OSU MBA students listen to professional advice from Michael L. Greenwood

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Spears School Hall of Fame inductee and Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business alumnus Michael L. Greenwood spoke with Watson Graduate School of Management students Feb. 9, and shared his background growing up in Tulsa, along with advice on keys to success in his career.

After sharing a brief background, Mr. Greenwood explained his keys to success in business. First, he urges professionals to have the resolve to persevere. In the mergers and acquisitions field, he has experienced many jobs. He feels that each job was better than the one before.

“There will be bad days, but you will get through them,” Mr. Greenwood said.

Second, he encourages everyone to find their passion of what they want to do in a career and life. In college courses, you learn theory in the classroom, but you don’t know what a job entails until you actually do it. Mr. Greenwood suggests finding a job where you don’t mind overtime.

“Do a lot of different things,” Mr. Greenwood said. “It is important to know what you want to do, and it is just as important to know what you don’t want to do.”

Next, Mr. Greenwood spoke on how everyone should never stop learning because it is a life-long process. Students can learn many things in the classroom, but it is much different when those theories are put into practice in a real-life or business situation. Learning does not only have to be in the classroom, it can be in life or the world in general. Mr. Greenwood stresses the importance of constantly learning because that is how you stay relevant in your career.

“Any day I learn something, it is a good day,” Mr. Greenwood said.

Then, he emphasizes people should take time to make everything the best it can be because it does not matter how fast something is completed if it is wrong. This includes continuous self-improvement.

Finally, Mr. Greenwood encourages students to seek new opportunities. You should develop yourself, not just rely on the company’s plans for your development. He also believes that how you develop your career is up to you. He knows he is successful in his job when others can look to him for advice.

“I made it a personal objective to be the go-to guy at every job,” Mr. Greenwood explained. “People will know and reward you if you are that asset.”

A final important message from Mr. Greenwood is that he strongly believes happiness comes from paying it forward, and he closed with one last motivational thought for students.

“I liked that he focused on the students by inspiring us,” said Devyn Lavoie, an MBA student at OSU. “Mr. Greenwood has many accomplishments, but he focused on providing knowledge by answering many student questions.”

Mr. Greenwood is a generous supporter of both the university – serving as an OSU Foundation Trustee, OSU Student Foundation sponsor, Spears School of Business the Dean’s Council member – and the community, including the Stillwater United Way, Payne County Youth Services, the American Cancer Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and many more. He has given many gift to the university, including the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center, the Anne Morris Greenwood Reading Room in Edmon Low Library, and supporting the new business building.

“As an MBA student concentrating in nonprofit management, I loved hearing about the donor’s perspective and about him and his wife’s philanthropic endeavors,” Kendall Gordon said.

Mr. Greenwood is the founder and managing director of Carnegie Capital LLC, a financial advisory services firm. He received his degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and economics from Oklahoma State University in 1977, and then earned his MBA in 1980 from the University of Tulsa, graduating summa cum laude.

Story by Taylor Mullan