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Most people have to choose careers from professions such as business, medicine or academia. But Wednesday's Robert Fox lecture series speaker Mitchell Blutt chose all of the above. As executive partner of Chase Capital partners, a practicing physician and an adjunct professor of medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, Blutt is not the average business professional. He came to Penn Wednesday to speak through the Fox Leadership Series, an initiative launched this year by the School of Arts and Sciences that brings distinguished alumni to campus. In his speech at Logan Hall, Blutt -- a 1978 College graduate, 1982 Medical School graduate and 1987 Wharton MBA recipient -- humbly said that he has "done a lot of things in his life." And Penn students have been able to benefit from his many leadership roles. Before interdisciplinary majors were even available at Penn, Blutt created an independent major for himself which he titled psycho-biology, the predecessor to the current Biological Basis of Behavior major. "I can't think of anyone who better personifies [the idea of leadership that we want to promote] better than Mitchell Blutt," SAS Dean Sam Preston said in introducing Blutt. From early childhood through his years at Penn, Blutt showed leadership qualities through venues ranging from a risky kindergarten show-and-tell experience to involvement in student government. "Leadership is not a task or a skill or an incidental event," Blutt said. "It's a way of life." In his speech, Blutt focused on the challenges of leadership positions, saying that it does not only take a class president to be a leader. "Leadership is relevant everywhere," he said, whether in social, athletic, financial or academic endeavors. He stressed the importance of defining limits and structuring your life, but at the same time moving past those limits. If you stay in a controlled environment, he said, you stagnate and become a follower. Stretching limits and taking risks is an essential part of moving forward. Even though it may be scary, the fear is constructive, he said. "Push the limits," he said. "The risk of failure, of critique, is fuel to keep going." A new member of the University Board of Trustees, Blutt is familiar with and active in the Penn community. "Penn was great then but it's greater today," he said. "I think that Penn is an amazing place." Coming back as a Trustee puts Blutt in a new position and gives him the chance to play a role in budget decisions and to affect student life. "It's a fun opportunity to take the student perspective that is not that distant for me," he said. College freshman Andrea Scribner said that Blutt's talk was refreshing and helpful because "he's realistic about leadership." "A lot of speeches are all the same," she said. "But he did a really good job within the limits of what you can do."

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