Marie Cleveland ’82 is many things to the College of Business at Michigan Tech. Foremost, she is an outstanding alumna and Academy of Business inductee (2014).
After a high-ranking corporate career, Cleveland, now retired, volunteers as a prospective student liaison for the College, providing concierge-level support to high school students and their families. She also has a hand in supporting the Professional Blueprint series. Here, Marie shares 10 keys to her monumental success that anyone can benefit from:
- Live a life of gratitude. Gratitude allows you to expect great things ... great things appear when you look for them! Focusing on the positive brings you positive.
- Be joyful in everything you do. It is much more fun! Choose to be fantastic every day. After all, it is a choice.
- Offer your services as a gift—networking is the way to expand your horizons.
- Keep a top 10 list of your strengths and a different story exemplifying each strength. Be ready to share.
- Choose not to be offended. Imagine you have an inner tube around you. Everything said to you bounces off that inner tube and you choose what to pick up and keep. Keep the positives and leave the rest.
- Compete with yourself only. Skip comparing yourself to others or working for others' approval.
- Find mentors, not just one. You are the average of the five people you hang around. Consider adding a friend who has a skill set you are looking to have yourself.
- Learn something of value every day. A growth mindset helps you grow and lead a fulfilling life.
- Don't give away your power by blaming others for not achieving what you desire, or for causing a bad day. They don't have that power unless you give it to them.
- Be here now. I can't change the past, so why dwell on it? I can only influence the future, I don't control it. Stay in the present moment.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
