“Everyone—and I mean everyone—makes mistakes. Take it from an expert. But the bigger mistake is to avoid taking risks. If you’re not failing from time to time you’re not asking enough of yourself.”
“All I can say to you is: go for it. Throw yourself into the deep end of the pool, believe in yourself, take risks,” Powell continued. “When you fall down—and you will fall down—get up, and repeat the cycle.”
“It is very common to think, as I once did, that you’re not ready,” Powell said. “Just know that no one is really ready.”
Whether or not they’re ready for management yet, Powell shared how he made that leap in his career. As a junior associate at Dillon Read & Co. in the 1980s, he was desperate to meet his boss running the firm, former U.S. senator Nicholas F. Brady. One day he plucked up the courage to walk up to his corner office and ask for an audience; the meeting was brief, and Powell was extremely nervous. But two months later Brady asked if Powell would work on a project with him. It was a big break that budded from one bold action: braving rejection as a junior staffer.
“A little bit of initiative at the right time can make all the difference. The initiative is the rocket fuel of life,” Powell recalled. “As I look back, many of the most important developments in my life trace back to a few occasions where I showed just a little bit of initiative.”
And when the class of 2025 get a taste of success stepping into leadership roles, Powell stressed the importance of paying it forward.
“As you assume higher responsibility, understand that a big part of your job is to bring along the people behind you,” he said. “Be the leader that people can learn from, the one that people want to follow.”
The class of 2025 is getting essential career advice from the most unlikely of people—one of them being Sesame Street icon Kermit the Frog. Echoing the same sentiment as Powell, the celebrity Muppet advised Gen Z to share the spoils of their success.
“But guess what, I didn’t let none of that stop me,” the rapper said. “I stayed true to myself. I stayed focused on the vision, and I turned them no’s into yes’s. See, adversity is like the gym for your soul. It hurts. It’s heavy, but it builds you up.”
