Three Minute Leadership- On Being Special
To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
In his commencement address to the graduating class of Wellesley High School, David McCullough Jr., the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and a longtime English teacher at Wellesley High School, Wellesley, Massachusetts, introduces his talk with eyebrow-raising words: “None of you is special. You’re not special, you’re not exceptional…. You are nothing special.” He tells them that despite all the applauds, words actions telling them to the contrary: ‘You are not special.” With humorous commentary he supports his words with eye-opening data.
“The empirical evidence is everywhere….. Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs. But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you’re leaving it. So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.… And consider for a moment the bigger picture: your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system; your solar system is not the center of its galaxy; your galaxy is not the center of the universe. In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it.”
McCullough states: “If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. We have come to love accolades more than genuine achievements.” Life is about doing – a doing filled and inspired by passion, love, focus and urgency.
“I urge you to do, whatever you do, for no reason other than you love it, and believe in its important. Dream big, work hard, think for yourself! Love everything you love, everyone you love with all your might and do so with a sense of urgency for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer.…. The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you are a nice person…. Get busy, have it have at it, don’t wait for inspiration to find you, get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, grab hold with both hands….”
His concluding words share a profound message of the learning that comes from a well-lived and travelled journey: “The fulfilled life is a consequence of gratifying by-product. It’s what happens when you are thinking of more important things. You, too, will discover that the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing that you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition, that you’re not special… because everyone is. Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.”
Extraordinary leaders find their greatness not is their own self-image, but in their selflessness in serving others. From the wisdom of Albert Einstein, they have learned: “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.” In doing this remember the words of Jessy and Bryan Matteo: “Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water -it will make ripples throughout the entire pond….” Make ripples that move around the world!
Have a beautiful day and a joyful, magnificent week!!!
Mike
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