I am honored to speak to you tonight. You are a very select group whose contributions in the years ahead will be monumental. I know many of those who will be your teachers and your mentors. You are not likely to understand tonight what a rare group they are. You will be marvelously blessed through their efforts.
As you can see, I am getting along in years, and old men love to give advice to young people. But be careful. I have learned that free advice often costs more than the kind you pay for. Tonight, I would like to visit and share some concepts I wish I had known or at least been reminded of at your age. I also want to raise a voice of warning to those of you who will make business your lifelong work.
I have been honored to be a General Authority these past fourteen years. But today would like to focus on the nearly thirty years I spent working in the business world. During my career, I learned that four things generally motivate people in business. If you will consider these four sources of motivation, you will have additional criteria to consider when planning a course of action for yourselves and, eventually, for those you supervise.
MONEY
It is understandable that money is motivating. It is appropriate that you expend great effort in earning it. Money will permit you to raise a family and also to make substantial contributions to the Church and to other worthy causes. But this desire must be controlled. When we are motivated by money, we can let it explode into greed. At one point in my life, I realized that I was constantly going into the counting house to see how much money I had made that week or even that day. Beware!
Mormon understood the results of this problem. And the people began to be distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning; yea, some were ignorant because of their poverty, and others did receive great learning because of their riches.1 Note also that Mormon precedes this statement with, "For there were many merchants in the land, and also many lawyers, and many officers."2 It appears that merchants have some part in people being distinguished by ranks. If you are not motivated by greed, the day will come when additional money will lose part of its powerful motivating force in your life.
COMPETITION
Often, money and competition march together. It is healthy to compete. It can be a positive motivator and a major factor in helping achieve goals. But it can also harden us and blind us to the needs of others.
The day will come when you will have earned the respect of your peers and won enough competitions that this factor will lose much of its appeal. Control the desire to be seen as the best. Striving to be seen rather than striving to be is dangerous. I have observed as much dishonesty caused by a desire to be seen as number one as I have seen caused by a desire for money. Either one can cause you to make decisions that will later bring you a great deal of regret.
If you prove successful in obtaining money and receiving the plaudits of men, beware of pride.
I draw your attention to counsel given by President Ezra Taft Benson. He said: "The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others."
C. S. Lewis said: "Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man."
A DESIRE FOR EXCELLENCE
A desire for excellence is different than a desire to win awards for excellence. That properly falls under competition. This objective is not for anyone else, not for money, and not for fame. It is to rise to a benchmark set by you and only you an internal standard that is one's own acceptable level of performance. This motivator will keep you up at night when your peers, supervisor, and president of the company are happily asleep. This level of maturity separates the majority of mankind from the few.
Rarely have I seen one who is highly motivated by excellence fall prey to the disease of pride.
BELIEF IN A CAUSE
This becomes a strong motivating factor when you no longer are the primary focus. This moves people when they see a larger purpose than their own. This higher level of motivation is quite common to parents, missionaries, and priesthood and auxiliary leaders. In fact, it is very common in the Church and quite rare in the business world.
Abigail Adams, as reported in David McCullough's outstanding biography on John Adams, said: "Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors."3 Note the sacrifice was being made by those who would not likely "reap the blessings." When you are willing to make considerable sacrifices for posterity or anyone besides yourself, you are on the brink of finding a cause.
On one occasion I was in the East having breakfast with a very prominent man in the financial planning world. I had played a small part in a presentation he was preparing a retirement plan for several thousand employees of a major corporation. He told me of the hours into the night he had worked on the presentation. I looked at him for a long time and said, "You have more money than you or your children can possibly spend. You are recognized in the entire industry as a man of superior talents. You have received all of the major awards. Why would you work so hard and so long on this project?"
His response indicated what I am trying to convey. He said: "I am plagued by the knowledge that if I don't do my work well, someone will suffer." His primary concern was not about the senior officers of the company. They would not suffer. He was greatly concerned about the rest of the people in that organization.
Those are the four powerful motivating factors of the business world. Other factors that fall into additional categories are also helpful to discuss.
LEARN TO HANDLE MONEY AS A TOOL
Money is the means by which you can accomplish important things. A hammer is a tool. If one learns to use it well, a house can be built. If one doesn't use it well there will be many broken and bruised and very painful thumbs.
Let me explain. Assume your income is fifty thousand dollars a year. Your outgo is fifty-two thousand. Eventually you will find yourself in slavery. Your creditors will own you. If your income is fifty thousand and your outgo is forty-eight thousand, you will almost certainly live in a world of freedom. You will control the tool of money. Money is a tool use it wisely.
When I returned as a young man from my mission, I reported to Elder LeGrand Richards. He gave me counsel on very practical matters. One was to pay tithing. He said: "Save an equal amount." Invest it first in education for you and your spouse. Second, invest in a home. Third, invest wherever you think wise. But be more concerned about the return of your money than the return on your money.
President Gordon B. Hinckley in October 1998 Priesthood Session of General Conference said: So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings.
We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome swings in the markets of the world. The economy is a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world. It can eventually reach down to each of us as individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed. Might I say that those words are filled with warning from one who is a seer, one who can see afar off and through his prophetic insight raise a warning voice. Here is one counseling us who is immersed in a cause. President Hinckley continued: I am troubled by the huge consumer installment debt which hangs over the people of the nation, including our own people. I recognize that it may be necessary to borrow to get a home, of course. But let us buy a home that we can afford and thus ease the payments which will constantly hang over our heads without mercy or respite for as long as thirty years. I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage. This is a part of the temporal gospel in which we believe. May the Lord bless you, my beloved brethren, to set your houses in order.4
KNOW WHAT YOU STAND FOR
You should know by now what you stand for and where you draw the line. Permit me an example.
A young man graduated from the University of Idaho in business at the top of his class. He received a job with a major corporation in the East. He and his wife traveled to their new location with so much excitement and enthusiasm. He was to begin on a Monday morning. When they and other trainees arrived, they were invited to a get-acquainted party Sunday evening at the president's home. There were cocktails, inappropriate language, and stories that were embarrassing to both husband and wife. They talked about it that night and decided they would live the commandments and be courteous and patient. The next morning the young man was invited into the personnel officer's suite and told by him that he would not be happy there. He said, "You just don't fit in." The young couple was crushed. They couldn't believe it.
They came to see me. I had been his stake president during his high school days. They felt the Lord had let them down. "If you feel that way why didn't you agree to drink and participate?" "Because that would be wrong." "Well, you had a choice. You could have denied what you believe to be true and kept the job or have stood by your convictions and lost the job. What should it have been?" They answered: "We did the right thing." "Of course you did."
Decide early in your life where you stand. It will save a lot of time and energy in the future. Keep your covenants. Be worthy of help from unseen sources. I can assure you that many times when you are under stress you will receive helpful impressions. One statement the Lord made has helped me many times when I did not know how to escape a problem: "All flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God."5
HUMILITY AND RECOGNITION OF OTHERS
Kathryn Graham, the owner and publisher of the Washington Post, invited Ronald and Nancy Reagan to her home near the end of President Reagan's administration. There were five to six hundred people in attendance. There was an accident, and a glass and its contents fell to the carpet. Graham came on the scene, and recalls, "I was dumbstruck at seeing the President of the United States on his hands and knees in the middle of the crowd picking up the ice."
On the phone the next day Nancy Reagan told Graham of the time the President was in the hospital after the assassination attempt. The President was not to be out of his bed. But he got up and went to the bathroom. In the process he spilled a pitcher of water. When the attendants came in he was on his hands and knees wiping it up. When Nancy asked him why, he said that he was afraid the nurse would get into trouble.6
Remember others most of you will achieve much in your life be humble. And be aware of the contribution others will make to your success.
Understand that you aren't likely to accomplish much in this world alone not in business certainly not in family, not in church, and almost never in anything that will bring you happiness. Always remember others who helped you succeed.
YOUR SPOUSE THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR OF ALL
Decide with your spouse what it is you really want in life. What do you want to leave behind when your work here is finished? Think lifelong. What I am going to say may not be politically correct, but I believe it to be true nevertheless.
A good marriage has a division of labor. After deciding your lifetime objective, decide how the two of you will divide the work to achieve it. For example, a superb executive secretary could be paid as much as $35 an hour. But the same person may be a superb writer understandable, graphic, and clear. That person might be paid as much as $100 an hour. What should that person do with his or her talent? Wisdom would dictate that he or she should put the talent to the highest and best use.
Please forgive me for a personal example. Sister Porter graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in accounting about the time she turned twenty. She then learned to run the large banking machines then in use in major banks. This was at the time the computer was just being developed. She then became an instructress for Burroughs Adding Machine Company. When Burroughs would sell a machine, she would go into a bank for several weeks and teach others how to use it. She was, for that era, highly paid. She could earn considerably more money than I could even after I graduated from BYU. I was a sophomore at BYU when we were married. We decided we would not put off having a family. Shirley worked until it was time to quit when she was expecting our first child. The return on having her at home was far greater in contributing toward our objectives than if she had continued to work outside the home.
Our six children had a mother a full-time mother. You cannot imagine the impact that has had on our happiness in life. Without a doubt she has done that which has brought the greatest return to us. In addition, her contribution to my capacity to earn an income is beyond calculation. Our family has brought us many times more joy and happiness than any worldly recognition or wealth could.
Let me close by saluting you for your decision to continue to prepare yourselves. You will leave here well educated and go out into the world. You must be men and women of integrity who will spread wide the principles of this institution and of the kingdom of God. That you may do so is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Speech given by L. Aldin Porter
NOTES
- 3 Nephi 6:12
- 3 Nephi 6:11
- David McCullough, John Adams, 169.
- Gordon B. Hinckley, "To the Boys and to the Men," Ensign, Nov. 1998, 54.
- Doctrine and Covenants 101:16 6 Kathryn Graham, Personal History, 612.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
L. Aldin Porter is a senior President of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For more than thirty years, Elder Porter worked as an underwriter for Mutual of New York and Certified Life. He is past president of the Idaho Chapter of Certified Life Underwriters and has been president of the Utah Real Estate Planning Council. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Beneficial Life Insurance Company. He gave this speech at the Marriott School Graduate Student Orientation 31 August 2001.
