My illusion was shattered when I spent a day on the campus of Lake Forest College, my alma mater, giving lectures and talking with economics majors about their career plans. To them, I am not young and frisky. I’m just an old, rich guy with hard legs. But they were polite, nonetheless. I thought you would like to know what’s on the minds of young people thinking about careers.

In a lecture hall I told a hundred or so students that the economy is as strong as it gets, the stock market is roaring, and prospects for jobs for graduating seniors are as strong as they have ever been. So they should stop whining and get their resumes in the mail. Still, many of them are worried. They are worried about getting a good job, about getting admitted to a good business school, about what they are going to do with their lives. They don’t want to fall behind their peers in the quest for interesting lives and successful careers.

I told them to worry less about what they do, and more about what they are. The best way I know to be a success in business is to become what everyone today is searching for, a person they can trust to manage their most important assets. Skills are good to have but principles are much, much more important. I suggested they all read Steven Covey’s First Things First, which helps the reader understand the link between principles and objectives. I suggested that they each prepare a personal mission statement, as well as a statement of principles to use as compasses when making choices. And I suggested that they learn how to manage their time, the only resource they truly control.

Later, at lunch, I got a chance to visit at length with dozen or so members of the entrepreneurs club. These are the students who see themselves starting and running a business. Some of their questions and my answers are:

What are the secrets of success? There aren’t any secrets. Act in such a way that the people you want to learn from will want to have you around, and the people you want to give you opportunities trust you to carry them out. Strive to become perfectly predictable. In the same way that each can of Coca-Cola tastes exactly like the one before, build a name brand for yourself by being a fixed point in a changing world. The value of an anchor goes up the rougher the water gets.

What are the most important skills to an employer? The most important academic skills are reading, writing, and mathematics. Accounting runs a close fourth. Read everything you can, learn to read critically. Write lots of term papers. And don’t dodge the math courses. They are the keys to understanding how the world works. And no matter where you work, you will run into accounting numbers sooner or later. You might as well learn it in school.

In what areas do colleges do the worst job? I think every college freshman should take two courses before the year begins, speed-reading and time management. Together, these skills determine a student’s productivity, or throughput. I know the term productivity may seem out of place in an academic environment. But reading speed, more than anything else determines how many different ideas and points of view a student is exposed to while in school. I think it is incredible how many people struggle along as slow readers when it is such an easy skill to learn.

I was fortunate to take a course as a high school student that increased my average speed more than ten-fold from 300 to 3000 words per minute. This has paid me enormous dividends in my life. Of course, I still can’t stand it that I am 49 years old and there are still so many things I have not yet read. But I’m gaining on it every night.

How important is networking? I don’t like to hear people talk about networking. It cheapens a very important principle. Every opportunity in my career has been created by people who know and trust me, so having good fiends is a great idea. But making acquaintances so they can help you with your career is not the same thing.

What language would I study for the 21^st century? One of the students suggested Chinese. Not a bad idea, since China will be the largest economy in the world for most of their working lives. The truth is, I am a big supporter of learning languages, both in and out of school. (I have Italian, Russian and Latin on my laptop.) But I could only study one language I would learn Latin. It is the key to understanding syntax, the way we combine words to relate ideas. And it opens the door to the incredible wealth of ideas of ancient Rome and Greece.

How important is a mentor? The value of a mentor cannot be overstated. The difficult part is how to find one willing to take the time to teach you.

What books should I read? One of the students asked what to read during all the extra time he saved by taking the speed-reading course. My list of favorites include: Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon, Toynbee’s Theory of History, Churchill’s History of English Speaking People’s, Lyell’s Principles of Geology, Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype, Boorstin’s The Discoverers and The Creators, Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces, and Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. And, of course, Warren Buffet’s annual reports.

Last night I received an email from one of the young men at the lunch. He had taken my advice to heart. Immediately after the lunch he had gone to the bookstore and bought an Evelyn Woods reading course. His reading speed has doubled already. That email made the trip worth making.