Before he became the most powerful banking chief in America, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon set himself a simple career rule that sounds almost radical in the age of personal branding: Keep your mouth shut.ย
As a 28โyearโold Harvard MBA working as an assistant to American Express president Sanford โSandyโ Weill, Dimon wasnโt focused on โbeing visibleโ or chiming in at every meeting, but rather soaking everything in.
โMy first goal was to learn something and not say anything until I could add some value,โ he told Fortune in an early-career profile which has resurfaced on social media.
At the time of publication, the fresh-faced Harvard MBA had just been promoted to vice presidentโclimbing the ranks from his position as Weillโs assistant in as little as two yearsโwhen he shared the career tip.
Before then, heโd already helped analyze multimillion-dollar deals and negotiated major acquisitions. Yet his instinct was still to earn the right to speak.
And it paid off: One year later, he went on to follow his former boss Weill to Commercial Credit, where he became its CFO at just 30 years old.
Jamie Dimonโs mantra for Gen Z: โLearn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learnโ
Dimon has since led JPMorgan as CEO for 20 yearsโand although in that time the world of work has grown louder, always on and increasingly online, heโs still telling young people to listen more.
The billionaire banking boss told Gen Z that if they want to get ahead, they need to close their TikTok and Instagram apps and learn through osmosis.
โYou only learn by reading and talking to other people. Thereโs no other way yet,โ Dimon told a crowd of students at the Financial Markets Quality Conference at Georgetown University in 2024. โPeople waste a tremendous amount of time โฆ Turn off TikTok, Facebook.โ
This simple advice may seem counterintuitive in an age when young workers are being coached to build personal brands from day one and contribute constantly.ย
But actually, some experts echo that talking lessโspecifically by practicing active listening, pausing before speaking, and avoiding unnecessary detailsโcan make a person appear more senior.ย
And Dimonโs ruleโlisten first, be loud laterโis one that many other leaders have recommended, too.ย
Even after finding success, Appleโs Steve Jobs still prioritized listening first
The CHRO of LโOrรฉal U.S. advised Gen Z new hires to be that person who puts their hands up and volunteers to grab their managerโs coffee or take notes in meetings.ย
Instead of making you look junior, she noted, it gets you access to rooms with senior leaders where you can watch and learn how they operate.ย
โIf youโre the one that is going to capture the actions from the meeting and the next steps, and youโre listening and youโre observing, that isnโt necessarily a negative,โ LโOrรฉalโs Stephanie Kramer explained. โYou are in the room, and you are absorbing how those points are coming to be. Youโre developing the skills of inference.โย
Even after building the trillion-dollar tech giant, Appleโs Steve Jobs never pretended to have all the answers. He stayed, as his former design chief put it, genuinely open to learning from other people right up to the end.
Jony Ive worked alongside the cofounder for nearly 15 years, designing iconic products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.ย
Reflecting on their partnership in a newly released letter, he wrote that they would spend most days eating lunch together and then brainstorming ideas in the afternoon.
โFor Steve, wanting to learn was far more important than wanting to be right.โ
Written by Orianna Rosa Royle for Fortune as โJPMorganโs CEO Jamie Dimon reveals the one career rule he set himself when he was just a 28-year-old assistant: Do not speak unless you can add valueโ and republished with permission.
