Ross School of Business welcomes Jessica Watson

The Ross School of Business hosted Jessica Watson, the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop around the world, for a talk attended by approximately 100 University of Michigan community members at the Tauber Colloquium Monday. The Business School hosted Watson as a part of the Handleman Lecture Series, a series focused on emerging challenges and opportunities in business.  

At age 16, Watson became the youngest person to sail worldwide on her own, nonstop and unassisted. The voyage took 210 days and upon returning, Watson was named Young Australian of the Year. To document the experience, Watson wrote two books. Her first book, “True Spirit,” has since been adapted into a Netflix film. Watson also wrote a second book titled “Indigo Blue”, and filmed a documentary on the voyage called “210 Days.” Today, Watson works as a senior manager for Deloitte’s Human Capital consulting team.  

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Andrea Perry, senior director of operations and campaign management at the Business School, said speakers for this series are carefully selected to best enhance U-M students’ educational experiences. 

“We have a committee that thinks about all of our lecture series we have and then lines up who they think would be very interesting, insightful and engaging for the students,” Perry said. “These series and lectures are open to the public, but the main focus is on the students and providing them an opportunity to hear from someone who is either cutting-edge or someone that we think the students could learn from and gather insights from.”

In her lecture, Watson explained that her idea to complete a voyage around the world was first sparked by a book her mother read to her. 

“One book, a seemingly innocent bedtime story, did the damage,” Watson said. “It was the story of another young Australian who sailed solo around the world in 1818. As the story went on, everything changed for me because I realized something pretty simple but very powerful: that as extraordinary as this sailor was, he was also just an ordinary person. That set me thinking: if he’s a normal person and he can do that, what is it that I can do? It gave me the audacity to picture myself on one of these adventures in these stories.”

From there, Watson explained how a first failed attempt to sail the world gave her the confidence to set sail again and complete the voyage. 

“After these years of preparation and all this intensity, first night out to sea I ran into the middle of a 63,000-ton freighter,” Watson said. “The mast was snapped, and there was this incredible amount of damage to the newly finished boat. But worst of all was having to go back the next day to face this scene of flashing cameras and reporters demanding to know what happened. But I do look back at this and say ‘it happened for a reason.’ As the rest of the world understandably lost confidence, I knew I’ve got this.”

Watson said that through her experience, she learned about the importance of appreciating the beauty of life. She also said she has learned that vulnerability is a show of strength. 

“One of the best things I learned early on is it is actually okay to cry and be completely vulnerable, and at the same time you are still strong and capable,” Watson said. “There’s a great amount of power and strength in vulnerability. I also learned to celebrate the beautiful things out there and to really actively seek and let myself feel it.”

Watson said that upon returning from her worldwide voyage, she knew she needed to push herself in a new way, leading her to her current career.  

“It would have almost been the easy thing to sail around the world again or sail it backward against the stronger winds or something similar,” Watson said. “What I found instead was that I needed to put myself out of that comfort zone in new, different ways. So for me, that meant things like going back to studying, getting my MBA and finding myself a career, all of which have a very different environment and different types of challenges.”

Watson said she sets time set aside for both sailing and work to create a healthy work-life balance. 

“I certainly learned how powerful work-life balance is as I get up and on the water on a Saturday and absolutely blast work out of my head,” Watson said. “Having something consuming time outside of work can be certainly one of the most restful and best ways to balance work.”

Business graduate student Autumn Zwiernik said the lecture brought her clarity for future steps within her career.

“I saw (this event) in my email inbox at a time when I recently signed on with the management consulting company,” Zwiernik said. “I have been having a lot of anxieties about what my life is going to look like when I enter this corporate space. Am I gonna have to leave behind my adventurous spirit? So when I saw the speaker was someone who sailed around the world and also does consulting, I thought she would know how you can be both.”

Daily Staff Reporter Alyssa Tisch can be reached at tischaa@umich.edu.

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