Sam R. might recognize this
After attending Burke’s recent graduation ceremony, I came across the commencement address that Jeff Bezos gave this Spring at Princeton. Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon. When he started work on Amazon, most people didn’t know what the Internet was. Even the people who were aware of the Internet thought that he was crazy to think that people would want to buy books with their computers – especially since the majority of people didn’t have computers. Even after Amazon started to get some traction, people again thought Bezos was nuts to keep raising huge gobs of money to fund exponential growth of its infrastructure and product offerings.
In hindsight it’s easy to see that Bezos is a uniquely smart, creative, thorough person who had a brilliant, well thought-out idea. But, he told Princeton’s graduates that these characteristics weren’t the keys to building Amazon. For Bezos the truly important and lasting thing was that he made the choice to start Amazon, even though it meant leaving a very successful job. Our individual gifts aren’t really what make us who we are. They don’t define what we stand for, they don’t point to where we want to go, they don’t leave an enduring map of where we have been. Our choices do.
He closes his speech by asking:
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
Good questions for graduates of all ages. Read the whole thing: We Are What we Choose.
This graduate loves those words…..to live by.