More than 300 people attended Wednesday’s Wells Fargo Lecture Series featuring Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, who gave an inspirational talk about the “winner’s dream.”
McDermott heads the tech giant and is also the author of a book titled “Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office,” which shares career and leadership insights based on McDermott’s experiences.
McDermott grew up in a working-class Long Island home, where at age 16, he took out a $7,000 loan and used it to buy a deli, the profits of which were later used to help pay for college. After college, McDermott got a job at Xerox, selling door-to-door, and later became the youngest corporate officer the company held.
“Never let go of your dream,” McDermott said. “The first thing is this: There is absolute total correlation between the size of your dream, the broadness of your imagination, the nature of your courage and ultimately where you come out.”
During the talk, McDermott emphasized that it is important to do what you love.
“I talk to young people [and ask,] ‘What is your dream? What do you want? What’s your thing?’” McDermott said. “They will say ‘I don’t know, I am still working on it.’ Once you have fully formed that point of view about who you are, the authentic real you, and decide for yourself where you want to go, everything else gets easier. Never give up on that original dream — it will chase you around that world, and it will eventually catch you.”
McDermott shared a personal story of an accident he had last July when he fell on a glass he was holding while at a relative’s home, resulting in life-threatening injuries. He was able to crawl outside and get help, but the accident resulted in nine hours of surgery and eight days in intensive care.
“There comes a moment where, in that instance of crisis, people say it really builds character,” McDermott said. “It doesn’t build character, it reveals character. Everything you are and everything you want to be reveals itself in a moment of crisis. It may not show its hand when things are going OK; it’s when everything is not going so well when we know the real you. That’s the biggest thing I took away from it.”
After the talk, McDermott discussed in an interview some of the challenges students face today, and he also gave advice both to students graduating and starting out in college.
“I think the world is in a constant state of change, from one day to another, with the dizzying evolution of technology and the globalization of world economies,” McDermott said. “It’s probably tough for students to lock in on their winner’s dream and figure out what they want to do. What I try to do is bring them back to who they really are, and that the best part of them is being themselves and to stay true to their authenticity.”
One last piece of advice McDermott had for students when searching for a career is to go beyond just talking to the recruiter, recommending instead going to the person in charge of the department or area in the company that one is truly interested in pursuing.
“By going to the top, you’re going in with a sponsor that’s guiding you towards your ultimate goal,” McDermott said. “I encourage people to pursue their ambition. If they know what they want to do, go to the top person, and tell them what they want. But, put it in terms of what you will do for them and how you will be in service for them. Once you understand the world through the eyes of other people, the doors of opportunity open for you.”
McDermott’s former boss, Emerson Fullwood, invited McDermott to NC State for the Wells Fargo Lecture Series. Fullwood is an NC State alumnus who graduated in economics, and he has invited three CEOs to three other previous Wells Fargo lectures.
“Bill was an extraordinary talent and was the kind of talent that I was recruiting to join my organization at Xerox,” Fullwood said.
Both students and staff alike enjoyed the talk. Toward the end, McDermott handed out and signed his book for some students.
“I have been here three and a half years, I have seen 10 to 12 Wells Fargo lectures,” said Scott Troutman, director of development and external relations for the Poole College of Management. “This is the best one I have seen in terms of engaging the audience, meaningful stories, meaningful lessons. We had an old basketball coach, Jim Valvano, if he had been a CEO, he would have been Bill McDermott.”
Students found McDermott’s message inspiring, some saying that they will apply his message to their own lives.
“I thought it was very inspiring to hear what he was able to accomplish, going from being the son of a working-class family to being the CEO of SAP,” said Savannah Stanaland, a senior studying accounting. “I hope to take his words to heart and base my life upon them.”
