{"id":986,"date":"2011-05-22T20:02:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T00:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.darden.virginia.edu\/brunerblog\/2011\/05\/having-a-vocation-a-purpose-a-calling\/"},"modified":"2013-09-18T15:42:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T19:42:02","slug":"having-a-vocation-a-purpose-a-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.darden.virginia.edu\/brunerblog\/2011\/05\/having-a-vocation-a-purpose-a-calling\/","title":{"rendered":"Having a Vocation, a Purpose, a Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"

H<\/span>ere are the remarks to Darden\u2019s Class of 2011 that I gave at\u00a0the graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n

At this time of year, friends, family, and professors tend to ask the annoying question, \u201cHave you got a job?\u201d\u00a0 You probably resisted answering it for as long as you could.\u00a0 But they persisted: \u201cHave you got a job?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The full-time students left a job, spent 21 months at Darden, and are on the launch pad back into professional life.\u00a0 It is natural for acquaintances to ask, \u201cHave you got a job?\u201d\u00a0 MBA for Exec students find this a relevant question too: most if not all have a job and yet aspire for more.\u00a0 They came to Darden to reach higher.\u00a0 For them, the whispered question is, \u201cAre you set for your next job?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m here to tell you all something extremely important, that a mentor of mine, Peter Gomes, used to say: by \u201cjob\u201d we don\u2019t mean simply something that gives you a salary.\u00a0 We really mean: \u201cDo you have a purpose?\u00a0 Do you have a calling?\u00a0 Do you have a vocation?\u201d\u00a0 I want to suggest to you that whether or not you have a job, everyone has a vocation and that vocation is to live a life that is worth living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Novak wrote that business can be a \u201ccalling,\u201d something more than just a job.\u00a0 He said, \u201cBusiness is a demanding vocation, and one is not good at it just by being in it, or even by making piles of money.\u00a0 The bottom line of a calling is measured by pain, learning, and grace.\u00a0 Having a good year in financial terms is hard enough; having a good year in fulfilling one\u2019s calling means passing tests that are a lot more rewarding\u2026Doing anything as a calling\u2014especially doing something quite difficult\u2014is a lot more fulfilling than merely drifting.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 John D. Rockefeller said that if your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.\u00a0 A calling is about impact in the world.\u00a0 It is about service to someone.\u00a0 Quite often, it is fulfilled in a non-obvious place, rather different from the herd of fashion and conventional thinking.\u00a0 A vocation is not necessarily easy, costless, or convenient.<\/p>\n

A vocation isn\u2019t just about money, power, or fame.\u00a0 We have Darden graduates who garnered all of these, but did so as a consequence of a calling to delight customers, invent new products, or build vibrant organizations.\u00a0 Some have jobs at the very top of their field where their service as leaders is prominent and impactful.\u00a0\u00a0 Others served a calling in equally important, but less obvious, ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trammel Summers, a graduate of the Class of 2009, an excellent student, declined a job offer with the top firm in his field, in order to work close to home here in the South, so that he could help to care for his brother who suffered a brain injury.
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christine Shim of the Class of 2004 left her investment banking job to work for a year at a fraction of the banking salary with Michele Rhee, who dramatically restructured the Washington, D.C. public school system.\u00a0
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lee Murray of the Class of 1985 pursued a business career.\u00a0 She had some ideas about how her city could be run better.\u00a0 So she ran for Mayor.\u00a0 After her successful election, she brought new processes and controls that served the city well.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, two Darden graduates of the Class of 2009, Chip Ransler and Manoj Sinha, founded a firm that commercialized new technology to generate electricity from agricultural by-products.\u00a0 Their successful entrepreneurship brings electricity to poor villages in India and harnesses a vision of renewable energy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can offer many other examples of Darden alums who chose their jobs out of a sense of vocation.\u00a0 You should too.\u00a0 That is my advice to you at this commencement of the rest of your life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your time at Darden has had a lot to say about vocations and living a life that is worth living.\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, a definition of the life that is worth living will vary across people and across time.\u00a0 We should respect the diversity of such views as we engage with co-workers and members of a community.\u00a0 Your learning teams have been a microcosm of such diversity.<\/p>\n

And your time at Darden probably has affirmed that the definition of vocation isn\u2019t a fixed idea\u2014it will vary as you grow through time.\u00a0 I\u2019ll wager that your 21 months at Darden are proof positive of this.\u00a0 If vocation varies as you grow, you must listen carefully and continuously for the vocation to which you are called.<\/p>\n

A vocation is not some abstraction that you put in a box somewhere and look at from time to time.\u00a0 It should be with you every day and affect even the smallest decisions.\u00a0 Your conception of a vocation will drive choices, in the moment, in real time, in a way that is meaningful.\u00a0 For this reason, all the tools that we teach you at Darden come together in a strategic way when you have a purpose, a vocation, a calling.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the subprime crisis, we heard fresh attacks on capitalism, many of them centered around the sense of alienation of people from the work they do.\u00a0 The way to withstand such alienation and to reflect thoughtfully on the extraordinary economic promise of capitalism is to live and work with purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mission of the Darden School is to improve society by developing principled leaders for the world of practical affairs.\u00a0 We believe that living with purpose is an essential ingredient of having impact as a leader and achieving happiness for yourself and those around you.\u00a0 Helen Keller said, \u201cMany persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have a job?\u00a0 That\u2019s not the right question.\u00a0 Do you have a vocation, a calling, a purpose?\u00a0 Only you can answer that.\u00a0 As your Dean, my final admonition to you is to search for, and live, that purpose in all you do.<\/p>\n

Godspeed to you.\u00a0 And thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are the remarks to Darden\u2019s Class of 2011 that I gave at\u00a0the graduation ceremony. At this time of year, friends, family, and professors tend to ask the annoying question, \u201cHave you got a job?\u201d\u00a0 You probably resisted answering it for as long as you could.\u00a0 But they persisted: \u201cHave you got a job?\u201d\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[485,59636],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graduation","category-leadership-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHaving a Vocation, a Purpose, a Calling - Robert F. 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