Harry Dombroski, CPA (BBA ‘79), Senior Vice President, Financial Administration, Hunt Consolidated Inc.

Commencement Address, August 9, 2008.

Dean Himarios, administration and faculty, distinguished guests, friends and families, and most of all, the Class of 2008. I am deeply honored to be here and it is a tremendous privilege to be addressing you today. I would first like to congratulate each of you and your families on your shared achievement here today.

As I prepared for this address, I tried to reflect on my own graduation here almost 29 years ago and I am first struck by the fact that I can see all of you –at my graduation in December 1979, the university was hit with a power failure and we graduated under emergency lighting. That wasn’t all bad; it made taking a nap during the commencement address much easier – an advantage you all won’t have.

As you might imagine, when I was first approached by Dr. Gray and Dr. Mack to give this commencement address, I was a little bit concern of what I could actually say today that would serve as an appropriate message for you to take forward into the world.

I mean, what can one say that could possibly be meaningful to an audience consisting of young energetic graduates ready to be let loose on the world and distinguished faculty members from a prestige university? Let’s face it, the graduates think they know everything and the faculty knows they know everything.

Given this concern I decided to solicit the opinion of several faculty members concerning the type of remarks they had most enjoyed over the years. The responses I received, however, were confusing. I was told, be funny, be serious, don’t touch politics, talk about politics, be inspirational, talk about your experience, don’t talk about your experience, but then finally I received some guidance that put all of this in perspective for me. I was told that it didn’t really matter what I said as my primary role was to keep you from getting your diploma for at least another fifteen minutes.

Be that as it may, I did manage to come up with some thoughts that hopefully help you over the years. While I could have spoken about the virtue of not being afraid to take chances, or your role as future leaders or the need to understand the impact of globalization or the current energy squeeze facing the world, I decided to talk about two areas that I feel that will be important factors in your future success regardless the path you choose to take, These areas are the importance that your attitude and your commitment to continuous learning will have in determining your future success.

But before I get to that, let’s take a moment to reflect on what each of you have accomplished:

• Each of you, through your hard work and dedication, have just been rewarded with the greatest asset you will ever receive or need. Make no mistake, the degree you take with you today from the UT ARLINGTON is the key to your future success. While this degree does not ultimately ensure your path will be smooth, it does provide you with a competitive advantage.
• Today’s business schools do an excellent job in preparing today’s graduates for the work place. I am constantly impressed with the high level of business knowledge that today’s students possess as they enter the work force. Today’s business schools like UT Arlington do an excellent job of preparing their students for the increasingly complex world of business they will all face. As a result, your transition into “the real world” will be much easier and you should proceed with confidence.
• The amazing pace of technological change that each of you have literally grown up with also gives each of you an advantage over those in the current work force, even those that entered the work force only a couple of years ago. Today’s graduates are unfazed by change, they embrace it and it is this nimbleness that will serve you well in the market place. This technology comfort level also creates some unique problems in today’s workplace, but I will come back to that later.

In many ways, each of you is similar to a start up technology company looking to go public. Like that start-up you are full of great promise and ideas and ready to conquer the world with your intellectual property. But like this hypothetical company, you have little in the way of hard assets, no current cash flow, your cash burn rate is alarming, you are barely able to service your debt and you are desperately looking for some seed capital. So what’s going to make you next Google?

The good news is that all of you have the capability to be the next Google. I have had the pleasure of meeting many accomplished individuals in my career and while all their stories are different; they all seem to have similar traits in some common areas, two of these areas are a positive and optimistic belief in themselves and their constant quest to increase their knowledge base.

Almost every successful individual that I have meet seem to have a positive and optimistic attitude about life and work.

In my career, I have had the privilege of working with one of the most optimistic and positive individuals I have ever met, Ray L Hunt. I have seen this man literally will a series of outcomes just through his positive attitude. Internally, this has always been referred to as the “Hunt Luck”, a belief that something good will happen even if the current outlook is less than rosy. Obviously, there is much more than luck involved, it is an approach to business based on doing the right things, encouraging discussion and openness and, above all else, a positive outlook.

Over the years I have learned that a positive attitude not only allows you to see the potential in all situations, even difficult ones, it also allows you to leverage the talents of individuals around you because positive people tend to get the best from those around them. While there are many consultants that, for a nominal fee, will happily talk to you about the impact a positive attitude can have on one’s life, one of the best summaries of attitude I have seen is provide by Charles (Chuck) Swindell. Mr. Swindell who is the founder of Insight for Living says this about attitude.

"Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home.

 

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it."

Over the years I have discovered that a positive attitude is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Each of you, no matter how high your GPA is, will face adversity during your careers and it is what you do at those times that will determine how successful you will ultimately be. I know many individuals that never attained the levels that their intellect should have taken them to. It was their attitude that held them back – they were either unwilling or unable to take the next step or see the possibilities in front of them. As the late Randy Pausch said, “Decide if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore”.

While there are numerous examples of the impact of a positive attitude on business success my personal favorite is Herb Kelleher, the legendary founder of Southwest Airlines and a good friend of our company. Herb has spoken several times at company events. Herb’s passion for what it does and his positive attitude is contagious. He often refers to the attitude of their “people” as the secret sauce that makes Southwest the airline it is today. When you listen to Herb you can see his face light up as he describes Southwest’s simple hiring policy, hire for attitude, train for skill.

But you don’t have to have the gregarious personality of an Herb Kelleher to benefit from a positive attitude.

I am an American Revolutionary buff and I especially enjoy reading the biographies of the leading personalities of that time. What I draw inspiration from; however, are not their successes but how a positive attitude and belief in themselves helped them handle failure.

Let me give you three brief examples. Benjamin Franklin was subject to an hour long intense public humiliation in London before the Privy Council in the aftermath of his admission that he was responsible for disclosing the Hutchinson letters; George Washington faced many critics, some within his own ranks, many of whom thought he should be replaced as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. John Adams was replaced as a minister to France. Each of these individuals preserved through difficult times and it was their attitude that allowed them to overcome these difficult situations and ultimately made them the historic figures we remember today. You are probably thinking, what does the American Revolution have to do with business? Let me ask you how you would handle these future business situations:

• You are mistakenly forwarded an email from another manager in your firm. Upon opening the email, you realize it is a response to an email sent to that manager from one of your subordinates. In that earlier email your subordinate was extremely critical of your performance on a major project as indecisive and ineffective and suggesting that you were not the right choice to lead the project.

   

  I know what I would have done, but George Washington, upon reading a letter from General Charles Lee to Joseph Reed, simply resealed the letter and sent it onto Reed with a note of apology for opening the letter. Will you, like Washington, be able to look pass the personal affront and look at the bigger picture and understand that despite your anger, that the cause was more important than any personal offense?

• What if you are unfairly removed from your role in a major project?

   

  Do you shrink away and focus your whole attention the decision or do you focus on the ultimate goal and identify and accomplish tasks that are perhaps just as important to the ultimate success of the project? In John Adams case, after being removed as a minister to France, he took it upon himself to go to the Netherlands secure much needed loans and recognition from the Netherlands. Had Adams returned to America, it is possible that the Revolution could have fallen short of independence. Will you have the vision to look forward past your short term disappointment and identify potential future opportunities?

Too often we look at education as a transitory phase of life, the means but which we leave one world in which we are dependent upon others to one it which we become independent.

Education is much more than that, of course and if you restrict your education to only this phase in your life you will miss many future opportunities. The life expectancy of the average American is now approximately 80 years. If you choose to stop your education here, you will go the next 58 years without education. I’m not sure but somewhere in those 58 years, your current knowledge will probably become stale. It is therefore imperative that you continue to learn and grow. Never be satisfied with your current level of knowledge on any subject, continue to learn and grow. I would encourage you to continue your formal education through a pursuit of a higher or additional degree, but even if you do not choose to pursue a higher degree - don’t let the book you closed before your last final be the last book you ever open

Without fail, most of the most impressive individuals I have ever met are all well read. I am constantly amazed at how these individuals, who are at the top of their professions, find time to read. Invariably, however, when I ask how they find the time to read the response is typically that they don’t look as reading as an option but a necessity.

We live in a time where we have more access to information than has ever previously existed in time. In some ways, however, we are less informed than ever. Rather than taking the time to understand the underlying issues, we have a tendency to rely on the electronic media, be it the internet, CNN, Fox , MSNBC or the scrolls at the bottom of the TV as our major source of information. The need to educate yourself doesn’t end as you walk out the door and you shouldn’t attempt to delegate it to anyone.

There is also a corollary to the continuing education mandate. Believe in facts. Never allow your bias to over ride the facts. Facts are a wonderful thing and you will be amazed of how many times in your career you will win the day by simply knowing the facts. Think of the power of facts like the scene from Indiana Jones where the saber welding guy goes through a series of impressive maneuvers similar to an impressive Power Point presentation that is extremely impressive but short on facts. If you will remember, the saber welding character is shot dead by a single bullet (fact). Facts are amazing things.

Advances in technology are truly amazing; you can now buy a ticket for a movie in Dallas from your I Phone while you are still in the Bahamas or hold a text conversation during a commencement address. This unprecedented access to information and to others, however, does not take the place books or true subject research. At the time of his death, John Adams’ library contained over 3200 books and Jefferson’s books, which served as the foundation of the Library of Congress numbered 6707 volumes.

While I do love the brashness of this generation and their willingness to accept new technology without fail, as I mentioned before, this also has posed challenges for those of us that comprise the old guard in today’s business world. The love of the text messages and email pose some interesting challenges to a business world previously built on memos and telephone calls.

Gone are the days when you labored over every word in a memo to be sure that you were clearly understood, today’s generation “Yers” just fire off a text message using abbreviations and slang that can boggle the mind. To those of us that are “thumb challenged” and can not compete with the lightening fast text messaging skills, this can be somewhat intimidating. This new method and means of communicating has lead to a disconnect in how today’s graduates effectively communicate in the business world. For a moment, consider what the Declaration of Independence would look like today in the electronic age. Rather than the eloquent words written by Jefferson announcing to the world why it was necessary for us to break our ties with England we would have Thomas Jefferson text messaging King George III; probably not quite the inspiration contained in the original document.

I leave you with once last thought, in preparing for this address, I ran across a story about the Jean Francois Gravelot who was known as The Great Blondin. The Great Blondin was a high wire artist in the mid 1800’s who made multiple trips across Niagara Falls. The Great Blondin however just didn’t walk across the tight rope, he once carried a man on his back, he would stop half way across the gorge and do a back flip, he also would lie down on the rope midway across the gorge. His antics became famous and he began to draw large crowds every time he crossed. Most thought he could do anything while crossing. Once he asked the crowd, who believes that I can cross while pushing a man in a wheelbarrow? The crowd immediately roared yes so the Great Blondin asked a man in the crowd if he believed he could do it. The man again said yes, I believe you can. Blondin said are you sure? The man replied, “Absolutely!” to which Blondin said, “Thank you. Then sir, get into the wheel barrow. “

Well, graduates - it time to get in the wheelbarrow. Good luck to all of you.