Former Sen. Mitt Romney told Harvard Business School graduates on Wednesday to prioritize people over careers, recognize the role of luck in their success and strive to excel in their roles at home.
“The true measure of wealth in life is the people you love and your friends,” Romney said in his speech at Harvard Business School Class Day, a 30-year tradition that reflects on the impact the graduates are preparing to make in the world. The celebration will be followed by the Commencement ceremony on May 28.
Speaking to nearly 4,500 graduates and their families, Romney quoted a popular line from David O. McKay, a former prophet of Romney’s faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“The president of my church once said this: ‘There’s no success that can compensate for failure in the home,’” Romney said.
Romney graduated from Harvard Business School in 1974 after completing a joint degree program; he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a JD from Harvard Law School. As governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, Romney championed landmark healthcare legislation that expanded insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of residents and later became a model for the federal Affordable Care Act.
Romney left his U.S. Senate office in 2025 and has largely stepped away from electoral politics. Recently, he spoke at Harvard University about polarization and at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, where his speech focused on the power of Christianity to transform character.
‘Agents of change’
At Harvard Business School, Romney opened his speech by acknowledging that students are graduating during “one of the most tumultuous times in American history.” He framed this challenging time as an opportunity. A time of disruption, he noted, creates openings for newcomers to challenge established leaders and for innovative ideas to emerge.
“In an era of uncertainty and turbulence, the creative, the perspective, the bold will find enterprises ripe for transformation,” he said.
Romney said students could become “agents of change” through acquiring, joining or founding those enterprises. “Perhaps more than ever, the need for your leadership is as great as your opportunity,” he said.
The value of serendipity
Romney proceeded to offer advice to the students. He shared a story about investing in Staples, then a startup, even after knowing that its founder, Thomas Stemberg, had been fired by his prior employers.
“I’ve painfully learned that success in a career and in business is subject to serendipity, to chance,” he said. Hard work and “solid analysis” do matter, but sometimes “plain old bad luck can derail the course.” At the same time, “serendipity” can change the course and turn a poor decision into a success.
Successful people aren’t always as smart as they seem, Romney pointed out, and underachievers aren’t necessarily less capable.
“So don’t overestimate your brilliance if you achieve a success,” he said. “And don’t underestimate your brilliance if you have a slip and fall. Both are part and parcel of life in the real world.”
“Choose good people”
Follow leaders that you admire, Romney told the Harvard Business School graduates.
He shared a lesson about leadership he learned while serving on Marriott International’s board.
Marriott employees were rated by customers as more caring than competitors, he said, and Romney was wondering why that was. He began to see why when he toured a hotel in Western Massachusetts with Bill Marriott.
Romney was struck that Marriott went into the laundry room and back office and engaged with the associates, asking them questions about their lives and showing his care.
“If you become a leader, surround yourself with good people, people you admire, and also with people smarter or more able than yourself,” Romney said.
Romney attributed his own success in business and politics to his colleagues. “Choose to hire and work with good people,” he said.
Success at home
A career is like a board game, Romney said — it involves both luck and strategy.
“It’s sure fun to win, but the people in your life are far more important to your happiness than all your hotels and your bank account,” he said. But having strong and loving relationships “doesn’t come easily or automatically,” he said.
Once on a panel at Harvard University, Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, described being a full-time mother to their five sons as a career that required her to serve many roles at once: nurse, teacher, cook, engineer, psychologist. She said her greatest accomplishment was “having raised good sons.”
“Two of the most difficult jobs in the world are that of a spouse and a parent,” Romney said.
Find a purpose
Romney urged young people to find a “grand purpose” and meaning in their life. His own sense of purpose, he said, expanded over the years — from growing his family to serving in his faith and for his country.
“If my sole purpose had been business or money or promotions or elections, I would have been poor indeed, regardless of the size of my bank account,” he said.
Romney appealed to the diversity and multiculturalism of the current class of the business school. “Whichever is your home, remember that your nation needs you,” he said. The students’ efforts will drive economic growth, which in turn will support education, welfare and national security.
But the economy is only part of the nation’s success.
“To be a great nation, it must also be a good nation, shining city on a hill, if you will,” he said. “There is no national success that can compensate for a failure to be a good and noble people.”