Hindsight
Palo Alto High
School Baccalaureate Speech 6/11/95
by Guy Kawasaki
Speaking to you today marks a milestone
in my life. I am 40 years old. 22 years ago, when I was in your
seat, I never, ever thought I would be 40 years old.
The implications of being your
speaker frightens me. For one thing, when a 40 year old geezer
spoke at my baccalaureate ceremony, he was about the last person
I'd believe. I have no intention of giving you the boring speech
that you are dreading. This speech will be short, sweet, and
not boring.
I am going to talk about hindsights
today. Hindsights that I've accumulated in the 20 years from
where you are to where I am. Don't blindly believe me. Don't
take what I say as "truth." Just listen. Perhaps my
experience can help you out a tiny bit.
I will present them à la
David Letterman. Yes, 40-year old people can still stay up past
11.
#10: Live off your parents as
long as possible.
When I spoke at this ceremony two
years ago, this was the most popular hindsight -- except from
the point of view of the parents. Thus, I knew I was on the right
track.
I was a diligent Oriental in high
school and college. I took college-level classes and earned college-level
credits. I rushed through college in 3 1/2 years. I never traveled
or took time off because I thought it wouldn't prepare me for
work and it would delay my graduation.
Frankly, I blew it.
You are going to work the rest
of your lives, so don't be in a rush to start. Stretch out your
college education. Now is the time to suck life into your lungs
-- before you have a mortgage, kids, and car payments.
Take whole semesters off to travel
overseas. Take jobs and internships that pay less money or no
money. Investigate your passions on your parent's nickel. Or
dime. Or quarter. Or dollar. Your goal should be to extend college
to at least six years.
Delay, as long as possible, the
inevitable entry into the workplace and a lifetime of servitude
to bozos who know less than you do, but who make more money.
Also, you shouldn't deprive your parents of the pleasure of supporting
you.
#9: Pursue joy, not happiness.
This is probably the hardest lesson
of all to learn. It probably seems to you that the goal in life
is to be "happy." Oh, you maybe have to sacrifice and
study and work hard, but, by and large, happiness should be predictable.
Nice house. Nice car. Nice material
things.
Take my word for it, happiness
is temporary and fleeting. Joy, by contrast, is unpredictable.
It comes from pursuing interests and passions that do not obviously
result in happiness.
Pursuing joy, not happiness will
translate into one thing over the next few years for you: Study
what you love. This may also not be popular with parents. When
I went to college, I was "marketing driven." It's also
an Oriental thing.
I looked at what fields had the
greatest job opportunities and prepared myself for them. This
was brain dead. There are so many ways to make a living in the
world, it doesn't matter that you've taken all the "right"
courses. I don't think one person on the original Macintosh team
had a classic "computer science" degree.
You parents have a responsibility
in this area. Don't force your kids to follow in your footsteps
or to live your dreams. My father was a senator in Hawaii. His
dream was to be a lawyer, but he only had a high school education.
He wanted me to be a lawyer.
For him, I went to law school.
For me, I quit after two weeks. I view this a terrific validation
of my inherent intelligence.
#8: Challenge the known and
embrace the unknown.
One of the biggest mistakes you
can make in life is to accept the known and resist the unknown.
You should, in fact, do exactly the opposite: challenge the known
and embrace the unknown.
Let me tell you a short story about
ice. In the late 1800s there was a thriving ice industry in the
Northeast. Companies would cut blocks of ice from frozen lakes
and ponds and sell them around the world. The largest single
shipment was 200 tons that was shipped to India. 100 tons got
there unmelted, but this was enough to make a profit.
These ice harvesters, however,
were put out of business by companies that invented mechanical
ice makers. It was no longer necessary to cut and ship ice because
companies could make it in any city during any season.
These ice makers, however, were
put out of business by refrigerator companies. If it was convenient
to make ice at a manufacturing plant, imagine how much better
it was to make ice and create cold storage in everyone's home.
You would think that the ice harvesters
would see the advantages of ice making and adopt this technology.
However, all they could think about was the known: better saws,
better storage, better transportation.
Then you would think that the ice
makers would see the advantages of refrigerators and adopt this
technology. The truth is that the ice harvesters couldn't embrace
the unknown and jump their curve to the next curve.
Challenge the known and embrace
the unknown, or you'll be like the ice harvester and ice makers.
#7: Learn to speak a foreign
language, play a musical instrument, and play non-contact sports.
Learn a foreign language. I studied
Latin in high school because I thought it would help me increase
my vocabulary. It did, but trust me when I tell you it's very
difficult to have a conversation in Latin today other than at
the Vatican. And despite all my efforts, the Pope has yet to
call for my advice.
Learn to play a musical instrument.
My only connection to music today is that I was named after Guy
Lombardo. Trust me: it's better than being named after Guy's
brother, Carmen. Playing a musical instrument could be with me
now and stay with me forever. Instead, I have to buy CDs at Tower.
I played football. I loved football.
Football is macho. I was a middle linebacker -- arguably, one
of the most macho positions in a macho game. But you should also
learn to play a non-contact sport like basketball or tennis.
That is, a sport you can play when you're over the hill.
It will be as difficult when you're
40 to get twenty-two guys together in a stadium to play football
as it is to have a conversation in Latin, but all the people
who wore cute, white tennis outfits can still play tennis. And
all the macho football players are sitting around watching television
and drinking beer.
#6: Continue to learn.
Learning is a process not an event.
I thought learning would be over when I got my degree. It's not
true. You should never stop learning. Indeed, it gets easier
to learn once you're out of school because it's easier to see
the relevance of why you need to learn.
You're learning in a structured,
dedicated environment right now. On your parents' nickel. But
don't confuse school and learning. You can go to school and not
learn a thing. You can also learn a tremendous amount without
school.
#5: Learn to like yourself or
change yourself until you can like yourself.
I know a forty-year-old woman who
was a drug addict. She is a mother of three. She traced the start
of her drug addiction to smoking dope in high school.
I'm not going to lecture you about
not taking drugs. Hey, I smoked dope in high school. Unlike Bill
Clinton, I inhaled. Also unlike Bill Clinton, I exhaled.
This woman told me that she started
taking drugs because she hated herself when she was sober. She
did not like drugs so much as she hated herself. Drugs were not
the cause, though she thought they were the solution.
She turned her life around only
after she realized that she was in a downward spiral. Fix your
problem. Fix your life. Then you won't need to take drugs. Drugs
are neither the solution nor the problem.
Frankly, smoking, drugs, alcohol
-- and using an IBM PC -- are signs of stupidity. End of discussion.
#4: Don't get married too soon.
I got married when I was 32. That's
about the right age. Until you're about that age, you may not
know who you are. You also may not know who you're marrying.
I don't know one person who got
married too late. I know many people who got married too young.
If you do decide to get married, just keep in mind that you need
to accept the person for what he or she is right now.
#3: Play to win and win to play.
Playing to win is one of the finest
things you can do. It enables you to fulfill your potential.
It enables you to improve the world and, conveniently, develop
high expectations for everyone else too.
And what if you lose? Just make
sure you lose while trying something grand. Avinash Dixit, an
economics professor at Princeton, and Barry Nalebuff, an economics
and management professor at the Yale School of Organization and
Management, say it this way:
"If you are going to fail,
you might as well fail at a difficult task. Failure causes others
to downgrade their expectations of you in the future. The seriousness
of this problem depends on what you attempt."
In its purest form, winning becomes
a means, not an end, to improve yourself and your competition.
Winning is also a means to play
again. The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the unlived
life is not worth examining. The rewards of winning -- money,
power, satisfaction, and self-confidence -- should not be squandered.
Thus, in addition to playing to
win, you have a second, more important obligation: To compete
again to the depth and breadth and height that your soul can
reach. Ultimately, your greatest competition is yourself.
#2: Obey the absolutes.
Playing to win, however, does not
mean playing dirty. As you grow older and older, you will find
that things change from absolute to relative. When you were very
young, it was absolutely wrong to lie, cheat, or steal. As you
get older, and particularly when you enter the workforce, you
will be tempted by the "system" to think in relative
terms. "I made more money." "I have a nicer car."
"I went on a better vacation."
Worse, "I didn't cheat as
much on my taxes as my partner." "I just have a few
drinks. I don't take cocaine." "I don't pad my expense
reports as much as others."
This is completely wrong. Preserve
and obey the absolutes as much as you can. If you never lie,
cheat, or steal, you will never have to remember who you lied
to, how you cheated, and what you stole.
There absolutely are absolute rights
and wrongs.
#1: Enjoy your family and friends
before they are gone.
This is the most important hindsight.
It doesn't need much explanation. I'll just repeat it: Enjoy
your family and friends before they are gone. Nothing -- not
money, power, or fame -- can replace your family and friends
or bring them back once they are gone. Our greatest joy has been
our baby, and I predict that children will bring you the greatest
joy in your lives -- especially if they graduate from college
in four years.
And now, I'm going to give you
one extra hindsight because I've probably cost your parents thousands
of dollars today. It's something that I hate to admit too.
By and large, the older you get,
the more you're going to realize that your parents were right.
More and more -- until finally, you become your parents. I know
you're all saying, "Yeah, right." Mark my words.
Remember these ten things: if just
one of them helps you, helps just one of you, this speech will
have been a success:
#10: Live off your parents as long
as possible.
#9: Pursue joy, not happiness.
#8: Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.
#7: Learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument,
and play non-contact sports.
#6: Continue to learn.
#5: Learn to like yourself or change yourself until you
can like yourself.
#4: Don't get married too soon.
#3: Play to win and win to play.
#2: Obey the absolutes.
#1: Enjoy your family and friends before they are gone.
Guy Kawasaki
|