commencements

It's the graduation season again. Here are excerpts of some recent commencement speeches posted on New York Times that I find interesting...

Steve Ballmer
Chief executive, Microsoft 
University of Southern California

People think passion is something you either have or you don’t. People think passion is something that has to manifest itself in some kind of explosive and emotional format. It’s not. It’s the thing that you find in your life that you can care about, that you can cling to, that you can invest yourself in, heart, body and soul. Finding passion is kind of your job now.

Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize-winning novelist 
Rutgers University

I have often wished that Jefferson had not used that phrase “the pursuit of happiness” as the third right — although I understand in the first draft it was “life, liberty and the pursuit of property.” Of course, I would have been one of those properties one had the right to pursue, so I suppose happiness is an ethical improvement over a life devoted to the acquisition of land, acquisition of resources, acquisition of slaves.

Still, I would rather he had written “life, liberty and the pursuit of meaningfulness” or “integrity” or “truth.” I know that happiness has been the real, if covert, goal of your labors here. I know that it informs your choice of companions, the profession you will enter. But I urge you, please don’t settle for happiness. It’s not good enough.

Personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that’s more than a barren life; it is a trivial one. It’s looking good instead of doing good.

Daniel F. Akerson

Chief executive, General Motors

Bryant University

I do have a few final bits of advice:

Acknowledge your mistakes, learn from them and move on.

Don’t be afraid of new ideas; be afraid of old ones.

Be faithful to your family and friends. You’ll get the same in return.

Tell the truth and always play by the rules.

If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

It’s cool, again, to buy American!

Happy Commencement... of Summer!