Why didn’t they have commencement speeches like this when I was growing up?
In the past couple of years, it seems like more and more amazingly powerful commencement speeches have been making their way online. The Steve Jobs one still gets its fair share of million of views each and every year (watch it here: Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005). This week, Julien Smith (author of The Flinch and co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogan), directed me over to this beautiful twenty minute speech by famed comic book artist, author and renaissance man, Neil Gaiman.
Listen to Neil Gaiman.
The University of the Arts made the right choice in having Gaiman speak to their graduates. I’m usually the first one to cringe at anybody standing at a lectern and reading a speech, but Gaiman is one of the very few who can pull it off in a human way. Beyond his personable performance, the gold lies in his content. I hope you extrapolate the same two key messages from his presentation that I did:
- Be happy. The best advice he ever received came from horror author, Stephen King, at the peak of Gaiman’s popularity (when his comic book series, Sandman, was taking off). King told Gaiman to "enjoy this moment." Gaiman’s reasons for not following the best piece of advice that he ever received is classic: he was too busy worrying and trying to push things forward. We often don’t "stop and smell the roses." It’s a massively powerful moment of the speech and one that I hope you will self-reflect on it as much as I did.
- Make mistakes. Like you, I hate making mistakes. We all know that making mistakes is how we grow, yet we dread making mistakes more than anything. We all know that making mistakes (many, many, many mistakes) is what gets us to that one, unique result that creates a true breakthrough and/or innovation. I’m hopeful I can follow Gaiman’s advice to make mistakes, but it could well be the best piece of advice that I ever received and ignored as well… sadly.
You must have twenty minutes?
I know you’re busy. I’m busy too. I found twenty minutes to watch this masterful commencement speech from Neil Gaiman and it’s in your best interest to find the time too.
Watch this…
Mitch Joel Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.