It’s
good to be home.
President Kennedy,
faculty and 2008 graduates, thank you for giving me the honor to speak
to you on this special day. My talk is dedicated to the memory of my
mom, Jean Hall, and my grandmother Hazel Hall, both proud graduates of
this great university. Somewhere in heaven they are busting with pride
at this very moment.
My talk today is
addressed solely and exclusively to the graduates. I’m going to tell
you what I would want my children – Kristyn, Tori and Brad to hear if it
were their graduation.
Four years ago at
convocation I challenged you to make the most of your college
experience. The university reports that a number of you took that
advice. Some studied engineering, chemistry and physics to heights that
could be described as heroic.
Others excelled in
the arts, humanities and even athletics.
Kevin Mitchell and Isaac White pioneered the
university’s innovation engineering program, that I have been so proud
to be a part of.
And, yes, a good
number of you found the time to distinguish yourself by living up to the
lofty words of the “Maine Stein Song”: “Drink to all the happy hours /
Drink to the careless days / Drink to Maine, our alma mater / the
college of our hearts always.”
For those of you who
have achieved educational excellence as indicated by your outstanding
grade point average, I genuinely congratulate you on your diligence and
dedication.
Now for the rest of
you – the rest of you who are NOT graduating with honors – I bring you
good news. One day you could end up like me – a 2-point-something
speaking at graduation and receiving an honorary doctorate this
afternoon.
I also bring you good
news that today is the start of a new day. College is done. Grades are
done. Tomorrow is a day of reboot and restart. Tomorrow everyone starts
fresh with a GPA of 0.0 as you begin the journey of applying your
learning to help make the world a better place.
Now, despite my lack
of academic diligence, the faculty of this great university made sure
that I learned how to think and how to compete in the real world. I
recall the day I interviewed with Procter & Gamble. In the waiting area
was another student. I asked where he went to school.
“Cambridge,” he
answered.
“Oh, what school in
Cambridge?” I asked.
“The ‘B school,’” he
answered with a snotty tone (ohhh).
“What B school?” I
asked.
“HARVARD,” he
answered.
He then asked where I
went to school. I paused for a moment and answered, “ORONO.”
Long story short: I
saw him at the airport. I got a job offer. He didn’t. Thank you, faculty
of the University of Maine and in particular the chemical engineering
department for preparing me for the real world.
Twenty-seven years
ago, I sat where you sit now. That year, the world was in chaos just as
it is today. Senseless violence was everywhere. President Regan and the
Pope were shot. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was murdered. Terrorists
seized a Pakistani airliner. And about a month after my graduation, we
first learned about a new threat called AIDS.
At my graduation, the
commencement speaker, Governor Kenneth Curtis, challenged us to take
charge and lead the country in change. He spoke of the need for
leadership. He also warned about the widening gap between the rich and
the poor.
Sadly, when I look
back, it’s clear that my fellow graduates and I didn’t listen very
closely to Governor Curtis. In fact, we’ve done a pretty lousy job in
the leadership department. The gap between rich and poor has grown: in
1981, CEOs made about 40 times what the average worker made. Today, they
make over 500 times.
Instead of living a
genuinely healthy lifestyle, we invented Botox, Viagra and gastric
bypass surgery. And more than 25 million have died of AIDS.
Reflecting back, it’s
clear that my generation – the last wave of the Baby Boomers – is not a
candidate for the Greatest Generation. Then again, we have not been
really tested as those in 1776, 1861 or 1941 were. It’s not that we’ve
done bad things, it’s just that, in my opinion, we’ve become distracted
– distracted from turning our hopes of youth, our dreams for a better
world, into reality as we’ve come face to face with the real world.
But for all its
problems, America is a nation based on hope that things can change.
Class of 2008, hear me now: It’s time for a change. A ginormous change.
It’s time for a NEW AMERICAN Revolution. A Revolution against
CONFORMITY. And, in particular, a Revolution against the thinking of me
and my fellow Baby Boomers.
It’s time for you –
for you – to step up and lead that revolution. To do so, you must be
bold and brave because as you know, we Baby Boomers, and in particular
Baby Boomer Bosses, tend to be stubborn, cranky sluggards. You know this
because, well, your parents are Baby Boomers, bless their hearts.
To empower and
encourage you to make the changes necessary, I’ve paraphrased a new
Declaration of Independence for the UMaine Class of 2008. With all due
respect to Thomas Jefferson, my declaration for you goes like this:
A Declaration of
Independence from Baby Boomer Conformity
When in the course of
human events, it becomes necessary for us to dissolve established
patterns of thought, a decent respect to the ruminations of mankind
requires us to declare the causes that impel us to separate from the
thinking of those old people who carry the branding of Baby Boomers.
We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all University of Maine 2008 graduates are
unique individuals, that we are endowed by our creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are:
The right to the
PURSUIT of MEANING and HAPPINESS. This means the right to pursue that
career, that hobby, that lifestyle that calls to us most deeply and
offers us the most personal meaning – even if it’s not the most
prestigious, richest or the one our Dad has always wanted us to pursue.
The right to true
FREEDOM of SPEECH – to tell those in authority the Truth, the Whole
Truth and nothing but the Truth. And if they don’t listen – if they
really don’t listen – to tell them to Take This Job and Shove It. Now,
be polite about it, but tell them nonetheless. Remember, you’re from
UMaine. We say what we think and do what we believe.
The right to DO as
CHURCHILL SAID – to never, ever, ever give up when we feel passionately
about a cause and to follow the example the State of Maine hero, Admiral
Robert E. Peary, discoverer of the North Pole 100 years ago, when he
said, “We shall find a way or make a way.”
The right to
Continual LEARNING. This means that every six months – on New Year’s Eve
and July 4, we have the right to look up and see if we’re smarter than
we were six months before. And if we’re not, the right to quit and move
to a career or job that stimulates our brains. The six month rule was my
standard at Procter & Gamble. For 10 years I was growing, then one
January I wasn’t, so I retired from corporate life and founded my own
company.
The right to demand
NO WHINING – NO WHINING – from ourselves, our family and friends, and in
particular Baby Boomers, when it comes to handling the reality of
retirement. The simple facts are seven out of 10 Boomers haven’t saved
enough for retirement and frankly we the Class of 2008 can’t afford to
cover for them. So, they’re just going to have to suck it up and keep
working.
The right to seek
TRUE LOVE and when we find it to invest the energy necessary to keep it
alive, fresh and wonderful. I really HOPE you find true LOVE as I have
with Debbie, my high school sweetheart, who married me a few months
after graduation and who is still supporting me as I support her after
all these years.
The right to BE A
MAINER FOREVER. That means that no matter if our mailing address is
Portland, Oregon; Bangor, Ireland; or Old Town, Poland, we can still
live the spirit of community, caring and concern for one another that is
the great state of Maine.
Finally, the right to
follow the three pieces of advice that fellow Maine alumnus Stephen King
wrote in 1970 in the Maine Campus newspaper just before his graduation –
or, as he said, his birth into the real world. The great writer offered
the following advice to others:
No. 1 – Live peace
No. 2 – Love a
neighbor today
No. 3 – If the
establishment doesn’t like it, then screw ’em
That to secure these
rights, we must stand against the Conformity of Baby Boomer Thinking. We
must take responsibility for thinking for ourselves just at that Band of
Radical Revolutionaries – Franklin, Adams and Jefferson – did.
We, therefore, the
graduates of UMaine, do solemnly declare that we are free from all
unjustified allegiance to Baby Boomer thinking, and that as free and
independent thinkers, we have full power to use our brains to create and
take action on ideas for a better world. For the support of this
declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor.
Fellow Baby Boomers,
it’s not too late. It’s not too late – myself included – to start living
the hopes and dreams from our youth. It’s time to get healthy, take
responsibility and do something to make our original Earth Day promise
reality.
Class of 2008, listen
close: having worked with the world’s best and brightest at universities
and in business, I can tell you that your degree from the University of
Maine means you’re ready, you’re ready to change the world IF – and
here’s the big if – IF you invest the energy and enthusiasm required to
turn your hopes and dream into reality.
I’m going to end my
talk the same way I did four years ago. I ended with a quote from Ben
Franklin – America’s original inventor and entrepreneur. It’s a quote so
important to me that when I’m laid to rest in Springbrook, Prince Edward
Island, it will be carved on my tombstone.
It’s how I lead my
life. It’s my challenge to you the GREAT Class of 2008.
As Franklin said over
200 years ago:
“Up, sluggard, and
waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”
“Up, sluggard, and
waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”
Deep inside all of us
is a little voice, a little voice that tells us what we SHOULD do – what
we MUST do. Class of 2008, I encourage you to learn to listen to that
little voice. To listen and believe in that little voice. To believe in
YOUR ideas. To believe that everything that YOU do and YOU don’t do
makes a meaningful difference in the world.
So what are you
waiting for? Get Up. Get Out. And Get Going!
Congratulations,
everyone.
The right to do as
Winston Churchill said, and never, ever, ever give up when we feel
passionately about a cause and do as the state of Maine…
Back
to Commencement 2008
