Warner discusses public-private intersection
Author: Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, Source: W&M News Date: Mar 14, 2008
Former Governor and United States Senate hopeful Mark Warner advised Mason School of Business students on Wednesday, March 12, not to be afraid to fail. He would know.
“I can always remember my first foray in the business [world]…I helped that company go totally broke. At the ripe old age of 26, I had two business failures under my belt,” he said. “But a funny thing happened to me—I got a third shot.”
Addressing a crowd of two hundred business and law students at the University Center as part of the Mason Ethics Initiative, Warner discussed his early failures and later successes in order to give students a sense of the unprecedented opportunities they have to turn a career in business into a career in public service. He spoke about how he pulled himself up from his bootstraps, made millions as a co-founder of Nextel, helped to lead non-profit agencies, and ultimately turned Virginia into one of the best managed states in the nation.
“I absolutely believe that business creates the jobs that drive our economy,” Warner said, challenging students to “take those chances,” to “give back,” and to “hold folks like me accountable.”
Warner recalled inheriting a budget shortfall from his gubernatorial predecessor and making the tough choice to raise taxes to put Virginia back in the black. “I went out and made 65 PowerPoint presentations. I turned into a mini-Ross Perot,” he joked. But the political gamble paid off, he said, when the legislature “actually ended up passing a tax reform plan that was broader than what we laid out.”
“At the end of the day, Virginians—and Americans, for that matter—are willing to hear the truth,” Warner said. “We are going to need transformative change if America is going to retain its economic prominence in the world.”
Event organizer Michael Lamb, (MBA ’08), said that Warner presented students with a perspective that not many people have. “This is an event where we get the opportunity to hear somebody who successfully made the transition from entrepreneur, who had an impact in the not-for-profit world, and now is respected in Virginia for his leadership as governor,” he said.
Other business students also raved about Warner’s ability to bring a business approach to the political sphere, while staying true to his values.
“It is refreshing to hear a politician bring his business background into his rhetoric,” said Sean Robertson, (MBA ’09). “It is just evident in the way he turned around Virginia by bringing business practices into politics.”
Edward L. Felton, Jr., Professor of Strategy at the Mason School of Business, praised Warner for his adherence to the four pillars of the Ethics Initiative: not separating ethics from business, having a “highly developed sense of ethics,” remembering that business ethics is a “balancing act,” and keeping in mind that the “highest ethical decision is how you choose to use your talents.”
“The record shows that [Warner], in all three sectors, has stayed accountable for his values and his talents,” Felton said. “There has to be a very tight inter-relationship between the public and private sectors.”
Alper Ozinal, (JD ’09), who worked as Assistant Press Secretary in Warner’s administration before matriculating at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, views Warner as a role model for ethically grounded business and law students. “He has a unique perspective because he can meld the business and legal worlds and he is able to combine all that with a forward-looking vision for the United States,” Ozinal said.
Ozinal was also instrumental in persuading Warner to visit William and Mary.
After Warner finished his prepared remarks, he opened up the floor to questions from the audience. He responded to questions on topics ranging from judicial nominations to personal morality, frequently digressing to tell entertaining anecdotes and to give advice.
In the end, Warner returned to his central piece of advice to the future business leaders gathered to hear him speak: don’t be afraid to fail. “There’s nothing wrong with failure,” he said, “if you learn from it.”