Choose to Ooze

May 30, 2024

"You've just spent several years preparing for a career in data," I told 60 freshly-minted graduates during a commencement address a few weeks ago at the University of Rochester's Goergen Institute for Data Science. "But I promise that your real job, for your whole life, will actually be in sales."

I could see that this message was not what this audience was expecting from a CEO of a data-centric company. But as someone with one foot in the world of online information, one foot in entrepreneurial management, and yet another foot in parenting strategy and cultural commentary (yes, I have more than two feet, and so do you), I can say with confidence that pretty much everything is sales.

I learned this by becoming a parent: Shortly after my older daughter Madison learned to say NO, I realized that if I wanted to help her and Ella become healthy, productive, and happy adults someday, I had a choice: I could become a salesperson for the things they needed to do and learn, or I could become a "because I said so" dictator. I chose sales. In the years since, I've applied this philosophy to my business, to committees I've chaired, and to efforts I've spearheaded. And I've never once regretted choosing momentum over force.

But how does a non-salesperson generate momentum? It's a startling yet straightforward answer, again derived from parenting: Ooze love. Yes indeed, I told a bunch of emerging data scientists to "ooze love." More precisely, I told them if they make a point of vividly and unremittingly loving data science—or whatever they end up doing—they're simultaneously selling the thing they love and selling themselves as an authority about that thing. It works for parenting, it works for data, it works for pretty much anything.

As with any leadership effort, you can inspire the young people in your orbit to want to run into the future with you, or you can try to force them to go in the direction you push. I advise the former. Choose to ooze!

—Deb