I was recently asked to speak with students at my alma mater, La Salle University. This was part of a course that started near the end of my time in the Digital Arts & Multimedia (DArt) program where students are treated to visits from people in the interactive/arts industry who speak to their work and give general advice.

In my senior year I was especially motivated by a presentation from a former student named Ty Burrowbridge. He spoke of what I now know as the primary premise of the self-help book “The Secret”—mainly that by visualizing ones goals they can be willed into existence. I recall not agreeing with it in the mystical sense he seemed to imply but understanding the logic of how one’s focus and attention can have an impact in what kinds of opportunities might present themselves. I took it to heart and it only took a year or so before I managed to achieve by high school dream of working in the gaming industry.

Hoping to spark a similar reaction from my presentation, I thought about my journey from college to now and what lessons I might be able to bestow onto the soon to be graduates. What can I share that might make them at least a little more successful than me in achieving their goals? With that in mind, I retraced my steps over the last two decades and came up with 10 tips I shared with the class.

10 Tips

1. You learn more outside of class than inside.
2. Don’t underestimate the power of networking.
3. Don’t be afraid to relocate to achieve your goals.
4. Make it easy for others to help you.
5. Aim to leave a company in a better place than when you got there.
6. If you’re unsure what to do, apply your current skill set in companies and industries that interest you.
7. Don’t undervalue your own happiness.
8. Don’t remove a fence until you understand why it was put there.
9. A good way to move up is to manage up.
10. The best managers have mastered the art of delegation and motivation.

The 10 tips are in the in order in which I discovered them, which I used as bookmarks during my presentation as I went through my experiences.

As part of a series of blog post I will dive deeper into some of these tips. For some reason, that seems better than writing a very long article spanning more than 10 years of my life.

See you next time.