The Origin of Zekrets

Zekret (noun, /ˈzēkrit/, rhymes with “secret”): One of Zeke’s attempts to say something useful about life, by which he presumes to know something and which his students have patiently endured for years.

Many people have asked me where the idea for sharing life wisdom (i.e. Zekrets) with my students came from. This is the origin story, as well as I can recall it.

My first job as a professor was at Washington University in St. Louis, where I taught Introduction to Management (MGMT 100). It was the very first class taken by freshmen at the Olin Business School. The students were whip smart and super young. Only three months removed from high school, they were figuring out how to function as adults and sometimes struggling to find their way. So I decided to begin each class by offering a practical life hack. It was pretty basic stuff: this is how you budget, your college major isn’t your career, correlation is not causation, here’s how you manage conflict, this is a good book, etc. What was meant to be an ice breaker quickly became a favorite part of the class for my students.

In 2013, I moved to Wharton and began teaching MBA students. They were at least 10 years older than the freshman at WashU, had years of work experience, and definitely knew how to budget. I figured they didn’t need any kind of life advice. But after a while, I realized that even MBA students were searching for more than a credential to continue their careers. They were (are) fundamentally good people trying to find meaning and purpose, and were hungry to know how professors viewed the bigger picture. I remembered that many of my own professors had impacted me deeply by sharing things that had helped them find meaning and joy.

So I decided to revive my offerings of life wisdom, but with a focus on values and purpose rather than practical life hacks. I was worried about being presumptuous, because sharing advice presupposes that you know something others don’t. But I decided to speak from my heart and talk about things that I cared about deeply: giving, humility, gratitude, remembering the sacrifices other have made for us, etc. Those simple moments in class became deeply enriching.

My students have been extremely gracious and open to my ramblings on striving for a meaningful life. I don’t believe that what I say is always useful or valuable, and I constantly struggle to feel like I’m a good person. But I try to speak up about these issues out of a conviction that what we do as business leaders and managers is about much more than efficiency and profit. Business is a fundamentally human activity that profoundly affects the lives of people—those we work with to produce and those we serve with our product. Whether it ends up being a tool for good or evil depends on how we go about using it. And how we go about using it depends on the type of person we strive to become.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably signed up for more of my ramblings. Thank you for being willing to engage with me and follow my thoughts. I hope some of them are valuable to you.

Oh, and you’re probably wondering how I ended up with the “Zekrets” label (Zeke + secrets). It was the creation of one of my Wharton students. One day right before class was about to start, the student asked, “what’s the wisdom for today?” I jokingly replied with something like “oh, it’ll be life changing!” And without missing a beat he said, “Zekrets!” It made me laugh, and it stuck, just like many of my students’ ideas.