What are the top ten most influential graduation speeches in the United States?

1. Steve Jobs

Apple Computer CEO

2006, Stanford University

Remember you will always die Going is the best way I know to avoid worrying about gains and losses. You can come and go naked without any worries, so why not follow your heart?

Your time is limited, so don’t spend it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—let your life be the result of someone else’s ideas. Don't let other people's opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. At least they already know what you really want to be. The rest is secondary.

Stay hungry. Stay dumb.

2. Jerry Zucker

Director, film producer

2003, University of Wisconsin

If you spend your whole life sleeping, it won't matter if your fantasies come true.

Ask yourself a question: If I don’t have to be perfect, then what am I trying to do?

No one takes your failures as seriously as you do. You are the only one who wallows in your own importance. To everyone else, you're just a blip on the radar screen. So, just move forward.

3. Mark Lewis

Teaching, clinical psychologist

2000, University of Texas (Austin)

Sometimes you will do beautifully, and sometimes you will fail. But it is a measure of neither. The measure of success is how you feel about what you do. Let me put it another way: the way to make yourself happy is to like yourself, and the way to like yourself is to only do things that make you feel proud.

There is an old joke, not very funny, that goes like this: "No matter where you go, you are always you." It's true. The person you spend the most time with in your life is yourself. If you don't like yourself, then you will always be with people you don't like.

4. David Foster Wallace

Novelist

2005, Kenyon College

There were two small fish swimming together. One day they happened to meet an old fish. The old fish nodded to them and said: "Good morning, children. How is the water?" The two little fish continued to swim forward, and one of the little fish couldn't help it anymore and asked the other little fish: "How is the water?" What? ”

…

A simple awareness of something so real, so essential, so ubiquitous and ever-present in our lives, is needed We remind ourselves over and over again:

"This is water."

"This is water."

Do it day after day in the adult world At this point, it is incredibly difficult to keep consciousness awake and alive.

5. John Walsh

Writer and Art Historian

2000, Wheaton Theological Seminary

< p>Do one thing at a time. Give you the full attention of every experience. Try to resist being distracted by other sensual objects and other thoughts and tasks. Once distracted, lead your mind back to what you were doing.

I am not against learning a lot of common knowledge in multiple subjects. Appreciation is really useful. What I am admonishing is distractions and annoyances, whether you invite them or allow them to happen, as I have done throughout my life. On the baseball diamond, high-scoring hitters understand this better: They talk about "focus," and they value it as much as strength. Psychologists describe highly skilled rock climbers, tennis players, and pianists as going beyond concentration and reaching what they call "flow" of instruction, a sense of becoming one with the rock, the tennis ball, or the music. The feeling of "me vs. it" has not yet dissipated and become one with the task, giving people a higher level of pleasure experience rather than just successfully completing the task. I have this experience, although it is rare, but it is not too late, or you may have this experience too. This is the highest form of happiness. If you focus on doing one thing at a time, you will have more experiences like this.

6. Michael Uslan

Film Producer

2006, Indiana University

You must Trust yourself and your work. When our first movie, "Batman," was hitting box-office records like no other, I got a call from the president of the Artists Union, who had talked to me years before, and he told me I was crazy. Now he says, "Michael, I'm not just calling you to celebrate the success of Batman, I'm telling you that you're a delusional person." You see, here's the kicker, when they say how bad you are, what do you think? Don't take their word for it no matter how bad it is, and don't believe them when they tell you how great you are and how wonderful your ideas are. Just believe in yourself and you will do well. And, yes, don’t forget to dump yourself and your ideas. You have to use both left and right brains.

Your frustration threshold must be high. Think of the people who were turned down by every studio in Hollywood. You have to knock on doors until your knuckles bleed. The door slams shut in front of you, and you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and knock on the next door. This is the only way to achieve your life purpose.

7. David L. Calhoun

Businessman

2005, Virginia Tech

I worked for a guy named Jack Welch at GE for 20 years. He is both a great guide and a great teacher. If I had to pick out the theme that he has spoken to me about most generously and emotionally over the years, it would be confidence. Confidence is paramount, it is essential to success and is the unique characteristic of all otherwise vastly different leaders.

How to gain confidence? What’s the secret to cultivating your inner confidence?

First of all, you must be determined to gain intellectual, moral, technical and professional growth every day through your work and family life. You need to ask yourself every day: Am I accelerating or retreating? Am I still learning? Am I doing the same thing over and over again or as Otis Redding said, “sitting on the dock of the bay and watching the tide come and go”?

The desire to learn has no age limit.

Another important way to build self-confidence is to seek out the hardest jobs, the most monotonous scientific, engineering or administrative challenges.

8. Earl Bakken

Businessman

2004, University of Hawaii

No matter how you consider it, Big Wasps are the least aerodynamically sound and should not be able to fly. However, this little bee has wings like a turbojet and could use its chubby body to fly to the stamens of any animal to collect nectar. Bumblebees are the toughest creatures. They don't know they can't fly, so they just buzz and flap their wings.

Never succumb to optimism. If you didn’t know you couldn’t fly, you would fly as high as an eagle. Don't end up complaining that you are doing nothing because you are too diligent or too afraid of flying high. Be a bumblebee! Fly to the sky! You will do it.

9. Bradley Whitford

Actor

2006 University of Wisconsin-Madison

First, fall in love with the process, and the results will come naturally.

Second, do your thing.

Third, once you are ready, throw your preparations in the trash.

Fourth, you can do more than you think.

Fifth, listen.

Sixth, take action.

You have a choice. Either you become a passive victim of circumstances, or you become a hero of your own life. Behavior is the antidote to apathy, cynicism and disappointment.

10. Woody Hayes

College football coach

Ohio State destroyed college in 1986

In On the football field, we always say the other team can't beat us. We must be convinced that we cannot defeat ourselves. Everyone must do this to make sure they don’t let themselves get them down.

You will find that things that come easily are always worthless.

In fact, I've never seen a football player make a tackle with a smile on his face. Never.

The most quoted commencement speech of 2014

Eric Schmidt

President of GOOGLE

2014, University of Pennsylvania

Turn off your computer, turn off your phone, and discover the humanity around you. There's nothing like holding your toddler grandson's hand.