Jamie Dimon's Top 10 Rules For Success

Have the fortitude to do the right thing, not the easy thing. Don't be somebody's lapdog or sycophant.

I think I spend probably 50 or 60% of my time learning, reading, talking to people, traveling. Go to work at a place where you respect the people, you think the company has the kind of culture you like, it's going to grow, it's going to be ambitious.

If you want to be a winner, then compare yourself to the best and acknowledge that will never happen without hard work.

If you're not prepared for tough times, You're not gonna be— you can't like get prepared when times get tough.

If I do well here, I can help our employees, I help our clients, I help our communities.

Never fool yourself into thinking that your success is yours alone.

He's an American business executive.

He's the chairman, president, and CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

He has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.

He's Jamie Dimon, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success.

It takes courage to be accountable. Throughout my life, throughout this crisis of the past few years, I have seen many people embarrass themselves by failing to stand up, being mealy-mouthed, and acting like lemons by simply going along with the pack. I also saw plenty of people under enormous pressure who always did the right thing. Graduates, you will soon leave this wonderful community and venture into a new world to get ready for new jobs, new opportunities, and new lives. Along the way, you're gonna face a lot of pressure. Pressure to go along to get along, to toe the line, to look the other way when you see things that aren't right, and pressure to do things simply because everybody else is doing them. Never give in to that pressure. Have the fortitude to do the right thing, not the easy thing. Don't be somebody's lapdog or sycophant. Have the courage to speak the truth, even when it is unpopular. And have the courage to put yourself on the line, to strive for something meaningful, and even to risk what would be an embarrassing failure. I think Teddy Roosevelt understood this nearly a century ago when he said, and I quote, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better." The credit belongs to the man, now the woman, who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without erring and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows the end of the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Learning is a lifelong thing. It doesn't end at Harvard Business School. It's your responsibility. I think if you're in any profession at all, you have to do it consistently. All the time. I think I spend probably 50 or 60% of my time learning, reading, talking to people, traveling. It's the only way you can keep on top of this global world of ours, and it's even tougher now because of the globality of the businesses you're all gonna deal in.

How?

Reading is the most important one, but the second one, which is often forgotten, is talking to other people. You can learn more from speaking to people in 15 minutes than if you spent your life doing something. They can explain it to you And you can learn from watching people. You also are going to learn by, I'm going to call it imitation, but by watching other very good people and how they operate in difficult circumstances. I learned a lot of things what not to do and a lot of what to do by watching other people. Go to work at a place where you respect the people, you think the company has the kind of culture you like, is going to grow, it's going to be ambitious, and your career will take who knows what path. And do think ahead a couple of jobs so that you're always thinking maybe what I might want to do next. And at one point in life you're going to have to make a vertical switch. At some point in life you may get fired like some of us have been. And those are hard things, but they could be very good things. So I've also find some people said that's what they want and they're looking up those 100 stairs and they're always measuring how quickly they're going versus their friend. You're not doing the right thing. You're not enjoying your jobs. It takes a lot of luck to get to that top rung sometimes. And if you're really good, you'll probably get there, but it may not be at that company. It may be somewhere else. So I tell you, enjoy your life. Enjoy every step of it and don't worry too much about that kind of ambition. Many of you already have dealt with some very difficult times. So this is no different than some of you already dealt with. When you fail, it's okay to get depressed.

It's okay to cry.

It's okay to go home. It's okay to blame others for a while, but eventually you have to get over it and move on. The greatest people who have ever walked this planet, and I'm not talking about business people, I'm talking about people like Nelson Mandela and Abe Lincoln, constantly had setbacks in life and failures. Constantly. It happens all the time in business, and some of your success will be how you deal with the failure, not how you deal with the success. When I get introduced, I always get introduced that in 1998 I was the president of Citigroup, and in 2000 I took over Bank One. I was fired in 1998. So I went a little bit of experience like this, and it's a painful thing. My boss who I'd worked for 15 years called me in and said, "We want you to resign." To which I said, "Okay." I went home, I told my wife and children, I called my wife up and said, "Judy, I'm gonna tell you something, I'm not kidding." 'Cause I always make jokes about things like that. But I wanted to make sure the kids were fine. I went home. I have 3 wonderful daughters. They were much younger then. I said— the oldest— youngest one said, "Dad, do we have to sleep on the streets?" I said, "No, hon, we're okay." The middle one who just graduated Barnard said, "Dad, can I still go to college?" I said, "Yes, dear, you can." And I knew things were fine when the oldest one who's going to Harvard Business School said, "Dad, can I have that little cell phone you have? You won't be needing it." I remind people when you fail at something, it's your— I told people about Citigroup as my net worth, not my self-worth. And I was able to move on. And yes, it was difficult. I did call my boss a year later. He did not call me. I called him and said, "It's time to break bread." We went to lunch together. I told him I didn't think he did the right thing for Citigroup, which is pretty obvious at this point. But, but I told him the mistakes I made, and whether it was 40-60 or 60-40 wasn't important. I wanted to learn from the experience and move on.

If you want to be a winner, then compare yourself to the best and acknowledge that will never happen without hard work. Abe Lincoln used to say, good things may come to those who wait, but only those things left by those who hustle. If you want to be a leader, act like a leader. If you want to be respected and trusted, then demonstrate you deserve it by earning it every day. If you want to be known as honest, not telling lies is not sufficient. Don't even shave the truth. And make sure your friends and colleagues will always bring you back to earth when you, like we all do at times, are deceiving yourself.

Management is, I think, is kind of a relentless process. I guess first, like someone said to me, "What changed in the crisis versus before?" Nothing. It's like if you're not prepared for tough times, you can't get prepared when times get tough. You need the army before the war starts. That means a disciplined group, they know what they're doing. The only real difference is that our risk committee used to meet once a week for a couple hours, and in the crisis, it met at 7:00 AM, 12, you know, lunchtime, 5 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 5 AM if I had to, 24/7 for 6 straight months. And we didn't say— it wasn't very formal. We said, hey, if you got a problem, go to the meeting and bring the people you got to have. And everyone shares the reports and shares the information, tries to react very quickly.

There is already a book on you. That book has already been written. And if I spoke to your teachers, your friends, your professionals, your parents, I would know whether you're trusted, how hard you work, whether you're ethical. I would know so much about you, you'd be shocked. I don't even have to meet you. So that book is already growing.

You should, you write the book you want the way to be written.

You actually have that choice and you can do it as you want now. Don't let others write it and when you get caught in situations that you're uncomfortable, I remember I worked at a company not far from here, and I remember I was asked to do something I didn't want to do. I'm not telling you all to take this advice. You can always quit. It's your responsibility whether you accept to do something or not, and it will be in that book written on you.

You had a major life-changing event.

How are you doing?

I'm doing fine, thank you. So far so good. I get tested all the time.

How has it changed you at all? How has it impacted you?

It didn't change my value system, which I've always literally family first, country and humanity second, because I— and they go hand in hand to me, but I think this country still is the leading beacon in the world. If you actually travel around the world, you feel that way too. And third is the job. But this is the best I can do. So if I do well here, I can help our employees, I help our clients, I help our communities. And the only real change is that, which I think is just a good life lesson, is that I don't necessarily assume I'm going to live for 10 years. And you want to live very deliberately. Like, why are you doing this? Does it really— because you want to end every day and say, that was a good day.

But I always tell people, it is your job to take care of your— if you have a job, you know, and we all spend a lot of time there, but it's your job to take care of your mind, your spirit, your body, your soul, and your family. And you've got to take that officially. So I do. I've always taken my vacations. I've always had my family trips. I always— you know, cut something short for the family. This phone 24/7 is used for emergencies and children and my wife. That's it.

It takes humility and humanity to be accountable. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Humility is the realization that those who came before paved the way. Never fool yourself into thinking that your success is yours alone. Your success is the result of your parents, the family who sacrificed to give you a better life, your professors and administrators who helped you get through your time here at Syracuse, your friends, neighbors, those who encouraged you. In fact, this wonderful country whose bounties we all benefit from was built by so many people who made endless sacrifices, often the ultimate sacrifice, before most of us were even born. It is important to respect what they have done and to be grateful for it.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

We made this video because Female Foot Kisser asked us to. If there's someone else you'd like us to profile, leave a message in the comments below.

We'd also love to know which of the top 10 rules hit you the hardest and why. Leave in the comments and we will join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.