Several weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Tulane University Commencement—a proud uncle of my niece, Emily, who emerged from the event a doctor of medicine.
The event’s keynote speaker was Pulitzer Prize winning author and New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman. While I would consider myself some distance to the right of Friedman, philosophically and politically, I found myself in comfortable agreement with many of his remarks.
He spoke eloquently and passionately about a number of topics, but none so important as his advice on how the graduates should view their employment prospects in the context of today’s economic reality.
“I believe you are graduating into a world in which, more and more, you will be required to invent your next job rather than find your next job,” Friedman explained, his advice suggesting a return to the entrepreneurial spirit being music to my ears. “Now that may sound daunting and, in a way it is, compared to the kind of workplace which my generation found after college. But here is what is exciting: While it is true that this may be the hardest time to find a job, it is equally true that this is the easiest time in the history of the world to invent a job.”
Freidman elaborated, “If you have just the spark of a new idea today, you can get a company in Taiwan to design it; you can get Alibaba in China to find you a low-cost Chinese manufacturer to make it; you can get Amazon.com to do your delivery and fulfillment; you can find a bookkeeper on Craigslist to do your accounting and an artist on freelancer.com to do your logo. All you need is that first spark of extra imagination or creativity.”
His final remarks on the “job” subject were uplifting, as he concluded, “It has never been harder for college grads to find a job. And it has never been easier to invent one. It may take a few tries. Don’t let that worry you. Everybody’s got something extra to offer, you just have to discover yours.” It is great advice, not just for graduates, but for anyone faced with what might, on the surface, appear as “bleak” employment prospects.
Viewed with an accurate perspective, we are living in an exciting time—a time of vast opportunity. To see that opportunity though, we need to also remember the words of another well known individual, Thomas Edison, as he said, “Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
So get to work. Don’t worry about finding your new job—invent it.
