Advice from Quintin E. Primo III, co-founder and chief executive of Capri Capital Partners, a real estate investment and development firm based in Chicago:
Q. What's your best career advice to young graduates?
A. Three words: leave the country. Get out of here. That's what I tell everybody — just go. I don't care where you go, just go.
Q. Because?
A. Because the world is changing. It is no longer acceptable to speak only English if you are 25 and younger. It's unacceptable. You have little chance of being successful if you speak only one language.
If you don't understand Islam, you're in trouble because Islam comprises somewhere between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion people, and there are markets that are untapped that need to be tapped.
So you've got to get out of your front door, get out of the comfort and quiet of your home, and your safety zone, and step into a pool of risk where you have no idea what the outcome is going to be. Out of it all, you will have a much broader understanding of the world's cultures, and you will have a much clearer idea of how the world perceives our culture, and all the value, and the benefits, and the beauty of our culture.
There is nothing more important. I don't care where you went to business school. I don't care whether your grades were good or bad. You have to leave the country.
I think this advice applies to lawyers too. Yes, there remain areas of practice largely untouched by globalization, but not many.
To those of us who have lived in other countries these words seem obvious. I think it’s especially important for American kids to go beyond their borders. Let’s hope they go. This is one reason why Miami’s Law Without Walls program will be effective.
Interesting. Two big guys that have done this are Jim Rogers (China) and Steven Wynn (Singapore). I have felt some sometime that the US has not seen a large out-migration and is due. I guess there are a couple things that could happen. One is the more productive of society will leave and thus the remainder will fight for themselves. Another is the more non-productive citizens will leave (or be ‘asked’ to leave). Not sure about either.
I think his point was you should leave for a while — to learn about the world. Not for ever.
@michael: I agree. However, I was thinking about it as something which could become something permanent.
It could give whole new meaning to brain drain…