The teachers at CBS - and especially those from professional practice - had such a profound realistic idealism. They encouraged us to dream, but encouraged us to perform our due diligence as well. These professors taught us the importance of learning from our failures, of knowing our strengths and shortcomings, and the importance of assembling a team that can compensate and balance those qualities. They also taught us to persevere.

I will never forget a moment in Professor Clifford Shorer's class where he brought in an alum who showed us a video of the student protest in Tiananmen Square. One brave student stood in front of the oncoming tanks, risking being shot and possibly killed or crushed. Yet he held his ground. And the visiting alum asked us what this possibly had to do with business or entrepreneurship. He then told us that this perseverence and defiance were often the only way to change the status quo.

What he didn't mention - and what we didn't learn until after he had left - was that our guest speaker had been that student braving the tanks in Tiananmen Square.