Marty Dickens, chairman of Belmont’s Board of Trust and retired President of AT&T, kicked off the “Belmont and Beyond” program series on Monday morning in the Massey Boardroom. Focusing on the topic “Journey to Success,” Dickens shared a few guiding life principles with a group of senior students. He opened the convocation by examining the many changes in the world today, especially in the digital realm, noting that the AT&T network last year was processing 10 petabytes of traffic daily or the equivalent of 400 times the digitized contents of the Library of Congress.
Still, despite such technological advances, Dickens emphasized the importance of giving precedence to character over competence. Using both biblical examples and themes from The Wizard of Oz, he said, “To be truly successful, I believe you must balance your smarts with your heart.”