Robert Reich’s advice to graduating seniors!

Jobs

• On paying your dues: “You will be overqualified for your first job. Or at least you will FEEL like you’re overqualified.”
• On having dignity as a leader: when working as a college intern under Robert Kennedy as, his job was to imprint signatures on letters (extremely boring) and he was pretty tired of it. One day he bumped into Senator Kennedy and he referred to him by name. It made him feel so great that he would have gladly continued his role without complaint for 6 more months.
• On luck: Luck is likely to play a huge role in your career success. He talks about how bumping into Bill Clinton was incredibly lucky. (Bill Clinton brought chicken soup to his room when he was seasick. They were both Rhodes scholars aboard a ship to England.)
• On failure: “You’re going to fail.” He talks about how we, as Berkeley students, have been “jumping through hoops” successfully our entire lives. But going forward, we will fail. (He said that pretty confidently). The real test then is our resilience in the face of our failures.
• On parents: Now, don’t feel like you have to do what your parents say. We have been “good kids” our whole lives. That’s how we got here (berkeley, etc). But now, even if you have to live at home, you need to make decisions for yourself; parents can’t control you.
• On him being cool: He went on a date with Hillary Rodham while @ Dartmouth. And apparently he sat next to Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham one of their first days @ Yale Law School and was the first to introduce the two.

Society/World/Leadership

• Some societal problems(ones he chose to mention)…

• nuclear material in the wrong hands
• climate change responsibility
• widening inequality of income/wealth/power (his speciality)

• “Even if you don’t “solve” these problems, at least try to influence these trends in a positive direction through your work/life”
• On his current method of influencing action: He likes to write books. His son said “If you want to reach your generation you can’t write books. We read but we don’t love to read.” So, he made a movie. (I just watched it btw, it’s pretty good.)
• On leadership, when it comes affecting change: You need to help people refrain from 4 “work-avoidance” behaviors that keep them from tackling the issues facing society.

• Denial: Pretending the problem doesn’t exist. I.e. “There’s no climate change problem”
• Escapism: I.e. "Let me immerse myself in my job, live in this gated community, so I don’t have to face these issues”
• Scapegoating: I.e. “It’s because of corporations, government, etc.”

• Reich: be wary of easy explanations / targets.

• Cynicism: the worst. “Sure, the problem exists but there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.”

• Reich: look at some of the movements in our lifetimes, like the gay rights movement. And before that, womens’ rights, anti-smoking, civil rights, etc. Main point: with a group of people with conviction, given time, change is likely (not just possible)

His last random point: Find your personality drug

• What’s the one thing that you have an insatiable hunger for? That thing that always seems to trip you up.
• Examples: love, money, control. His: the need for perfection and to always keep working
• Develop self-awareness for this drug, so you can look out for it when it’s about to take over.

His final wish: “May you have a joyful experience in the work you do.”