We’ve had some fantastic speakers come to talk this year, but by far the best have been those organized by/connected with current MBA students. The latest was Alexis Dormandy, an amazing guy who has worked for McKinsey, Orange. Accenture, Virgin (currently on the Board), is Chairman of European Red (Bono’s Charity), and is now Managing Director of the private equity firm Candover. A guy in our class played rugby with him in London, so brought him in to talk with us. He had loads of great advice…here are the highlights as I remember them:

1. Richard Branson (and people like Richard Branson) are forces of nature. Don’t try to stop a force of nature.
2. It’s all about people. You’re not going to make yourself successful, other people are going to make you successful. Surround yourself with good people and treat them well.
3. Solve problems for people—they’ll tend to like you for it and give you more and bigger problems to solve.
4. When you’re handed an opportunity, don’t be afraid to take it!
5. No matter how good you are or how hard you try, a crap idea will never work.
6. If you can’t hold the whole solution to a problem in your own head, it’s probably too complicated and probably won’t work.