Oh, The Places You’ll Go

My commencement-speaker was a huge disappointment.

He'd become President of a renowned national environmental organization at the young age of 24. Nobody knew who he was.

The title of his speech, “Act Now, Apologize Later” didn't bode well: 

A few days earlier, he'd been summarily fired. He then reportedly spent graduation weekend at parties, drunkenly trying to hook up with several of my classmates.

(And no, he didn't, in fact, apologize later).

Other classes from my alma mater enjoyed speeches from people like Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Gary Trudeau, famous poets and semi-famous actors (Andrew Shue from Melrose Place, anyone?), and even Oprah (!!!) at their graduation ceremonies.

Yes, I'm still a little jealous.

Maybe the void left by our speaker is one reason I love watching inspirational commencement addresses every May. 

This year, Colorado College graduation featured Liz Cheney ‘88 (how my crunchy little granola-school produced such a conservative icon, I will never know). 

In her speech, she described standing up to the colleagues threatening to tank everything she'd worked for unless she lied about the election being “stolen” and agreed to say that Jan. 6 was “no big deal." 

I don't care what your politics are –you have to agree that saying Notook a lot of courage and integrity.

She also reminded graduates to be kind.

It turns out, this is one of the four main themes that come up in commencement addresses.

According to some graduation-speech experts I heard today on NPR (I've told you I'm an NPR-nerd, right?), most boil down to the following advice:

*Dream big.

*Work hard.

*Don't be afraid of failure. (It's part of the process).

*Be kind.

Sounds like good business advice, too, huh?

I'd add the advice to be present. Enjoy the process, even when it's hard. (And if you're in business, it'll definitely feel hard sometimes).

What's your favorite graduation advice? How might it apply to your own business?

I'd love to hear from you. And congratulations on all that you've accomplished already.

-Jane

p.s. Today I shared my favorite commencement speech with my Mighty Mastermind members: Neil Gaiman's “Make Good Art” talk. I listen to it every year, because business is a creative process, and so much of it captures what I want my clients to know as they “graduate” from this program. It's worth a listen.

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