Michigan Ross Commencement 2022 Guest Speaker: Brad Keywell

Good afternoon, graduates, and good afternoon to your families and friends. You should all be so, so proud of all that you have accomplished, and I'm grateful to you for all that you will accomplish as alumni of this great university. 34 years ago, in 1988, I was Brad... Mr. Keywell's junior counselor in cabin B6 at Camp Walden in Sheboygan, Michigan.

I spent seven years of my life on this campus, so this is very personal for me. So I'd like to share something quite personal. It's at the core of who I am, and it's something that we all have in common, but we don't hear much about this in school. I've relied on it to guide my choices at critical moments when I've started companies, created a museum, and built a global ideas conference. So I figured the time is ripe to talk about it because you're coming into a part of your lives... Everyone, the reason I know we have it is that we are all former seven-year-olds. Now, what I'm talking about is our sense of wonder. As children, we first experienced its joyfulness, this sense of possibility, childlike imagination. It's a superpower, and I'm going to challenge you to unleash yours. Graduates, your glorious time here in Ann Arbor is almost over. So this is it. Let's consider this your last class at the University of Michigan. And since I've got the mic... I was seven years old. It was a cold autumn Monday, and the following Saturday in the Big House right across the way, Michigan's number five ranked football team would face number four Ohio State for the Big Ten championship. The winner would go to the Rose Bowl. Now, I considered myself the biggest Michigan football fan, and I thought it was critical that our quarterback, Rick Leach, would know that me, a seven-year-old, would be at the game cheering for him. Childlike wonder is certainly a powerful thing. Now, how would I... Blue Sharpie on yellow poster board. I told him exactly where I'd be sitting, that my favorite colors, yellow and blue, of course, are the same as Michigan, and that his number seven was also my favorite number. Presuming, of course, that somehow my letter would get to him, I asked Rick to get me the autograph of every player on the team. I mean, what else did he have to do other than prepare for the biggest game of his life, right? And to make it convenient, I drew a big box so that every player would know exactly where to sign. And I also included a return address... Life. Now, 44 and a half years after writing that letter, I am here, back here, to share some learnings about this superpower called wonder. Wonder 101 class. This is about me meeting the 'it's always been this way and it won't change' situations with the sense that you may be the one born to change it. Now, we won't have grades. Actually, it's self-created, but more on that later. So let's start by defining wonder. It flows to our heart, and it sparks our mind into action, namely an extraordinary leader, naming a great achiever, and you'll see this pattern. Now, we're going to have some class participation, so if you would please join me, everyone, hands in the air. Everyone, including those in the cheap seats up there. Now, we're going to do something very simple. We're going to locate where our sense of wonder lives. Ready? It's going to be easy. Put your hands on your stomach. Well done. It's where we distinguish trust from danger, right from wrong, like from love. Our gut instinct is also our source of confidence. I view it like a cup. Each time we say to ourselves, 'I can do this,' it adds a drop until it runs over with the feeling, 'I must do this.' That sense then travels to our hearts, and this is where our feeling lives: our passion, our desire, our poetic beauty within. This is where we feel on fire with enthusiasm, we feel alive with vitality, connected with purpose. Now, to our head, our mind. This is where we think: rules, patterns, guidelines like 'this not that,' 'up or down,' 'which numbers on what spreadsheet.' The mind is best used for action reflective of gut instincts and heartfelt conviction. So gut to heart to mind. It's easy, right? Well, as all former seven-year-olds, we know that once upon a time, yes, it was quite easy. Our gut sensed fun, our hearts felt joy, and seamlessly our minds guided us to play. Mind, stand in single file lines, sit neatly in rows, recite an order, fill in small circles with number two pencils. We've been graded on our ability to fit in, follow along, repeat back. Now, I believe education is essential, especially from the University of Michigan, and I say that proudly. My mother, my father, my sister, and members of my family dating back to 1925, we all bleed maize and blue. But while school fills our minds with knowledge, our guts and hearts too often... Michelangelo looked at a block of marble and said that within that marble was the sculpture of David, and the sculpture was already complete within it. He just had to chisel away the excess material. GPAs don't make you you. They don't make me me. What defines our years and our lives is our play, what we find fascinating, what interests us, what we imagine we can do. Has lots of traffic. Your mind thinks fear, and it drives the wrong way. It sends your heart to pound, puts you out of balance. A thought of insecurity causes your stomach to churn, dulling your gut instinct. This maze of detours on the gut-to-heart-to-mind highway has signs that say 'What if I fail?', 'Too scary', 'Too risky'. It was so simple as children. We sensed a possibility, we felt the joy, and we played. Rediscovering that... And I play often. When I have an idea for a new business, my litmus test is whether I feel it, not just whether I think it. When I sat alone at a desk starting Echo Global Logistics, I didn't just think that it could work. My gut was on fire with its inevitability. Four years after I founded the company, it went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Last year, Echo's revenue was over three billion dollars. Groupon, which I was a founder of in 2009, began with a sense of curiosity: perhaps technology could unleash the power of collective action around consumer purchasing. It began with me playing with an idea. Because it was play, I was not attached to the idea of being right. Instead of saying, 'Isn't this a great idea?', what I said when I met experts was, 'What's wrong with my concept? What am I missing?' This play allowed me to refine my instinct, and it led me to this clear sense: I must start Uptake. Now, what's consistent about these disparate businesses is that while they all rely on mastery of business plans, marketing tactics, and more, they would not exist without a sense of wonder, playful wonder, the possibility that there are better assembly lines, maybe the healthcare system, perhaps the way we educate ourselves. The more playful you are, the less you'll be stymied by worry and fear. Wonder 101. This is your final class in this arena of champions. It's time for our cram session. Fellow Wolverines, I'm going to offer you seven tips and observations that I've learned to help quiet the mind and ignite the fire of wonder. Wondrous senses. Number one: no phones, no screens, no music, no meetings. Just you, sitting, thinking, quietly. Four hundred years ago, the philosopher Blaise Pascal observed that all of humanity's problems stem from a person's inability to sit quietly alone in a room. So this is not a new idea, but what is new is the severity of the problem. Pascal's observation was made before the time of the daily newspaper. Today, incessant noise hits us from smartphones, social media. It creates scarcity of quiet time. And then listen closely. Number two: things should not be the way they are. That's right. They should not be the way they are. But they are that way. It's true. But they should not be. The way things are is like a rearview mirror. It reflects what's behind you, not what is to come. And that's where you graduates, that's where you fit in. You have a choice to not let things be the way they are. You can choose to do something about it. One day, you'll sense something that you think is not okay being as it is, and you'll have the sense you'll know you're the one to change it. Ask again, and you'll get a list of problems that would occur if it were not that way. By the third 'why,' you probably are going to figure out that it was all about some old protocol. And at some point, you'll get to the real reason. In 1973, a random person made an arbitrary decision, and no one's ever bothered to do anything about it. Once you accept that things are not the way they should be, you'll see opportunity. Lots of it. Number three: one plus one can equal three. Mathematics speaks to absolutes: one plus one equals two. And they create a new approach to the way things work. One plus one can equal three or even three thousand. Where a partner or an opportunity propels you to be an even better version of yourself, that is where the magic equation comes alive. And with all due respect to simple arithmetic, when it comes to your life, don't settle for anything less than one plus one equals three. Number four: noticing with all five senses. Noticing is more than just seeing. Noticing with all five senses is a higher level game. A little bit right in front of the stage, what do you see? I see rows and rows of graduates. I see my family. Maybe you see yours. What do you hear? I hear the low buzz of air conditioning. I just heard a cough. What do you taste? I taste a little bit of spearmint from the gum I was chewing earlier. And touch, what do you feel? I feel my fingers touching this podium, my feet firmly planted on the ground. This is noticing five senses style. How often we see or hear... The number of times you get back up. We humans are generally afraid to stand out and speak up. Most of us have been raised to be risk averse. But risk aversion has gone too far. Wondering is not risky. What's really risky is not wondering. And what's extremely risky is not trying. And given that we are all former children, I'll use the cliche of learning how to ride a bike. Lots of falling, failing until that one extra time you got back up. You didn't say, 'I'll never be able to ride a bike.' You kept at it. At age seven, it was about riding a bike. We all fail. I challenge you to be one of the people who gets back up. Number six: risk being seen. I believe one of the most important risks is to risk being seen, to risk being your authentic self. We are all, all of us, insecure. We are afraid that someone won't like us. They might not like our ideas. Thankfully, there are seven billion other people on this planet. And if one person doesn't like you or your ideas, good chance someone else will. So take the risk of being yourself, being seen. Instead, Sam was open and curious. I felt like he saw me for who I wanted to be. That was a vulnerable moment. But that moment when I was 18 years old turned out to be the start of an extraordinary relationship. For the past 34 years, Sam has been my primary mentor and became a dear friend. And in a full circle moment, about 20 years ago, I was here on campus giving a speech. And as soon as I finished, a 19-year-old undergrad came up to me. He shared a business idea. He risked being seen, and I saw a spark. And I am so proud of him and touched that he chose to be here today in the audience to share this moment with me. Graduates, the point is this: risk being seen. Which brings us to number seven: we are all artists. Well, this is a business school dealing with money and capitalism. I believe we are all here not just to make money, but to pursue a purpose-driven life. I see entrepreneurs, as well as those who approach business with a sense of purpose, as artists. Our brush strokes. Here's what they sound like: 'What if?', 'How about?', 'It's possible', 'I believe.' And what's so cool is that each of us will paint different pictures, perfect pictures with our lives, each a masterpiece in its own way. And how excited I am to be among you, graduates and emerging artists. And how joyful it would be to see what each of you create. Wonder 101, our class is almost coming to an end. I mentioned earlier that Wonder 101 is a self-graded course. The way to grade yourself is simple. It's based on how proud you make two people. Not your mom or dad, not teachers, not friends. Your grade will be based on how proud you make the seven-year-old version of you and the 77-year-old version of you. If you are happy with the choices you've made and the way you've lived your life, then you will get an A plus. As for me, that letter to Rick Leach... I got a call from the office of our head football coach at the time, Bo Schembechler. Bo was retiring. They were cleaning out his office. They said they found something with my name on it. They tracked me down using the return address sticker. I had no idea what to expect. And then days later, a tube arrived in the mail. I opened it, and out slid a familiar yellow poster written on with blue Sharpie. What you're looking at are the faded signatures of every single player from that 1977 championship Michigan football team. Be curious. In this world, wonder is a superpower. So ask that question, take that chance, start something, and risk being seen. And write that letter, whatever your version will be. And one final tip: make sure you include your return address sticker, because you never know what might happen.