Today, I turn 50, and I’m feeling reflective. There are more stories I have time to write here, but here are a couple of formational moments from my teenage years that made me, me.
My life started in Oulu, Finland, on Monday the 24th of February, 1975. My parents were fresh university graduates, and I was their firstborn son. They decided to give me the then-trendy name Mikko, which ended up being the second most popular first name given to a boy in Finland.
My parents ended up getting PhDs, so my upbringing was academic. But my parents are also devoted Christians, so I gained nine siblings over the years. It was a lively and action-filled childhood. I learned many management skills from managing my younger siblings.
I grew up as a curious kid with a penchant for reading. Many books I read in my teens shaped my thinking and worldview. But there were two that had a profound impact on me. One was Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” and the other was “Lee Iacocca - an Autobiography.”
I became fascinated by Carnegie’s story about Jim Farley, who put Franklin D. Roosevelt in the white house in 1932. Jim Farley became successful with a unique superpower: he remembered tens of thousands of people by their names. This enabled him to build a massive network that catapulted his career.
My teenage brain lit up: I also wanted to become good at this unique skill! I practiced memorizing names hard until my brain adapted to remembering names. Like Jim Farley, I also remember tens of thousands of people by their names.
This skill has been transformational for me. Over the years, I have built a global network of tens of thousands of people, and I still remember not only the names but also can put faces on most names, and for a significant portion, I also remember something personal about them.
The story of Lee Iacocca also made a lasting impact. He explained in the book that students who gain perfect grades tend to be perfectionists and often gravitate to jobs as researchers and educators. Those students who accept imperfections with high grades are more likely to become leaders.
The conclusion in my teenage mind was simple: Don’t shoot for perfection, shoot for 9.5/10 instead (the Finnish grading system goes from 4 to 10). My grades after that were as follows: 9.4 (7th), 9.6 (8th), 9.5 (9th), 9.46 (high school). I continued this also through the university.
Yes, I know; I was trying to be a perfectionist in getting imperfect grades. But most of my peers who got better grades than me ended up teachers and professors, just like Iacocca predicted!
Looking back, books have had transformational effects on people. Today, when books are being replaced with short videos, I hope we can find ways to provide similarly profound Eureka moments to our children.
And I especially hope we find hope and optimism for a better future, especially now that so many things in the world look dark and grim.
Thank you for reading, and for being a friend.