Class of 2012, get ready to be inspired
Vinay Menon scours famous commencement speeches to bring you, graduates, the best advice
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of 2012:
I’m sure you have been told that this is the best time of your life. It may be. But if it’s true that this is the best time of your life, then you have my condolences. 1
The truth is, your whole life is ahead of you. The memorable stops in your journey, the best and worst, are hiding in the future.
Whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change, and that’s okay. 2
Just remember this: It doesn’t matter that your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping. 3
You know that uncertainty you feel today? It never goes away. The question is, do you know how to make uncertainty your friend? 4
How do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? 5
I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. 6 In the end, we are our choices. We are also the luck we never choose.
I had no ambition. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did everything. I shucked oysters. I was a bartender. I painted houses. I sold vacuum cleaners. I had no idea. 7
As you grow, you’ll realize the definition of success changes.
The problems of failure are hard. The problems of success can be harder because nobody warns you about them. I watched my peers, and my friends, and the ones who were older than me and watched how miserable some of them were. I’d listen to them telling me that they couldn’t envisage a world where they did what they had always wanted to do any more because now they had to earn a certain amount every month just to keep where they were. 8 You can’t move on until you go. And you can’t go if you’re afraid to move on. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance, or you can be the active hero of your own life. Action is the antidote to apathy and cynicism and despair. 9 You will inevitably make mistakes. Learn what you can and move on. At the end of your days, you will be judged by your gallop, not by your stumble. If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something. You are dreaming and you are awake. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. 10 You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Your time is limited. So don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. 11 Here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. 12 Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. In all you do, worship wisely. Our common humanity is more important than our differences. 13 The way to be happy is to like yourself and the way to like yourself is to do only things that make you proud. Never do anything just for the money. Do whatever you can just for love. One day, you will understand that it is harder to be kind than to be clever. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. 14 You must knock on doors until your knuckles bleed. Doors will slam in your face. You must pick yourself up, dust yourself off and knock again. 15 Persevere. Nothing worthwhile is easy. No one of achievement has avoided failure — sometimes, catastrophic failures. But they keep at it. They don’t quit. 16 Now will saying “yes” get you in trouble at times? Will saying “yes” lead you to doing some foolish things? Yes it will. But don’t be afraid to be a fool. Cynics always say “no.” But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes.” 17 I once read about a baseball player who struck out 1,330 times. But we don’t remember that Babe Ruth failed 1,330 times. We remember the 714 times Babe Ruth hit a home run. 18 You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets. 19 It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It’s not easy. But if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention. 20 The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides. 21