when my family moved to Houston Texas
when I was about nine years old I felt
like I saw opportunity everywhere and it
that wasn’t really the case what I just
saw was more successful people and I
felt like that if you ask yourself the
question you know what I really believe
something is possible if I’ve never seen
it with my own eyes that starts to get
you thinking in the right direction
there’s this quote that I like that goes
success is the is where preparation and
opportunity meet this sweet spot right
here success because if you think about
it nobody really starts out in life
wanting to be successful if I point at
you and say hey what’s your number-one
goal in life and you kind of answer back
with well I want to be really
unsuccessful I know I’m getting trolled
and my story is much more about
recognizing opportunity for yourself and
then for others that’s what I want I
want most people to realize that
everyone I meet is probably working hard
to get better at it is I’m better at
whatever it is that they do and so I’d
like to suggest to you that you can play
a part in the success of others if you
can learn to spot opportunities for them
that they might not otherwise see and I
think it’s especially important to learn
the skill of spotting opportunities for
yourself and others because our life is
just one series of opportunity after
another you have the preparation you
have the opportunity and then you have
success or failure it’s just a cycle
that keeps going on and on and I feel
like that there’s always some way we can
be better better prepared today than we
were yesterday so in my professional
life I get to go to a lot of incredibly
cool events I spent the first part of
this week in Los Angeles and an
organization called ad killers about
diversity and advertising I get to do
have lunch with CEOs and as senior
people with decades of insights that are
especially helpful for someone starting
their career maybe someone restarting
their career or maybe someone who hasn’t
even had a career yet so I had this idea
to buy an extra ticket to a
particular event series where we have
lunch with CEOs so that I could bring
the student I could find who would make
the most of this opportunity this this
small intimate gathering where you get
to talk back and forth with the CEO of a
really cool company and so I shared my
idea with someone at the advertising
agency who was hosting the event and he
responded immediately and said that he
knew the perfect person to bring and he
wanted to do it which told me that this
was this idea was simple it was
repeatable and it was it was something
that I could use to help infect other
people with this idea of bringing
someone else along for the ride so every
time I get the chance to bring someone
to one of these things that I get to go
to I reach out to educators or reach out
to youth mentors I reach out to young
adults I reach out to professors and I
try to find the person who is the most
prepared person I can find and bring
them along with me and the idea is to
increase the chances of success for each
person by giving them more opportunities
and new experiences so one of my
favorite favorite definitions of success
is constant growth and I really like
that definition because it talks about
how you’re never done succeeding no
matter what you do no matter who you are
you’re never completely finished
succeeding so this means that there is a
constant cycle like I said before of
preparation opportunity and either
success or failure this sweet spot right
here and I’d like to challenge each and
every one of you to start thinking of
yourselves as opportunity Scouts for
other people so while you’re looking for
yourself be thinking about bringing
someone else along for the ride because
just like my move from El Paso to
Houston allowed me to see for myself in
my own eyes what success meant and what
opportunity looked like you two can help
someone help someone else get us their
seat at the table too and so I’d like to
wish you all the best of luck
your new roles as opportunity scouts
thank you
[Applause]
when I was about nine years old I felt
like I saw opportunity everywhere and it
that wasn’t really the case what I just
saw was more successful people and I
felt like that if you ask yourself the
question you know what I really believe
something is possible if I’ve never seen
it with my own eyes that starts to get
you thinking in the right direction
there’s this quote that I like that goes
success is the is where preparation and
opportunity meet this sweet spot right
here success because if you think about
it nobody really starts out in life
wanting to be successful if I point at
you and say hey what’s your number-one
goal in life and you kind of answer back
with well I want to be really
unsuccessful I know I’m getting trolled
and my story is much more about
recognizing opportunity for yourself and
then for others that’s what I want I
want most people to realize that
everyone I meet is probably working hard
to get better at it is I’m better at
whatever it is that they do and so I’d
like to suggest to you that you can play
a part in the success of others if you
can learn to spot opportunities for them
that they might not otherwise see and I
think it’s especially important to learn
the skill of spotting opportunities for
yourself and others because our life is
just one series of opportunity after
another you have the preparation you
have the opportunity and then you have
success or failure it’s just a cycle
that keeps going on and on and I feel
like that there’s always some way we can
be better better prepared today than we
were yesterday so in my professional
life I get to go to a lot of incredibly
cool events I spent the first part of
this week in Los Angeles and an
organization called ad killers about
diversity and advertising I get to do
have lunch with CEOs and as senior
people with decades of insights that are
especially helpful for someone starting
their career maybe someone restarting
their career or maybe someone who hasn’t
even had a career yet so I had this idea
to buy an extra ticket to a
particular event series where we have
lunch with CEOs so that I could bring
the student I could find who would make
the most of this opportunity this this
small intimate gathering where you get
to talk back and forth with the CEO of a
really cool company and so I shared my
idea with someone at the advertising
agency who was hosting the event and he
responded immediately and said that he
knew the perfect person to bring and he
wanted to do it which told me that this
was this idea was simple it was
repeatable and it was it was something
that I could use to help infect other
people with this idea of bringing
someone else along for the ride so every
time I get the chance to bring someone
to one of these things that I get to go
to I reach out to educators or reach out
to youth mentors I reach out to young
adults I reach out to professors and I
try to find the person who is the most
prepared person I can find and bring
them along with me and the idea is to
increase the chances of success for each
person by giving them more opportunities
and new experiences so one of my
favorite favorite definitions of success
is constant growth and I really like
that definition because it talks about
how you’re never done succeeding no
matter what you do no matter who you are
you’re never completely finished
succeeding so this means that there is a
constant cycle like I said before of
preparation opportunity and either
success or failure this sweet spot right
here and I’d like to challenge each and
every one of you to start thinking of
yourselves as opportunity Scouts for
other people so while you’re looking for
yourself be thinking about bringing
someone else along for the ride because
just like my move from El Paso to
Houston allowed me to see for myself in
my own eyes what success meant and what
opportunity looked like you two can help
someone help someone else get us their
seat at the table too and so I’d like to
wish you all the best of luck
your new roles as opportunity scouts
thank you
[Applause]
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