![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Commencement
Jun. 7th, 2014 08:47 amSpeaking of Commencement
How Commencement Speeches Go Viral
By BRUCE FEILERJUNE 6, 2014
How Commencement Speeches Go Viral
By BRUCE FEILERJUNE 6, 2014
You’re wearing sunscreen.
You’re clutching your copies of " ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” You’re not afraid to fail.
You know you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.
And you especially know to follow your passion, stay true to yourself, and never follow someone else’s path, unless you’re in the woods and lost and you see a path, then by all means you should follow that.
He told the audience, for instance, that successful freelancers do good work, are easy to get along with, and deliver on time — but you don’t need to be all three. Two is fine. You can be mediocre if you’re pleasant and prompt; you can be late if you’re likable and talented; you can be a jerk if you’re good and on time.
“At its best, a commencement speech is 15 minutes of distilled wisdom in a package that’s entertaining enough that it will keep people engaged even while they’re baking in the hot sun under a paper plate, eager to get on with the rest of the party,” she said. “It’s a demanding genre. It requires some poetry, some stand-up comedy, and a good deal of truth.”
“What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.”
