Across college campuses, business school students are gearing up for graduation—excited, uncertain, and determined to make their mark. To the class of 2025, I offer my best wishes—and some hard-earned lessons on navigating the road ahead.

First, know this: The business and tech world needs you. Every new generation brings fresh thinking, and today’s graduates are more prepared than ever for our fast-moving, data-driven economy. As AI and digital transformation continue to reshape industries, business leaders like me are eager to tap into your energy and ideas.

I was recently back at my alma mater, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, talking with MBA students about their transition into the workforce. One key takeaway I shared: Be ready for disruption.

When I was in their shoes 25 years ago, “digital transformation” wasn’t even in our vocabulary. Today, we live it every day. Generative AI is accelerating change across industries, making adaptability and soft skills—communication, collaboration, and the ability to learn on the fly—more critical than ever. Some of my most valuable lessons at Kellogg weren’t about business strategy or operations but about developing this kind of flexible mindset. If I could do it all over again, I’d seek out even more experiences that push me beyond the classroom, because those are the ones that truly shape your growth.

The least qualified person in the room

As you move up in your career, your area of expertise becomes just one part of the equation. People skills take center stage. Having recently marked five years as CEO of Informatica, I can tell you that much of my job isn’t about technology—it’s about people.

I’ll never forget my first leadership team meeting as CEO. Looking around the room, I realized I was the least experienced person there. My executives had spent years mastering their domains—far longer than I had been CEO. That moment reinforced something I had learned throughout my career: Success isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with great people, trusting their expertise, and building strong relationships.

This lesson applies at every level, from interns to chief experience officers. Early in my career, I leaned on mentors and colleagues for guidance. Now, as CEO, I do the same. No one succeeds alone.

Embracing change and iterating your career

The tech industry has always been fast paced, but with AI and automation redefining roles across fields, today’s graduates may face even greater uncertainty. My advice? Don’t fear change—embrace it. Disruption creates opportunities to innovate, learn, and add value in unexpected ways.

That mindset shaped my own career, which evolved in three major phases: engineering, product management, and ultimately leading a global tech company with over 5,000 employees. I couldn’t have predicted every step, but I stayed adaptable and open to new challenges. Some transitions required me to rethink traditional business models, but in every case, I focused on the future rather than clinging to the past.

Everyone’s journey looks different. Some graduates will join startups, others will work for Fortune 1000 companies. Some will change careers entirely or take time off to raise families before returning to the workforce. There’s no single route to success, and that’s a good thing.

Career paths aren’t always linear or easy. Some MBA grads today are struggling to find jobs. But setbacks are temporary. If you anticipate change and build the skills to navigate it, nothing will stop you from reaching your full potential.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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Back in February, Elon Musk said he and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are working 120 hours a week.

“Our bureaucratic opponents optimistically work 40 hours a week,” he added. “That is why they are losing so fast.”

To be clear, there are 168 hours in a week, which means if Musk and his DOGE employees are working for 120 of those hours, there are only 48 hours remaining for them to use for everything else: preparing and eating food, personal hygiene, not to mention free time for hobbies or spending time with their families.

Just for fun, let’s assume you need to spend 120 of your 168 hours per week working, so you use the remaining 48 hours for sleep and sleep only: You still wouldn’t come close to a full eight hours per night, which is what many doctors recommend. With 48 hours of potential sleep spread across seven days, even in the most ideal conditions, the most you could get is 6.8 hours per night. Assuming DOGE workers are not working from home (Musk called remote work “morally wrong” in 2023), it’s safe to say DOGE employees working 120-hour weeks would probably not even scratch 6.8 hours of sleep since they’d need time to commute, unless they’re squeezing in nap breaks during the day.

To be totally clear, sleep is vital to function. The Mayo Clinic says regularly getting less than seven hours of sleep a night for adults “has been linked with poor health, including weight gain, having a body mass index of 30 or higher, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and depression.” The CDC also says getting less than seven hours a sleep on a regular basis “can lead to serious health problems.”

Musk, though, is famously a workaholic. In a November 2022 interview with Baron Capital CEO Ron Baron, the world’s richest man said he was “living in the factory in Fremont, and the one in Nevada, for three years straight. That was my primary residence.”

“I slept on the couch at one point, in a tent on the roof, and for a while there, I was just sleeping under my desk, which is out in the open in the factory,” he said. “It was damn uncomfortable sleeping on that floor and always, when I woke up, I’d smell like metal dust.”

Musk’s push to make employees more effective by simply having them log more hours may not be effective, either. A 2014 study from Stanford University found productivity per hour has a sharp drop-off when a person works more than 50 hours a week, and “output at 70 hours differs little from output at 56 hours,” meaning your efficacy has diminishing returns above a certain threshold. Perhaps relatedly, Musk recently said he’s juggling his responsibilities with DOGE, Tesla, and his other private companies like SpaceX and xAI “with great difficulty.”

That aforementioned 55-hour mark seems to have equal ramifications for both productivity and well-being: According to 2021 data from the World Health Organization, 745,000 people died in 2016 from either stroke or heart disease “as a result of having worked at least 55 hours a week.” That same study said working more than 55 hours a week gives you a 35% higher risk of stroke and 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to a traditional 35- to 40-hour week.

“Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard,” Dr. Maria Neira, who has served as the WHO’s Director of the Department of Public Health and Environment since 2005, said in a statement.

Musk and his DOGE team did not respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Will.i.am has an estimated net worth of $50 million, thanks to hit singles and solid investments in the likes of Anthropic and Pinterest. In a conversation with Fortune, he reveals where he’s investing next.

Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am has built a fortune off of chart-topping hits like “Scream & Shout” and “Where Is the Love?” As of 2025, he’s reportedly worth around $50 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth—but it’s not just music that’s made him millions. 

Beyond his success in the studio, he was an early investor in Tesla, Pinterest, and OpenAI, proving his business instincts are just as sharp as his songwriting. Now, the rapper, producer, and The Voice U.K. judge has revealed what he’s looking for from his next investment.

“I did some pretty cool investments in the past,” Will.i.am (real name William James Adams Jr.) told Fortune, while listing off Pinterest, Dropbox, Open AI, and Anthropic as some of his smartest bets.

“I invested in Tesla in 2006,  before Elon (Musk) took over the company, and he’s done great, taking it to where it is. Hopefully, he can figure out a way to get it back to its glory,” he added. “I invested in Twitter early on. When Jack (Dorsey) left, I sold it. Made good there.”

So, what’s Will.i.am looking for in his next investment? “I’m hunting for what they call large concept models,” the 50-year-old Grammy Award-winning artist revealed. 

“Right now, we’re in large language models, but they’re not they’re not concepts. It’s just language—they’re just regurgitating our imagination and our concepts,” he explained. 

“Around the corner, someone’s going to build large concept models. So you want to hunt for that. You want to hunt for the people that are out there doing that. They’re students right now, they’re at MIT, they’re at Stanford. They’re young kids, and they’re native to this. So you want to hunt for that. That’s the only thing I’m focused on.”

Will.i.am has a long history as a futurist and tech entrepreneur. In 2011, Intel named him their “director of creative innovation.” His start-up, i.am+, raised $117 million in 2017. Now, Will.i.am has set his sights on AI. He most recently founded FYI—an AI-driven productivity and communication platform for creatives—where he serves as CEO. 

Will.i.am was speaking to Fortune in Rome for the roll out of RAiDiO.FYI radios in Mercedes-Benz cars.

Will.i.am’s biggest investment mistake

For all his successes, there’s one missed opportunity that still haunts Will.i.am—and that’s not investing in Airbnb when he had the chance. 

Its founder Brian Chesky approached the rapper in the company’s early days with an opportunity to invest up to $200k in a fundraising round, but Will.i.am was skeptical.

“When you travel and you have success, you get used to the best hotels, the best service, right? So sometimes, when you’re used to the best, and you’re used to being pampered by the best, that could cripple you because when new experiences come, like Airbnb, you’re gonna base it off of the best,” he explained.

“You’re gonna say, hey, so you guys have concierge, and he’s gonna say, no. That ain’t gonna work. So you guys have room service? No. That ain’t gonna work. So I was tunnel vision and pampered by luxury.”

Airbnb went on to have one of the most successful IPOs in history in December 2020. Had he taken Chesky up on the offer, Will.i.am’s 200k stake could be worth millions of dollars today.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com