5 advice for newly graduates

25 years ago I was in the same situation as you are now. With a Bachelor degree from CBS, I was sitting with mixed feelings: "YES, I did it" and at the same time, feeling that I did not feel wise at all, let alone ready to use what I had learned. It may feel a little empty to finish something that has filled up so much as your education has done. Do not worry; It will probably fall into place because, as Einstein said: - Education is not about the training of facts, it's about the training of the mind.

Your brains have actually grown a little bit through your education, because training of the mind gives a physical change in the brain, enabling you to sort and maintain information.

Five advice based on my own experience

Over the 25 years, I have learned many things of more or less useless nature, but when I look back, there are five things I would like to pass on to you. Five things I have used in the countless choices and decisions I have made during my career and my life. I hope you will be able to use them on your path ahead:

1. Be a loser

This may not be the most obvious thing you would expect me to encourage. But why in the world run around and work hard to win a cheap medal or a plastic trophy. That I have never understood; The winnings do not seem to compare to the effort required.

I often meet students and other young people who gladly proclaim that they want to be the best, No. 1, a winner, and I think good luck; If you succeed in winning everything, you will still be in a world surrounded by losers and how fun do you think that is.

My message is therefore; exit that rat race, relax and give yourself the gift to be able to lose without any great effort, it's much easier and you do not get stressed.

However, what you need to do, is to find something you are good at and that makes you happy to do. Find your passion! Mozart did not compose his 21st piano concert in order to win a competition. Da Vinci did not go for a first place in coloring when he painted Mona Lisa and Hemmingway did not write his books to win anything (even though he actually won or at least received a Nobel Prize in Literature). Passion does not come by wanting to win. Passion comes from doing something amazing. Be passionate about what you do!

2. Be honest

Be honest with yourself. During your career you will come across many choices, challenges and dilemmas that require much of your honesty and integrity. You may be asked to perform tasks that you do not feel are moral and ethical in order. Is that something you can vouch for? Will you give a customer a white lie about a delivery date? Will you lie to a judge in a bankruptcy case? Small lies become big lies, and the history books are full of examples of companies and organisations who slowly, but surely, have comprised their honesty.

Think of this: Everything you own can be taken from you by others, but you are the only one who can take away your honesty. At the end of the day, your good name and integrity is the only thing you have.

3. Under promise - over deliver

During my studies, I met many exciting teachers (and also many boring ones). One of those teachers I had when I was studying at the University of British Columbia was in the last category, but he said something that stuck: “Under promise, over deliver", and I have - with varying degrees of success - tried to live by it ever since.

Nobody gets a promotion or a wage increase to promise something you can’t keep. Therefore, my advice simply is; Just make promises you can keep and do whatever you can to deliver a little extra. That way, you will also avoid all the stress you will experience when you promise too much and it’s impossible for you to keep your promise.

4. Be humble

I give this advice because the world does not need more arrogant people. But also because you now have an education, it is adjacent to believe that you know all you need to know.

Humility towards all the things you do not know, is essential for learning and becoming wiser. Only stupid people think they are wise. The rest of us are constantly reminded of the shortcomings of our own knowledge and the limitations of our intelligence. Therefore, it is important always to be humble for new knowledge, new methods and different thoughts.

5. Be open

I spend the summer with my family in our summer cottage in Langeland, a little outside of the small town of Humble. Not far from our house is a graveyard, locally called King Humbles grave. There is not much knowledge about King Humble, other than he lived between 300-400 AD. However, it is known that he got a son named Angel. He later came to give his name to his tribe in the late Iron Age; they called themselves Anglers. Together with tribes in Jutland and the northeastern part of today's Germany, they migrated to the British Isles after the Roman empire fell. The area where they settled down, was called the Angels land; England. Some hundred years later, the Vikings did the same, and therefore we speak English, which is actually 1/3 Danish. Words like "man", "oak", "flag", "window" and many others are actually a direct result of the popular migrations that started with King Humble’s son.

As you go out into the world, you are migrants. The language we speak internationally is a result of migration. And therefore it is important to be open; open to people, for ideas, technologies and thoughts. If we close up, our civilization is sentenced to decay. When the world today bit by bit is infected with populist thoughts about nationalism and preaches closeness rather than openness, it is doomed to go wrong. Start with yourself. Be open!

I wish you all the best. We expect big things from you. Make us proud.

// Steffen Saxil
Associate Professor, AP degree in Marketing Management, Cphbusiness

This article is based on the speech Steffen Saxil gave at the graduation for the newly Marketing Management graduates.