The following is a transcription of the 2008 commencement speech given by Steve Gilbert at the Lauder Institute of The Wharton School. Steven is the Senior Managing Director and Chairman of SUN Group (USA). He is also Chairman of the Board of Gilbert Global Equity Partners, L.P., a billion dollar private equity fund and Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of MidOcean Partners. For those of you that are interested, this is a brilliant read full of no‐frills, hard hitting advice.

When I sat, where you are sitting right now, the speaker at this venue, who had entered Wharton 40 years before I started, was probably Class of 1927. That means, he (there were no women in those days), was born around the turn of the Century. He was too young for World War I, but his grandfather was born about the time of the Civil War. And he was headed right into the Great Depression.

In 1905, when he was born, the average life expectancy in the US was 47 years. 14 percent of US homes had a bathtub. 8 percent had telephones. There were 8,000 cars, and 144 miles of paved roads. 95% of all births took place at home. 90% of all doctors had no college education. Most women washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo. Crossword puzzles, canned beer and iced tea hadn’t been invented. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. Marijuana, heroin and morphine were all available, over the counter at the local corner drugstore.

My speaker in 1967 had a business career that did not include the Internet, e‐mail, calculators, personal computers, cellphones or the electric toothbrush. How did they ever survive? How did they ever do business? How did they ever succeed? Of course, that’s what you will be thinking, when your holograph stands here 40 years from now. But I wanted to give you a touch of perspective. Because the arc of your career will be a lot shorter than you think. But some things haven’t changed. I am confident, that whatever the technology over the next 40 years, what I am about to tell you will remain constant.

Now, you all suppose that I am about to launch into a diatribe about macro‐economics, Sovereign Wealth Funds, and international economics. If that is what you find interesting, read The Economist. Because what you all want to know, as you enter the work force, is “What are the secrets of success?” By just being in this room, you are amongst the elite of this planet. You are surely in the top 1%. Being in the Lauder School, the top one percent of that metric. But only some of you, hardly all, based on history, will succeed in business. That’s because you don’t have Gilbert’s Secret Rules of Business Success. They have been derived from a lifetime of trial and error. Take notes.

• Show up on time. You might think this to be humorous or facetious. But, as your career goes on, you will find there are a lot of people who cannot do this. Their plane is always late, they pick up the phone before the big meeting, they can’t meet a deadline. 90% of meetings start late. When your colleagues and bosses know that you will show up when promised, they will have confidence in you, and begin to trust you.
• Do what you are asked to do. Don’t do what you think ought to be required. Don’t add pages of data to prove your point. Summarize the data so your boss doesn’t have to. Don’t change the assignment. Give your boss what he asked for, and life will be simple. You can add exhibits for recreational reading, but only the first two pages will be read.
• When asked a direct question, answer, “Yes”, ‘No”, or “I don’t know but will find out”. Don’t tell a story. Don’t obfuscate. Don’t repeat the question you were just asked. Don’t fill the air with information of interest only to you. Answer first. Tell the story second, if you must. You would be shocked at how few people can do this. Always make full disclosure.
• Handle every piece of paper only once. Paper left on your desk will grow, even without food or water. Looking at the same piece of paper multiple times is wasteful, counter‐productive, and cuts down on your recreation time.
• Make your boss look good. Eventually, this will work. Organizations always know who really does the work. Empty suits can’t hide forever. If you make your boss look bad, you might have to try this at your next job.
• If it isn’t in writing, it doesn’t exist. Without an email or a piece of paper, nothing anyone says to you means anything. Promises are broken all the time in business, and memories are extraordinarily selective.
• Everyone works hard, don’t complain or point out how hard you are working. No one cares. They all have their own issues. Your best bet is to act like a duck, looking calm and composed on the surface, but pedaling furiously under the water.
• Honesty is the best policy. Not just because it is, but also because when things get complicated, you won’t be able to remember all the lies you told. If you are always honest, only your memory for the truth is at issue.
• Being nice is more profitable than being nasty. It takes much less energy to be nice. People want to work with you. You will be happier and so will your colleagues.
• Speed is important. Most people will value a quick “no” more than a lengthy “maybe”. Responding quickly is much appreciated. Run to the problem first.
• Work smart, not just hard.  Don’t confuse speed with torque. Sitting at your desk all night is not the same thing as making progress. Figure out, each day, what you need to do to succeed. Determine what you need from a meeting; don’t just blindly enter the room like a lamb.
• Be realistic. No one is going to make you CEO while the ink on your MBA is still drying. Even for the best, it takes a few years before people are comfortable that you can do all the things you think you can.
• Don’t be afraid to be bold. You can, and certainly will, be able to get another job. Don’t be afraid to find the door if you don’t like what is going on. The sign on the door of opportunity reads PUSH. Don’t be afraid to suggest a new line of business. Don’t be afraid to stand up for your vision.

As Ayn Rand said “Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”

• You have more than one job. You can never be happier than your least happy child. You may have to be a husband, wife, father, mother, a son, a daughter, a nurse or a nursemaid during your lifetime. If you fail at any of these jobs, success in the others will be meaningless.
• You don’t have to cure cancer to be a success. Being a good citizen, a good parent, a good friend, a productive and charitable member of society is all most of us can hope for. And remarkably few achieve.

If you follow these simple rules, you should do just fine. As simple as they sound, 98% of all MBA graduates cannot, or will not, comply with these rules. You know who you are.

Now, I am going to give you the ten biggest business myths. Things you hear, or, are told, that sound plausible, but just aren’t true. Keep these on file, and send me $10 every time you hear one. I will leave a Post Office Box address in Lichtenstein after the speech.

1. You have more security here at Gigantabank than you do on your own. Just not true. One strategic shift, one downsizing, one reorganization, one boss with a bad hangover, and you are toast at Gigantabank. You have no job security. You just have less pay.
2. “You’re really smart!” When you are a buyer, every joke you tell is funny and every insight you have is brilliant. Don’t try these jokes at home. Most people see your position, not your fabulous personality and good looks.
3. “There is almost no risk to this”. A good definition of risk is that more things will go wrong than can go wrong. Nothing is without risk. Your job is to find the risks, define them, see if you can contain them or live with them, given the return offered. Nothing is riskless.
4. “This time it’s different”. Not that I can tell. The laws of supply and demand, risk and reward, greed and fear, have remained constant since men got up on two feet. And I suspect it always will.
5. “It’s not about the money”. When someone tells me this, I am then sure it is about the money.
6. “You can tell me”. No, you can’t. When someone entrusts you with confidential information, anyone you give it to won’t trust you to keep a secret. And, they are likely to pass it on, no matter how sincere they seem at the time. Keep your own counsel. As Ben Franklin said, “three can keep a secret if two are dead.”
7. “We are Best‐in‐Breed”. If dogs could talk, this would matter. But who is going to tell you, “we are just a second‐rate operation, please do business with us”? Internally and externally, it is in the interest of everyone to assume they are the best and brightest. Hopefully, you will be able to tell the difference.
8. “We have no politics here”. This is true, but only if you have a lights‐out, industrial clean room with robots. If there are people involved, there will be politics. Even in the Bible, they just had Adam and Eve, they had politics.
9. “Everyone is doing it” This is the surest ticket to a custodial experience that I know. Not only is everybody usually wrong, but they are probably treading on a fuzzy white line. If everybody is doing it, you probably shouldn’t be.
10. “My word is my bond”. If your word is so good, why won’t you commit yourself to paper? Because they don’t intend to keep their word, and don’t want a record, that’s why.

If you follow the No Longer Secret Gilbert Rules, and don’t believe the myths, you should do fine. It really isn’t much more difficult than that. Because we all know you are smart. Smart is just the beginning. The basic requirement. There is no shortage of smart people in business.

And there are more smart people on the way. Investment in infrastructure in newly developing countries will unlock vast quantities of human capital, probably the most valuable resource on the planet. Airports, roads, hospitals, ports, power plants, communications, potable water, adequate sanitation and other related investments will bring hundreds of millions of new consumers, investors, artists, writers, businessmen and women into the worldwide matrix of human capital.

So, Lauder graduates another pool of human capital, small in number, but large in intellect, ambition and desire.  Now, armed with the secret rules for business success, go forth and prosper.

Thank You.