:

Dr. Dennis Kimbro and Quenita Fagan at INROADS Atlanta

• If you want to be at the top of your game, you have to focus on being innovative and creative. Innovation is about executing on a great idea and creativity is how well you see opportunities for what you will execute upon.
• Do more than what's expected...this has been universally repeatedly since the days of Napoleon Hill when he produced "Think and Grow Rich" and also was underscored in the research that supported my book "Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice".  Don't even expect to be successful if all you give is what is expected of you.
• Put yourself in a position to be in "top of mind status".  What does this mean?  It means that when you think of great cars, you think of BMW, Mercedes, etc.  When you think of top retailers, you think of Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, etc.  In order to be great in business, you have to strive to achieve "top of mind status", whether that is your department, industry, or community.

Question:  Based on feedback from industry leaders, what makes employees or customers standout amongst teams/competition and get noticed and promoted?

Answer:  First and foremost I am going to use Google as an example.  Interviewing with Google for a job takes months and two things are involved in their primary objective of who they hire:

• IQ:  assessing smarts and analytical ability
• EQ: a person's personal passion and the value they bring

The difference between confronting having an Excellent Game versus Game Excellence:

• Excellent Game: we all can do this but this is just a one-time, transactional experience. 
• Game Excellence:  true achievers are constantly in a state of "preparing to win" for each and every opporunity.

I believe that another area in which individuals and companies can stand-out is determining what is their U.S.P...

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

If you can't clearly articulate your brand, what you believe in and how you are utilizing your time to specialize and be the best at your U.S.P., then how can you expect to win? 

Let me give you a statistic: studies have found that average people read 1-2 books a year.  Millionaires read one book a week and/or three books a month.  You HAVE to out read the other guy!

This was just one-fourth of the interview but no matter where you are today, I hope these nuggets will give you a quick insight into what can help you have game changing focus towards your personal and professional goals.

Que Fagan
President/CEO
The Supernova Advisory Group
www.thesupagroup.com

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Desires vs Goals: A Strategy of How to Create Goals from The Supernova Advisory Group

"Strengthen Your Backbone!": Career Advice from Banking Dynamo Elaine Agather

Elaine Agather is quite the powerhouse when sharing her impassioned career advice from 33 years in banking working in London, San Francisco, and New York until she relocated to Dallas, Texas in 1984. She is currently the Chairman of Chase's Dallas region and she also serves as south region head and managing director of The Private Bank at J.P. Morgan.  

Agather is energetic and chic but she is also tough

She has thrived through more than 10 bank mergers in her career.  How does this pint-sized Texas cowgirl-at-heart do this?  By following what she had dubbed as "Elaine's 8", career advice stemming from a banker who also sits on the advisory board of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.  Her list is appropriate for kids aged 2 to 92!

I had the personal opportunity to hear first-hand from Agather and wanted to summarize her prized Elaine's 8 with you:

Saddle Your Own Horse...then ride with a good team
Don't wait for others to take care of you or for that dream job to come along.  Never wait!  You're in charge of your life and your career.  Don't wait for someone to tell you your next step.

Know how to give some of it up and trust your team; empower people.  The more you let go, the more you end up getting.


Like What You Do...and then decide what to like next
I didn't say "Do what you like"-there's a big difference.  Liking what you do means you know how to make the  most of opportunities.  You look for the positives in every situation.  Figure out how to "own" your current job.  You play the hand you're dealt, and you win.

Turn on a  Dime...but remember to slow down
Become a speed demon at changing directions.  Embrace new opportunities and ideas.  Adapt and thrive because changes will just keep coming.  Change is about your attitude.  How you respond to change is what matters most.

Stay Connected...but vary the connections
Develop and nurture relationships.  Diversity is a good thing.  Find mentors and reach out to those who might want to learn from you.  Stay close to those you care about.

You do not have to "formalize" mentor relationships.  I have many, many mentors that don't even know they are my mentors.  Vary how you connect with people.  A relationship is not just email communication.  Deepen relationships and they will keep a memory of you.

Practice Free Speech...and sprinkle it liberally with "thank yous"
Communicate all the time.  Repeat your message as often as possible.  People need to hear what you have to say.  Don't assume they already know-they usually don't.

People trust you more if you tell them what's going on.  Women especially have to make it easy for someone to give them feedback without fear of reaction.  Don't cry at work about work related drama.  It will impact other's openness in giving honest feedback.

Get Over It...but spend a little time in recovery
Don't dwell on the past.  Don't take things that happen in business personally.  Tough decisions have to be made; that's part of the process.  You will make mistakes.  Fix them and move on.

Develop Your Funny Bone...but cry with them too
You cannot survive--in business or in life-- without a sense of humor.  Lighten up, loosen up and laugh.  It's amazing how far this will take you.  And, you'll sure feel a lot better!

Show tears when time for compassion (when team loses loved ones, sicknesses, etc.) (But not for work related stress...see above)  I am competitive but I don't take myself too seriously.

Strengthen Your Backbone
Do the right thing when it's not easy or popular.  Character is our foundation.  Integrity has to be our guiding value.  We're nothing without it.

Saddle up these Elaine's 8 for your career and life and we hope that it puts you in a position for your next promotion/opportunity to say "Giddyup!"

Que Fagan
Blogger in Chief
www.thesupagroup.com

Top 10 Lessons Learned from Failure (Part 2 of 2)

In order to succeed, you need to know how to fail

An article in the December-January 2013 issue of Worth magazine (a go-to resource for our company) caught our eye and we wanted to summarize for you.  The 10 lessons they capture were adapted from The Wisdom of Failure:  How to Learn the Tough Leadership Lessons Without Paying the Price from a seven year study of 1,000 managers and executives across 21 industries.  These are powerful tips that we wanted to share that can help you both in your career and in your personal life.

Disclaimer: no copyright infringement intended.

(See Prior Post for Part 1 with #1-5)

6.  Competition Can Destroy Your Company

Competition, amongst employees or whole departments, can easily backfire.  When Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a developer and provider of seed corn products, discovered biotech methods (creating seeds in a lab as opposed to a field), the company decided to incorporate both techniques.  But after collaboration between the two divisions failed miserably, the firm pitted farmers against scientists to see who came out on top.  The result?  The internal competition tore the company apart, forcing Pioneer to lay off 25 percent of its employees and ultimately be rescued by DuPont.

7.  Don't Be a Power Hog

Micromanagement and hoarding responsibility are two common characteristics of ineffective leaders.  A survey of managers showed nearly 45 percent of managers admitted to both.  The effects are significant: on the leader (getting fired), the employees (stunting growth) and the company (losing employees).  Mattel's Jill Barad, for example, went from the first female CEO of the Fortune 500 company in 1997 to out of a job in 2000 in part because of her obsessive and controlling management style.  You'll do better by trusting and respecting your employees to handle delegated tasks.

8.  Stay Engaged or Get Out

Disengaged leaders are characterized by an insular and aloof attitude.  It's not just that they no longer have their finger on the pulse of the company.  Jared Heyman, for example, launched a marketing firm Infosurv in 1998 at 20 and by 32 was burned out.  He left the company to a manager and began to travel the world.  Employees hardly noticed Heyman's absence because he had always worked behind a closed door.

Be the type of boss who can really impact employees by making sure you are engaged in your own work and interacting with your staff.

9.  Check Your Ego

There's a running joke in Silicon Valley:  What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison?  God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison.  According to 70 percent of the execs we talked to, self-absorption is the most damning mistake a leader can make.  Why?  A self-absorbed leader defines success based on personal achievements.  A great leader defines success based on his team's achievements.


10.  Balance is the Key Ingredient

The ability to maintain balance between the lessons learned from your success and the lessons learned from your failure gives you the wisdom to prosper as a leader.  Knowing what to do must always be balanced with knowing what not to do, and personal experiences should be considered alsongside the experience of those around you.  "The ability to recognize and learn from one's own mistakes is the first step," Gerry Shaheen, a board member at Ford, says.  "But the ability to learn from other's mistakes is genius."

Take these five lessons into consideration when you are strategizing how you want to execute your personal goals and vision as a leader.

Que Fagan

Blogger in Chief

The Supa Group

www.thesupagroup.com

Top 10 Lessons Learned from Failure (Part 1 of 2)

In order to succeed, you need to know how to fail

An article in the December-January 2013 issue of Worth magazine (a go-to resource for our company) caught our eye and we wanted to summarize for you.  The 10 lessons they capture were adapted from The Wisdom of Failure:  How to Learn the Tough Leadership Lessons Without Paying the Price from a seven year study of 1,000 managers and executives across 21 industries.  These are powerful tips that we wanted to share that can help you both in your career and in your personal life.

Disclaimer: no copyright infringement intended.

1.  Avoid the Seduction of Yes
The universal "yes" takes three forms: an inability to decline new opportunities, a refusal to admit failure, and attempting to be all things to all people.  All three destroy careers and companies by leading to the overcommitting of resources, cash and talent.

Take MySpace:  In a misguided attempt to get hip, News Corp. purchased the floundering company for $580 million in 2005, and spend years (and millions more) trying to reinvent the website to compete with Facebook.  It was a disastrous move: News Corp. sold MySpace in 2011 for $35 million.

The firm could have saved itself huge amounts of time and money if it had been able to admit defeat before six years had passed.

2.  Don't Think Outside the Box
It's practically the most tiresome cliche' in business--"think outside the box"--and it may also be the most misguided.  The number one cause of business derailment is thinking "outside the box"--and ending up in business where you don't belong.

Don't pursue new ideas for the sake of pursuing new ideas.  Rather, be very aware of the business you're in and the value proposition you and your company offer.  You can still think creatively within you own business environment.

3.  Effectiveness Matters More Than Efficiency
Ideally, you want to be both effective and efficient, but many leaders fall into the following traps:  being efficient at the expense of being effective, or being efficient at the wrong thing.  That's what killed Pets.com in 268 days.

Only when you know you're doing the right thing can you move on to doing things right.

4.  Don't be the Workplace Bully
This advice might seem obvious, but bullying at the office often occurs when money and egos are at stake.  Look at David Sokol, who, in March 2011, went form the heir apparent at Berkshire Hathaway to unemployed amidst revelation of some shady stock purchases.

After Sokol resigned, reports circulated of Sokol's brass-knuckled office style, including a monthly ranking of his aides in the order he would fire them and his suggestion that the company fire all employees in poor health or going through a divorce.

Take a lesson from Warren Buffett and cut out toxic employees.

5.  But Don't Be the Pleaser Boss Either
The pleaser boss wants everyone to work in harmony, and as a result, has an excessive fear of conflict. Of course, destructive conflict should be avoided--but leaders must be careful not to swing too far in the opposite direction lest they snuff out creativity and individual initiative.

Brenda McManigle of the Center for Creative Leadership stated, "Conflict can lead to better decision making, expose key issues, stimulate critical thinking and fuel innovation."

Take these five lessons into consideration when you are strategizing how you want to execute your personal goals and vision as a leader.

Que Fagan
Blogger in Chief
The Supa Group
www.thesupagroup.com

Don't Make Resolutions: Laws of Success (Part 1 of 4)

It is proven that 90% of people who make New Year's resolutions lose steam by week 2 in January and all of a sudden, they have settled back into their old habits and face another year of not living a life on purpose and confused about how to effectively reach their goals.

We have had the opportunity to speak to, observe and follow many great leaders (religious, business, non-profit, for profit, etc.) and they all seem to do, in various forms, the same activities that were laid out as principles in Napoleon Hill's "Law of Success".

We have found the Law of Success principles to be a great system for success that anyone can incorporate into their lives for not short-term goals (like resolutions) but building systemic habits and activities that leads to overall life happiness (long term, contented and grounded happiness).  Although the principles aren't "fancy", they are effective and works for anyone willing to put forth effort and establish a commitment to incorporate them into their lives.

Section 1: Principles of Self Mastery

Lesson One:  Introduction of the Master Mind

Depending on where and what you have read, this principle crosses various disciplines, religions and psychological instruction.  No person who has ever achieved their goals did it alone.  But more importantly in what Mr. Hill points out is that your support system for any given goal has to be people who you know are in whole-hearted agreeance with you accomplishing the goal.

For example, this principle doesn't work if your master mind group is made up of people who don't really believe in you. Someone can be a friend but not able to fully support you in your pursuit of a certain kind of goal.  Build a master mind (even if it's only one other person) group and be able to clearly understand which mastermind supports each of your major goals.


Lesson Two:  A Definite Chief Aim

You can never be (or feel) successful without having an intended goal in mind.

These days it's not unusual for people to have multiple interests with what can also seem like scattered activities.  For people who are ineffective, that's true.  But what separates successful people from unsuccessful people are successful people always have an established aim and purpose to every activity they are involved in.  For example, a person may belong to four organizations who have diverse objectives but if they know that each organizational membership allows them to continue to expand their network of, say, commercial real estate contacts, they are following through to a definite chief aim.


Lesson Three:  Self-Confidence

We all have moments when we are not feeling or being our most confident but success can't be achieved without a healthy dose of confidence and optimism in your abilities.  Mr. Hill specifically noted that fear is the chief reason people are not able to develop healthy self conficence.

The Six Basic Fears of Mankind:

• Fear of Poverty:  Stemming from indifference, indecision, doubt, worrying, over-caution and procrastination
• Fear of Old Age:  Stemming from a fear of lost health, independence and death
• Fear of Criticism:  Stemming from our desire to be liked and getting our self-esteeem from others
• Fear of Loss of Love: Stemming from our desire to be loved and our fear of the negative impact of our vulnerability
• Fear of Ill Health:  Stemming from and associated with poverty and old age
• Fear of Death:  Stemming from the fear of the unknown and departing from our loved ones

Until a person begins to deal with their greatest fear, self-confidence will not be able to be rooted and sustained in a way that undergirds success.

Lesson Four:  The Habit of Saving

Even though we could repeat what you have heard before about saving, what we want to specifically call out is how this habit is more about discipline and self-imposed restrictions in order to accomplish a goal(s).  This takes focus and building upon the self-confidence that Mr. Hill discusses in Lesson 3.

Mr. Hill also points out how debt is a merciless master and a fatal enemy of the savings habit.  No one can do their best work, no one can find self-expression in terms that command respect, no one can either create or carry out a definite purpose in life, with heavy debt hanging over his or her head (Note: many people have overcome insurmountable odds, including debt, to go on to be great people and it all started with them including a plan for debt eradication).  Make a plan of intention to deal with your debt to create a platform in which you are able to fully express who you are and how you can make an impact on this world by being able to save the maximum amount you can to support your goals.

We hope you will repeatedly read over these four lessons and take action on incorporating them into your life.  

Stay tuned for our next section post that will discuss Principles of Personal Power.

Quenita Fagan

President/CEO

The Supernova Advisory Group (The Supa Group)

www.thesupagroup.com