Elmira College graduates gather at their 2010 commencement.
Every spring, new graduates sit through commencement addresses full of advice to seize the day, dream big and make the world a better place.
Charles Wheelan says he's sick of those speeches. When he spoke at his alma mater, Dartmouth College, he delivered what he called an "anti-commencement" speech, with straightforward advice that he wishes someone had told him at graduation. He lists ten of those pieces of advice in an essay that ran Wall Street Journal, including "Some of your worst days lie ahead" and "Don't try to be great."
Wheelan joins NPR's Jennifer Ludden to talk about the ten things your commencement speaker won't tell you.
***
Alan
here...
Recently,
I came across a Newsweek article about Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx footless
pantyhose.
Her
sexy, airheaded picture inclined me to move on to the next article but since
the column was entitled "My Favorite Mistake," I decided to read on -
which led to this remarkable paragraph:
"It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst
thing that can happen is you become memorable. I grew up in a house where my
father encouraged my brother and me to fail. I specifically remember coming
home and saying, Dad, Dad, I tried out for this or that and I was horrible, and
he would high-five me and say, Way to go. He
reframed my definition of failure from an early age. Failure to me became not
trying, instead of the outcome." (Emphasis mine.)
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