Tonight I'm speaking at the UGA Ad Club in Athens, Ga. As I've prepared for it, it's made me think a lot about my college experience and what would I say to myself as a college senior about how a career is different from school.

1. School is about impressing a teacher.  A career is about earning the respect of your peers.

In school, it's all about that grade, and the grade comes from only one person: the teacher.  In a career, you are essentially graded by how well you work with customers and co-workers.  Are you making your customer's lives or jobs easier?  Do your co-workers do better work when they're around you or do they avoid you?

2. School is about earning it on your own. A career is about learning how to succeed in a group.

In school, you can fly under the radar, watch all of your friends fail and be okay.  In a career, if all of your friends (co-workers, your boss, partners, etc) fail, you fail along with them.  Make everyone around you better and you won't be disappointed with where you end up.

3. School is about doing what's been done before.  A career is about learning how to innovate.

Most innovative ideas, services and products test terribly in focus groups.  Why?  People don't understand what they haven't seen before already.  In school, you are graded based on what you can prove has worked in the past.  Your career will call for innovation: doing things that haven't been done before.  Don't be afraid of it.  Embrace it.  Respect what you can learn from the past, but learn how to apply to today it in a new way.

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