As a alumnus of Fresno State Sigma Chi, can you remember yourself as a rushee? We were told that half of our education from college would be academic and the other half would be social. Each would be of equal importance to our success in life and business. Look back, and you will agree that this turned out to be true.

Choosing to attend a college or university gave us the opportunity for a good academic education. Choosing to become a fraternity member gave us the opportunity for a good social education giving us a significant advantage over young men who did not choose to join the Greek system.

We alumni often tell our undergraduate brothers that the years we lived in the Chapter House were the best years of our lives, and that because of our interaction with live-in brothers, we were able to obtain leadership and social skills not attainable otherwise. How important are these leadership and social skills? Are they really 50%?

Headline on the CNBC News website on October 2, 2022 “Tim Cook says there are 4 traits he looks for in Apple employees: ‘It’s been a very good formula for us”

Apple is the most valuable company on Planet Earth with Tim Cook its CEO for the last ten years. At the University of Naples Federico II’s commencement ceremony this week, Cook told graduates from the Naples, Italy, university that Apple’s success depends on its culture and who it hires. For instance, the company typically seeks out employees with four shared skills: the ability to collaborate, creativity, curiosity and expertise. As he spoke, he appeared to rank the skill sets in that order. He said the reason collaboration is so important is because it combines all three of the other skills. “We look for wicked smart people … [but] there are a lot of wicked smart people,” he said at the conference. “We look for people that are very collaborative because nobody — even somebody who has … a cape on their back — can do everything alone.”

Today’s college and university students have spent their entire lives texting instead of having face-to-face human interaction where they could learn leadership and social skills, ie, the ability to collaborate. Greek life changes that, but especially for those who live in the Chapter House. What we learned in our academic classes were important, the fun of Greek life was fantastic, the life-long bonds of brotherhood and the social skills we learned from those brothers were priceless. by Mike Patton 63-S

To read the entire article click on this link: CNBC October 2, 2022