College graduates are set to enter a murky job market during these unprecedented times amid the coronavirus outbreak, which can be daunting for 20-somethings looking toward the future.
Speaking at the Culture Creators’ C2 Summit earlier in May, Parkwood Entertainment’s Steve Pamon virtually met 2020 HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) graduates and gave them sound career advice by leaning on his 15 years as an executive in sports and entertainment.
If Pamon could go back in time and tell himself one thing, it would be to go on as many job interviews as possible and not be afraid of failure. “Your biggest hater you got to worry about is yourself,” the Morehouse alum tells the graduates. “You start thinking about what could go wrong, when the truth of the matter is, the best predictor of future behavior is what? Past performance. Nobody invited to this Zoom has a continued history of messing up.”
The Parkwood Entertainment chief operating officer then shifts his attention to having the right measurement of success. He brings sports into the equation, comparing how a free-throw shooter in basketball who shoots below 80 percent could be deemed a failure, while a player with a batting average of .270 in baseball would be looked at as productive.
“If we played baseball, and every time we struck out and we said, ‘We’re not hitting again,’ you’d play for half of a game,” Pamon explains.
For more information on the four-day virtual C2 Summit (May 18-May 21), visit the Culture Creators website. Watch both of the clips from Pamon’s keynote speech below.