USD Magazine Summer 2021

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria being sworn into office in December of 2020.

I have two things in terms of the secret to my success: One is mentoring. I wouldn’t be here without great mentors, the faculty members I mentioned before, Congresswoman Davis, who I met long before she was in the state legislature and Congress. There’s nothing new under the sun, so you can seek out models that you can emulate or modify to match your times, your cir- cumstances and your skills and strengths. And I’ve tried to do that in my career. One of the things Susan Davis taught me is to listen more than you speak; when you listen, you gain and learn a lot. And you adapt to your circumstances and learn from someone else’s suc- cess and failures. Learn from other people. The other thing is to really be passionate about what you do. I was the first to go to college in my family. And then, when I decided to be a his- tory and political-science major, I’m sure my parents realized that it didn’t seem like the most mar- ketable degree to pursue. If you can see in yourself what you’re passionate about and then work toward that, I believe you can make a living. You can make a life from fol- lowing your passion because you get rewards from it, and then others are attracted to it. And it will work. You may not get rich, but you’ll be able to take care of yourself. Is there anything you’d like to add? USD has done incredible things for me. I’m extremely grateful. I appreciate the chance to maybe pay it forward a little bit. I en- joyed having this conversation and look forward to doing that in the years to come.

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