Thank you to Eric for your Top Five Tips that yes, I think it’s safe to say, has never graced a graduation speech before. Eric’s parents had to pick him up for work, so if you have questions you can catch him during his fifteen-minute break at the Starbucks on 34th and Main.
Next up we have from Eileen Reynolds, a thirty-four year old Public Interest Attorney, working at a small firm in San Francisco.
“Thank you. It’s an honor. I know the sun is glaring and all the graduation parties are calling your name, so let’s get right to Five More Things You’ve Never Heard in a Graduation Speech Before, But Definitely Need To.
5. Your Fellow Graduates are not Worried About Your Life.
Look to the person next to you and say, I DO NOT care what you do with your life. Don’t live for me. Live for you.
Every one’s so obsessed with sprucing up their own Facebook profile, they’re not going to worry much about yours. So DO NOT live for the opinions of others.
4. You Don’t Know Jack.
At thirty-four with a law degree, you know what, I don’t know jack either. But the more I know, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Don’t stop reading. Don’t stop asking questions. If you feel scared that you really don’t know jack. Good. Keep learning. A college degree is the beginning of your education.
3. You Will Fail.
It’s inevitable. At some point in the next week, month, year, you will fail and fail big and fail repeatedly. You will fall flat on your face, adding another scar to the collection.
And to failure I say, great. If you never fail, then you’re not risking. You’re living your life not to get hurt. But living a life of self-preservation will get you killed. A slow-death, like a Chinese water torture. So fail. Fail big.
2. You Should Never Fail.
I know what I just said contradicts. But being around truly successful people these last ten years, I’ve learned their secret. They don’t have the best ideas, the most money, or the best looks. Their secret is that when they fail, the refuse to call it a failure. They refuse to go into a six-month, self-pity tailspin. No, successful people never fail. They persevere.
Failing and Persevering, on the outside – the external conditions will look the exact same. The only difference between failing and persevering is your response to those conditions. The difference is your fortitude to continue forward, amidst a backdrop of dead-ends, dreams unfilled – one seemingly un-climbable mountain after another.
The funny thing about our culture is that only we only praise perseverance after someone has completely and officially persevered. But failure is just perseverance in progress.
1. Don’t Change the World, Before You First Change Yourself.
I was just like you. Excited, biting at the bit to go out and do my big part.
But being a leader. Actually transforming systems, structures, fighting against the evil in this world – this is a lonely, painful, heartbreaking journey. It’s a path strewn with the dead bodies of those who started out starry-eyed, ambitious, swearing that the bullets would never kill them.
So if you do not know yourself. If you can’t trust yourself. If you haven’t changed. If your worth is based on good grades, accolades, praise, anything external – than as quickly as love for yourself came from success, hate, just might as easily come from failure.
You will die many times over on this journey to change the world. So the real question is when you die, will you keep going?
