Wall Street mogul, Jamie Dimon, A78, awarded Light on the Hill

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, A78, received the Light on the Hill Award on March 28.

April 14, 2006--The banker Fortune Magazine calls the "toughest guy on Wall Street" is this year's winner of the Light on the Hill Award.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, A78, returned to his alma mater March 28 to receive the highest award given to Jumbo alumni by undergraduates of the Tufts Community Union Senate.

Dimon helped build CitiGroup into the world's largest financial services company and was the firm's heir apparent until a much-publicized falling out with boss and mentor Sandy Weill in 1998. He then engineered a turnaround at Chicago-based Bank One, and after a merger, returned in triumph to Wall Street as CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the third-largest financial corporation in the United States behind CitiGroup and Bank of America.

In being presented the Light on Hill Award by President Lawrence S. Bacow and TCU President Jeff Katzin, A06, Dimon joined an august group of honorees that includes New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, A70, F71; eBay creator Pierre Omidyar, A88, and wife Pamela, 798, founders of the Omidyar Network investment group; and astronaut Rick Hauck, A62.

The Wall Street mogul took the occasion to give assembled students some shoot-from-the-hip advice on how to succeed in business and life. It was as if the Coolidge Room in Ballou Hall had been converted to a convivial version of the boardroom in The Apprentice, and the boss was presiding – in an expansive mood.

What follows is a sampling of quotations from Dimon:

On his return to Tufts: "Walking around campus, it blew me away. This institution has come a long way."

On learning: "I spend 70 percent of my life learning," he said, ticking off the reports and papers and Council on Foreign Affairs articles he reads. "History is my favorite thing. I wake up at five o'clock and read three newspapers, wherever I am. If you walk into someone's office and know a lot of stuff, it blows me away.

"Learn to read both sides. I love to read George Will. He's brilliant, even though I'm not on his side.

"Unfortunately, a lot of you have teachers who teach you the wrong stuff."

His advice to people in business and life: "Pull the trigger."

On character: He said he was "shocked at the lack of character" on display in many boardrooms among "people who won't say what they believe. These are people who make five or ten million dollars a year."

He observed he could find out a great deal about anyone in the audience through a quick survey of friends, co-workers and acquaintances. "What would they say about you?" Remember, he advised: "You are writing the book on yourself."

On making mistakes: "When you're in the thick of battle--you know what--you are not seeing clearly anymore." It's a good idea to "step out," he said, and ask the input of advisors.

Dimon referred to his own falling-out with his boss Weill and subsequent departure from CitiGroup. "Try to make your life deliberate," he said. "It's perfectly all right to get fired or to quit. It's better to make it deliberate…Learn by your mistakes. You're going to make them personally and professionally."

"I've made so many [mistakes], it's hard to list them all. I make far fewer than I used to, I hope."

On leadership: "Some of you will end up running institutions, businesses, schools. It is a privilege, an honor, to run something. You owe the place."

Leadership "isn't all about making the biggest paycheck," he said. "When I hand JP Morgan off to the next generation, I've made it better than it was. It wasn't all about me. I hope you as leaders will help make the world a better place."

"JP Morgan is the best I can do for humanity. I can't do music. Maybe I can do my small job for making the world better."

On a favorite Tufts moment: He recalled being assigned to write a report on Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, and being encouraged by the professor to send his critique to the famed economist. "Friedman himself wrote back with an eight page critique of my critique!"

On people he admires and respects: "I learned a lot from Sandy Weill-including what not to do," he said.

Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln, he said, were "people who transcend what you think humanly possible. That's why I love history." He recalled the challenges faced by George Washington during the War for Independence, a struggle, he noted, that endured for seven long years: "Jungles! Tents! Death all around him! Seven years!"

On corporate corruption: "I don't believe the corporate world is any more corrupt than anywhere else. There are bums everywhere…I don't think corruption is any [greater today] than it was in any other generation."

On his schedule: He gets up at 5 am, 3:30 am if he can't sleep, and tries to exercise at least two or three times a week. He doesn't watch TV and doesn't play golf. Married and the father of three teenaged daughters, he sets Friday nights aside for dinner with his family, and has traveled with them to Alaska, Africa, and other places around the world. "If I died right now, the time with my family would be at the top," he said.

On politics: A Democrat, he said he was offered the position of national finance chairman in Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. "I love to crusade," he said. "But I don't think I'm cut out for politics." Great problems face the country today that cut across party affliation, he said. "We've put them into partisan terms. I think it's disgraceful. It's really going to hurt this country."

On the most important things in his life: "My family. Humanity. My country and the world. And way down here is JP Morgan."