James M. Seneff, a celebrated alumnus and major supporter of Florida State University, on Friday encouraged a cohort of elite students in the Herbert Wertheim College of Business to emphasize means, ends and time in their life and career pursuits.
"Your biography will one day be a summary of how you thought about these three words," he said.
Seneff, a 2006 inductee into the Wertheim College's Alumni Hall of Fame and the founder and executive chairman of the Orlando-based CNL Financial Group, spoke as the guest of honor in a medaling ceremony for the latest cohort of the James M. Seneff Honors Program. The program launched in fall 2019 as part of a $5 million gift to the college by the CNL Charitable Foundation.
Seneff elaborated on his three key words, saying "ends" refers to your goals and "means" to resources that help you reach them. "Time" allows a process.
"How you think about these three words will define your life, your career and your investing success," he said.
To illustrate, he spotlighted Henry Ford and the groundbreaking production of the Ford Model T more than a century ago. Because of assembly-line improvements, Ford reportedly more than tripled sales from 1912 to 1916 and eventually produced one Model T every 24 seconds.
Ford took the time and money "to redo his assembly line so he could build cars faster than anyone else," Seneff said. "He was building a means to compete at a totally different level than his competitors.
"Any time you work on means, you're setting aside time, but it's more valuable, because it will give you a better end."
The Seneff medaling ceremony took place at the FSU President's House, where President Richard McCullough and First Lady Jai Vartikar welcomed Seneff, his wife, Martha, plus 20 Seneff Scholars and their family and friends. Also present were Michael D. Hartline, dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Business, and his wife, Marsha, associate dean for student affairs in the College of Nursing.
"We thank you so much for your incredible generosity to fund this program," McCullough said to the Seneffs during the ceremony. McCullough told scholars that because of the program, "the impact that you'll make on the world and our country will be incredible."
The program features a community of top undergraduate business students who benefit from an especially rigorous curriculum. It stresses innovation, leadership, collaboration and lifelong relationships.
The Seneff program dovetails with the University Honors Program and the Garnet and Gold Scholar Society, and it allows students to gain educational benefits in disciplines beyond the Wertheim College.
"You prove that our college attracts the best and the brightest, and it is our goal to send you out confidently into the economy and society and change lives," Dean Harline said. "So, you're helping to lead our journey. You are the pinnacle of what we do at Florida State."
During the ceremony, Luke Hopkins, director of the Seneff Honors Program and a senior lecturer in the Dr. Persis E. Rockwood School of Marketing, called out each scholar's name for medaling. Seneff placed a medal around each student's neck and joined McCullough and Hartline in photos with each of them.
In his closing remarks to students, Seneff mentioned a book called "The Hidden Game of Baseball," then noted that even the late baseball superstar Mickey Mantle once said it was "unbelievable" how much he didn't know about the game he played all his life.
"There is a hidden game of life," Seneff told scholars, "And you can only attain it through deep work and lifelong learning."
The 2025 Seneff Scholars, selected last fall, are:
Noah Brown (Finance & Economics, '28)
Lauren Careccia (Finance & Marketing, '28)
Thomas Crowley (Finance & Accounting, '28)
Shiraz Dayan (Finance & Marketing, '27)
Gregory Feinberg (Marketing, '27)
Gabriel Flexter (Real Estate & Finance, '28)
Christianna Ford (Marketing & Public Relations, '27)
Ella Hancock (MIS, '27)
Eliza Ladd (Marketing, '27)
Riley Long (Finance, '28)
William Matthew (Accounting, '27)
Henry Murphy (Finance, '27)
Owen Ritter (Accounting & MIS, '27)
Luke Sherwood (Management & Marketing, '27)
Rigzin Smith (Management & Finance, '28)
Anshul Srivastava (Finance & RMI, '27)
Maxwell Tate (Finance, '28)
Natalie Truong (Finance & Hospitality and Tourism Management, '28)
Jonah Vignier (Finance, '28)
Julia Vines (MIS & Marketing, '27)
