Robert Kindler, the Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, addressed a crowd last night on the unpredictability of career paths and the importance of sustaining relationships with peers and mentors in determining future success.
The event, which took place in Carmichael's faculty dining room, was sponsored by the Young Entrepreneurs at Tufts (YET) and was part of a conference that also included two panel discussions.
Throughout his speech, Kindler focused on the many scenarios that can lead to a career in business. "Life is unpredictable, career paths are unpredictable," he said.
The traditional view of entrepreneurialism is too limiting for this variety of options, he said. "The concept [that] being an entrepreneur is limited to startups, I don't think is true," he said.
Instead, Kindler said, the business spirit finds its way into many places. As a lawyer, for example, he had never taken any financing or accounting classes, but needed business savvy to interact with his clients.
"You can be an entrepreneur within a law firm," he said, referring to the variety of business deals that attorneys negotiate.
He also said that the shifting nature of career expectations has placed new emphasis on business professions.
"[When I went to college], if you were at the top of your class, if you were an absolute genius, you'd go to medical school," he said. "If you were an absolute idiot, you'd go to business school."
Relationships are also crucial in fostering ties with the professional community, he said, especially at the beginning of a person's career.
"I kept lists of people and I would call [them] every month [or] every two months," he said. "As you develop relationships and as you make connections in your lives, you'd be very surprised about how they pay off down the road."
Throughout his speech, Kindler used examples from his own experience to emphasize his points.
He drew an example from his time representing DreamWorks to show how unpredictable business trajectories can be.
Initially, the now-successful company's business plan included television and video games, a part of their operations that eventually flopped.
Ultimately, he said, their success in film animation was merely the result of good instincts by skilled businessmen. "Everything else failed except for computer animation, but nobody could have predicted that," he said.
He also warned about bubbles in fast-growing current markets. "Everyone knows they are coming. There is nothing about them that is at all mysterious," he said.
Still, he said that people tend to ignore the signs. "Everyone knows it but everybody...wants to get on the merry-go-round and get off before it blows up," he said.
According to University Provost Jamshed Bharucha, who introduced Kindler, the entrepreneurialism the finance executive represents is very relevant at Tufts.
"Tufts is the entrepreneurial university," he said. "It's really that spirit of Tufts that attracted me...among other qualities."
"It's got to be one of the most satisfying things to have an idea that is original and see it through [to its completion]," he said.
In turn this creation, according to Kindler, leads to income and prestige, although he jokingly downplayed the honor that accompanies titles in an era of expanding financial institutions.
"On Wall Street we say 'Honk if you're a vice chairman,'" he said.
