Congratulations, graduates! You have realized one of the most notable and valuable successes of your lives to this point. Your BYU-Idaho education will be a blessing to you and your loved ones for generations to come.
Though your long-term prospects are good, your immediate future may be unclear. Those of you seeking employment may have been told that relatively few organizations are planning to hire new college graduates now. There may be some truth in that. In reality, though, the calendar year, which runs from January to December, is also the most common “fiscal” year for businesses. For example, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Amazon will both begin a new fiscal year in January. The beginning of the fiscal year is when the majority of companies have the most money to allocate for new projects and products. That is also when they have maximum financial flexibility to hire new employees.
Paradoxically, some human resource professionals may not be actively seeking to hire recent college graduates now. They may even resent a new graduate who goes around the recruiting system to the bosses who need new recruits. But those employers who make the mistake of unwittingly being a tail on the higher education “dog,” waiting for spring or early summer to hire, are missing out. And there is no one better than you, a natural leader from BYU-Idaho, to convince them of that.
Even if you already have employment or aren’t seeking it, now is a good time to be thinking about the paradoxes of this sort that bedevil organizations of all types—large and small, formal and informal, for-profit and not. It’s hard for our human minds to see the potential personal advantage of a human resource department’s lack of college recruiting at precisely the time when prospective new hires like you are most needed. But such paradoxes are common in this life. And people who can identify and optimistically deal with paradoxes are rare and valuable.
- Scott Fitzgerald, the brilliant but ultimately ill-fated author of The Great Gatsby, said in later life, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and retain the ability to function.”[1] Fitzgerald was referring to the natural human tendency to binary thinking: zeroes and ones; this or that; all or nothing.
Some cultures are better than others at transcending this kind of either-or thinking. For example, shortly after the Savior’s earthly ministry, Chinese philosophers began to explore the concept of yin and yang, the idea that opposites can be complementary and even a source of balance in our thinking. In fact, the gospel reflects the kind of balance that can flow from apparent paradox. Consider this statement that the Savior made to His disciples: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”[2]
The Apostle Paul likewise understood the reality of mortal paradoxes. In response to his repeated request for a “thorn in the flesh” to be removed, Paul was told by the Lord, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul wisely responded:
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.[3]
In fact, there’s also a paradox in the term natural leader, which is the name President Henry B. Eyring has given to you. In most earthly organizations, leadership is far from “natural.” It is, rather, the hard-won reward of those who demonstrate not only diligence but also superior intellect, credentials, and charisma. By contrast, this is what President Eyring prophesied of you, in addition to your being natural leaders:
I hope I live long enough to someday meet some employer who employed one of you and says, “Where did that come from? I’ve never had such a person. Why people just flock around that person. And they want to follow. They don’t have to be led; they’re seeking to go where that person wants to go. And they come up with new ideas. I don't know where that comes from. They seem to find a better way, and the budget doesn't go up. I can't understand it.” And I’ll smile and say, “Well, come with me to Rexburg.” And I may not be able to show it to you, and I may not be able to prove it to you, but you’ll feel it. There will be a spirit here, I so testify, because of the love of God for all of His faithful children. And those blessings will be poured out here in rich abundance.[4]
I add my testimony that the promise of being a natural leader will be yours as you qualify for it. Heavenly Father knows where you are. He also knows when you are. The timing of your graduation has been foreseen. In the coming months you will cross paths with many people. In some instances, you will have a sense that your meeting is not merely a product of happenstance. As you heed that prompting and qualify for the Spirit’s guidance, you will be blessed with experiences divinely arranged to showcase your natural leadership abilities. Among those will be your patience with apparent paradox and your optimism in the face of temporary uncertainty.
Even more compelling will be the spirit that radiates from you. People will be drawn to you, even if they don’t recognize that the source of that draw is the Holy Ghost. The promise of natural leadership will be yours as you qualify for it. I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] “The Crack-Up,” originally published in Esquire, February 1936. I am grateful to have discovered this quote in Peters and Waterman’s 1982 book In Search of Excellence. It appears at the beginning of Chapter 4, “Managing Ambiguity and Paradox.”
[2] Matthew 16:24-25.
[3] 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.
[4] “A Steady, Upward Course,” Henry B. Eyring, September 18, 2001.