{"id":204,"date":"2023-04-28T13:18:37","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T13:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/?p=204"},"modified":"2023-04-28T13:18:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T13:18:51","slug":"nike-ceo-to-deliver-keynote-at-spring-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/2023\/04\/28\/nike-ceo-to-deliver-keynote-at-spring-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike CEO to deliver keynote at Spring Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"
According to Nike President and CEO John Donahoe, there are certain keys to success after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest danger of success is if you stop being curious,\u201d said Donahoe, Marshall’s 2023 Spring Commencement Speaker. \u201cCuriosity opens up new worlds and possibilities. When you\u2019re starting your career, it\u2019s a gift to give yourself–the opportunity to try something new. And when our curiosity is stirred, we think more deeply and more creatively. We can discover how we can improve, what we can create, where we can grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t“The biggest danger of success is if you stop being curious. Curiosity opens up new worlds and possibilities.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- John Donahoe<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

The longtime business leader, with stints running Bain & Company, eBay and ServiceNow, says he’s looking forward to encouraging the Marshall University Class of 2023 to find their own personal sense of purpose.\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduates who spend time thinking about how they can be in service to others will put themselves on a path toward success,\u201d Donahoe said. \u201cThe power of service has been a recurring lesson throughout my life, and I encourage the graduates to find their own North Star to drive them forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The graduate of Dartmouth College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business says the key to being successful is to invest in yourself through mental, physical and emotional health. This can take the form of small things like eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep. It can also look like seeing a therapist to better understand yourself. Above all, a key to success is being able to travel through life with supportive communities of people.<\/p>\n

Donahoe says he does his best to find time to relax and usually that involves his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways ask for flexibility when you\u2019re navigating the balance of work and family,\u201d Donahoe said. The worst thing is to assume you can\u2019t do something. It takes creativity, but nothing should get in the way of that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t“What we know from science is you can, in fact, train your brain. Our brains become more negative over time because negative experiences stick in our brains. So, you can counteract that by being more conscious of things you\u2019re appreciative of \u2013 of the good things in your life.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- John Donahoe<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

If not with his family, Donahoe\u2019s free time usually will involve sports. The Chicago native says he can still tell you every starter on the \u201969 Cubs and finds joy in working out in the morning and getting to watch the NBA at night.<\/p>\n

But he also practices something else: gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we know from science is you can, in fact, train your brain,\u201d Donahoe said. \u201cOur brains become more negative over time because negative experiences stick in our brains. So, you can counteract that by being more conscious of things you\u2019re appreciative of \u2013 of the good things in your life.<\/p>\n

Life is about creating a unique balance, one that allows for success in your job, but also in your life outside of work. Different parts of life require more of your attention at different times, but in the end, he says, they\u2019ll balance out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not have to choose between children and a career, one partner\u2019s job over the other\u2019s, advancement over personal health,\u201d Donahoe said. \u201cMy recommendation is to get as much out of life as possible and look for creative solutions along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donahoe says he lived all of these lessons when he was offered the job as president and CEO of Nike \u2013 he went back to what his greater purpose was and asked himself, \u201cWhy would I want to do this?\u201d He says to him sports are one of the few things in the world that have the power to bring people together.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like the opportunity was massive,\u201d Donahoe said.\u201d After all, in many ways, Nike IS sport. Nike is synonymous with sport, and our purpose as a company is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete. That purpose and that opportunity were front of mind as I took this job for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t“The truth is, the path toward happiness and success is rarely tidy. You\u2019ll face adversity and personal setbacks. Failure happens. So, invest in yourself to navigate through those moments and you will be rewarded.”<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t- John Donahoe<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n

However, Donahoe says there isn\u2019t always one right answer to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, there wasn\u2019t one moment during the last 30 years where I was certain I was doing the right thing,\u201d Donahoe said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t one moment when I was in the middle of it that I felt, \u2018Great, I\u2019ve got this all figured out.\u2019 I still don\u2019t. The path toward happiness and success is rarely tidy. You\u2019ll face adversity and personal setbacks. Failure happens. So, invest in yourself to navigate through those moments and you will be rewarded.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Nike President and CEO John Donahoe, there are certain keys to success after graduation. \u201cThe biggest danger of success is if you stop being curious,\u201d said Donahoe, Marshall’s 2023 Spring Commencement Speaker. \u201cCuriosity opens up new worlds and possibilities. When you\u2019re starting your career, it\u2019s a gift to give yourself–the opportunity to try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-moments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}