5 Best Career Lessons from 2015 Graduation Speeches - The Muse

5 Best Career Lessons from 2015 Graduation Speeches - The Muse5 Best Career Lessons from 2015 Graduation SpeechesCommencement season is a beautiful thing. Not only is this the time for new grads to enter the real world, its also prime time for life lessons being passed on by famous successful people. The best part is you dont have to be a fresh graduate to appreciate or learn from commencement speeches. In fact, the further you get from college, the more you may gain from listening. After all, its a lot easier to take in what people are saying when youre bedrngnis stressing about the fact that youre mere days away from moving back in with you parents.So, whether youre here to learn or youre here to relive the magic of graduating, here are five career lessons you can take away from some of the fruchtwein interesting 2015 commencement speeches. 1. Let Your Values Guide Your Career DecisionsWe believe that a company that has values and acts on them can really change the world. And an in dividual can too. That can be you. That must be you. Graduates, your values matter. They are your North Star. Otherwise its just a job- and life is too short for that.Tim Cook at George Washington UniversityTim Cook, CEO of Apple, encouraged graduates to take the time to figure out what they valued and to lean on that when it comes to career decisions. So, the next time you find yourself feeling a bit lost at work, consider what your values are and see what would happen if you let them make your decision for you. And that applies whether youre no longer satisfied with your current position or youre debating making the leap to an entirely new career path.2. Its All About How You RecoverThe first lesson they teach you in figure skating is how to fallI fell when I started skating at five, still fell when I was five-time world champion. But, the true test is how we recover. I think we can all be that kind of person, taking our fair share of tumbles and falls, but rising with grace and e ndschliff what we began.Michelle Kwan at Salve Regina UniversityMichelle Kwan, American figure skater, Olympian, and American Public Diplomacy Envoy for the United States, knows plenty about success- but also, just as much about failure. She eloquently encouraged graduates from Salve Regina University to focus not on the fall, but on the recovery. Throughout your career, youre going to make mistakes, and youre going to fail. How you react to that is what people will remember- so whether you just mass CCd important people who shouldve been BCCd, or you bombed a presentation in front of your company CEO, remember that people are watching what you do next. That is what theyll remember.3. Learn Something From Everyone You MeetEveryone you will ever meet knows something you dont. This is troubling for many of us know-it-alls. Auto mechanics today write code and debug software. Cooks understand the use of copper to control egg proteins. Bricklayers have intimate knowledge of the strength of materials. Respect their knowledge. Learn from them. It will bring out the best in both of you.Bill Nye at Rutgers UniversityBill Nye, a man who needs no introduction, shared a wonderful point about learning thats important for all of us to understand. Its easy for us to agree abstractly that learning can happen anywhere and from anyone, but really practicing it takes, well, practice.The longer youre working and the higher you climb on the ladder, the harder it becomes to remember this. Especially when it feels like you know more than everyone else around you because youre in a top management position. But, you need to keep in mind that your intern- that person born in the late 90s- might actually be able to teach you something thatll help you.4. Conformity Wont Get You AheadIt was the left shark, the one who went rogue and danced to his own crazy beat, who stole the show. So dont ever be a conformist for convenience sake...be the left shark.Meredith Vieira at Boston UniversityMe redith Vieira, journalist and talk show host, showed her pop culture savvy by using the left shark phenomenon to illustrate her point about the necessity of creating your own path for success. Breaking convention might not make a lot of sense at first, but its often essential to move forward in your career. And yes, going with the flow works for a lot of people. But, at some point in your career, there will be a moment when youll have to decide between taking a risk or continuing to keep your head down. Everyone has their own strategies for dealing with big decisions, but Vieira reminds us all not to dismiss the option to do something a little unexpected, because you might just win big.5. Its Okay to Do What You Do Just Because You Love ItAchievement is wonderful when you know why youre doing it. And when you dont know, it can be a terrible trap...I realized that seriousness for seriousness sake was its own kind of trophyThere was a reason I was an actor. I love what I do. And, I sa w from my peers and my mentors that that was not only an acceptable reason, it was the best reason.Natalie Portman at Harvard UniversityNatalie Portman, Oscar-winning actress, returned to her alma mater and shared her struggle to see herself as high-achieving despite her frivolous love of acting. In a world obsessed with prestige, its a nice reminder that finding success is just about being happy. So, no matter what youre doing in your career, the first thing to always go back to is whether youre in love with it or not. If the answer is yes (and, you know, it pays well enough to keep a roof over your head), then youre at least headed in the right direction. Photo of Bill Nye courtesy of Rutgers.