Cote's third lesson — be results-oriented — contained this counterintuitive insight that he traced directly to his failed fishing venture. After quitting college mid-way through, he and a buddy bought a 33-foot fishing boat and spent months fishing off the coast of Maine, barely breaking even despite backbreaking work. The lesson was brutally clear: effort without direction is wasted effort. This was a deliberate provocation to an audience of new graduates who had been told their entire lives that hard work is the path to success. Cote wasn't arguing against hard work — he was arguing against undirected hard work. 'The person who says "but I worked really hard" still has nothing to show for it,' he said. 'Harsh perhaps, but very true regardless of the endeavor.' He reinforced this with a definition of insanity he'd always liked: 'Doing the same thing over and over again, always expecting a different result.' If you're not getting the results you wanted, you have to change something — not just work harder at the same failing approach.