My Toastmaster Club President asked if I would like to be a speaker in the upcoming club meeting. It is not any special request. Such a request serves as a trigger about what meaningful speech I would like to share with the fellow club members, many of whom will have many ventures and career years ahead of them. The Club president did not have much of a suggestion of the topics. June is the month of college graduation. I decided to use a speech to echo the wisdom of three commencement speeches. The first of the three speeches was dated in 2007. I read the speech transcript from “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”, a book with so much wisdom. The other two speeches were more freshly delivered in June this year.
My speech transcript re: “Echoes of wisdom: three commencement speeches”.
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How many remember the commencement speeches from your college graduations? Because I don’t remember anything, I could not put into practice the wisdom from the speech of my college graduation. As you have many ventures and years ahead, I have three commencement speeches from three great persons to share with you today.
Charlie Munger at USC Law, 2007
Munger is known for his 60 years of partnership with Warren Buffet, and the unusual successes of the company Berkshire Hathaway. His wisdom and humor have lived on in his speech and his book. He said “acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty”.
The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. You want to deliver to the world what you want to buy if you were on the other side. It is a golden rule.
Be a learning machine. Develop a multi-disciplinary knowledge in important domains: business, psychology, math and history.
Hard work and strong work ethics are essential. As obvious as it is, we often forget it when things are not going well.
His speech is full of gold and offers values for anyone.
Roger Federer at Dartmouth, 2024
Roger is arguably the most beloved tennis player of all time. He retired in 2022. I was there in London watching him to play the last match at the London O2 arena, and his emotional farewell. He did not finish high school. Yet his tennis accomplishment earned him the honor of a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth.
Effortless is a myth: For many who have watched him play, his play looks easy and effortless. This is misleading. He explains that he had to work very hard to make his game look easy. Next time, when you see some successful people get an easy promotion, think again.
It’s only a point: A tennis match has many points, just like our life has many points. Federer shares that during the point, you see the point as the most most important point in your life that you put 100% in. When the point is over, win or lose, you need to learn and move on, so you have your 100% for the next point.
Life is bigger than the court: Federer has his foundation that helps children in Africa get an education. It’s important to have a purpose in life beyond your career.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia at CalTech, 2024
Jensen famously said the following : “To me, no task is beneath me, because I used to be a dishwasher, I used to clean toilets and I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined”. In his commencement speech, he shared with the graduates a detailed history of Nvidia, and the journey.
Develop an informed and reasoned belief in something unconventional and unexplored.
Find a craft to dedicate the lifetime to perfect. He famously said that he has nothing to do other than being the CEO of Nvidia.
Prioritize. Jensen has a prioritized list, and first thing in the morning, he takes care of the most important priority, leaving him plenty of time to take care of people and other priorities
With technology, many commencement speeches are available on YouTube, waiting for you to discover. Consider checking out a commencement speech. That may turn out to be the best use of the time and you would go to bed wiser than in the morning. As Mr. Munger once said, acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty.
oliviatamccue 
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