To the Class of 2020... | Simon Sinek

People who play with a finite mindset, all the planning comes in the past. And what they're trying to do is avoid any surprises, be prepared for every surprise. So whether it's in. In battle or whether it's in sports, the reason we train and train and train and train and train is so that we are prepared for every eventuality. We can avoid surprises. But that's not where innovation happens, because all the thinking has already happened. An infinite mindset embraces surprise. The thinking hasn't happened yet. The thinking is yet to happen. It's when something new happens or we're in a new situation. Now we have to think our way, imagine our way, create our way into a new path out of this box. This is a magical time. This is a time that accentuates creativity. This is the value of things that are uncertain. This is the value of things that happen unexpectedly. They force us. It forces us, forces us to be creative. Now, many people shut down because what we've learned isn't working anymore. That's where the shutdown comes from. The infinite mindset embraces that which is uncertain, that which is indifferent. That's what it means to have an infinite mindset. So now is a perfect, perfect time. It's a perfect opportunity to embrace exactly what's happening. How will you reinvent the future? How will you take what you know? How will you take the things that you want to achieve and adapt? Imagine if you were starting from scratch today, that the world that will be, the world that is, is the world that always was. It's like a startup mentality, you know, which is, forget how things were, what the plan was. But if you were starting from scratch right now, how would you bring your talents, your gifts, your entrepreneurial spirit to life? How do you leverage your relationships? How do you form relationships? How do we take care of the people around us? Which is another important point, which is the tenets of good leadership are more relevant now than ever before. It's always been important for us to check in on our people, make sure they're okay, be open to people checking in on us and just being open and honest about how we feel. And now, during these strange times, we have to reach out to our friends. Not with a text, not with an email, but preferably with a phone call or a video conference, something where they can hear the tone of voice. I actually find phone calls to be even better than video conferences, because we're not just looking at a screen, staring at ourselves. Let's be honest, we look at ourselves, but actually we can be completely present in the tone of voice that someone has on the other side of the phone, as opposed to pretending to make eye contact with them by staring at the camera or worrying about our haircut or looking at them, which is not really looking at them. Tone of voice matters. We can create human relationships that way. And so we should be doubling down on checking in with people. We should be doubling down with calling them one by one and saying, are you okay? These are the basic tenets of leadership, and to practice them now when in times of stress and anxiety, hopefully we'll carry those good habits with us when we return to New Abnormal. So congratulations to all of you. I want you to see the opportunity and the advantages in the world you're graduating into. Wish you best of luck. Or as Dr. James Karst used to wish his students would, wishing you bad luck. Because that's when you're gonna learn things. If everything goes right, you won't learn anything. So wishing you all bad luck, he said. It sounds really weird to say, but wishing you creativity, innovation, and lots of deep, meaningful relationships. Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and congratulations again.