This past May, I had the honor of giving the commencement speech for my old high school, Grandview Heights High School, in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. This is the transcript of my speech.
It’s an honor to be back at Grandview Heights High School today, 15 years after I was sitting in your seats. I congratulate all the new graduates today, the GHHS class of 2017. It is you who have done the work, you who will walk on stage, and you who will be our futures.
With you stand your families, teachers, friends and community. I’d like to extend my congratulations to them as well, for it is because of their mentorship that you have succeeded.
This summer I am running a program to teach high school students how to computer program. It’s six weeks long, and over 120 students have applied for 12 slots. We’ve interviewed every applicant, and one of the questions we often ask a student is “who is a hero of yours?” Rarely, is it a famous politician or entrepreneur. For most students, instead of someone famous, it’s a parent or personal mentor.
Members of the class of 2017, you can already mentor those who will graduate after you, and make mentorship and service a priority going forward. You don’t have to make a billion dollars to be a hero, you just have to lend a helping hand.
Maybe you’ve read my biography in the program, or maybe you’re about to during the boring parts of my speech. I’m not going to dwell on my biography. In my time today, I’m going to highlight three things I have learned since graduating GHHS that surprised me.
- The worst is over
- Cultivate your inner rebel
- Success is a team sport
The first lesson I learned was apparent as soon as I left high school. Don’t laugh, because it’s true: the worst is over.
There are many great moments in high school. The lessons you’ve learned here in high school will follow you throughout your life. I was in Cuba just last week, and able to navigate in Spanish because of my years at GHHS. I use the calculus and math I learned in high school every day of my career. The grit that it took to graduate prepared me well for MIT. My close friends, I’ve kept in touch with them, and they’ll be coming to my wedding later this summer. Some of them are in the audience today.
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely happy in high school. I appreciate Grandview Heights when I come back as an adult, but at the time I just wanted to get started with my life in a bigger pond. I was pleased to find that real world is infinitely richer and more varied than high school. You’ll have more freedom, freedom to make mistakes, to fail, to succeed. The path will be your choice.
If your high school memories are wholly pleasant, which I wouldn’t be surprised given the great community of Grandview Heights, keep in mind that isn’t a ceiling of happiness to look back on the rest of your life, it merely is a solid foundation to build on. If you’ve had failures or frustrations alongside your successes in high school, now is the time to leave those behind and they will only follow you if you let them.
For all of the class of 2017, life only gets better. For better or worse, the worst is over.
The second thing that surprised me was that cultivating a contrarian attitude has helped me in my scientific and professional career.
Recently, researchers followed 81 valedictorians, and the study’s author commented: “Valedictorians aren’t likely to be the future’s visionaries . . . they typically settle into the system instead of shaking it up.”
I’ll pick a bone with the study, I don’t think it’s a problem with valedictorians in general, the vast majority of any group of 81 people aren’t likely to be the future’s visionaries. It’s tough and contrarian work. If the study included more valedictorians, surely it would have come across a visionary or two or ten.
But something to keep in mind is that progress and innovation require challenging assumptions and change. Get comfortable with challenging yourself, with fighting your own biases and assumptions. Cultivate even more admiration and appreciation those who have the courage to defy them despite every societal force pushing them to conform.
Look around you. Your future classmates, coworkers, and experiences are going to be infinitely more diverse. You’ll be exposed to a lot of systems — schools, workplaces, communities — which work well. Learn from them. You’ll be exposed to a lot of systems which don’t work well. To injustice, to ossification, to hate. Fight society’s ills where you can, with the energy that you have. If you want to change the world, get comfortable with cultivating the rebel within.
The final thing I will share with you that surprised me was that every achieving is not the achievement of an individual but of a team.
I had this image when I graduated of a successful musician, scientist, astronaut, politician, sports ball player, rock star, or CEO. The top of the pyramid, the best of the best, all alone basking in their success. This person might have once existed, but they no longer do. The idea of a lone genius is a myth.
You might have heard about science results from the LHC at CERN. Proving the Higgs Boson exists required two distinct collaborations, which collectively contain more than 8,000 scientists. The recent results from the LIGO collaboration which detected gravitational waves required a team of thousands of scientists.
In human space exploration, astronauts go through years of training for a few hours spacewalking, but have be supported by literally thousands on the ground throughout.
I live in Los Angeles, and recently I was carpooling with a music producer to the birthday party of a mutual friend. I knew many pop stars didn’t write their own music, but I was still surprised to learn that some of my favorite bands, M83, for example, have a creative team collaborating on creating an album every step of the way.
This holds for field after field. It’s a whole team who create a success and never a single person.
Recognizing success is a team sport early on will help you in two ways:
- You should realize you can have a part of any big dream or success without having to have the luck or fortune to be selected as the face or representative of a team.
- It will help you relate to the accomplishments of those you admire for their success without putting them on a pedestal or being overwhelmed by the impossibility or improbability of it happening to you.
No matter what your dream, you can work to achieve it, because all it requires is finding the right team and cultivating the skills to make small contributions.
My dream is big. I want to be an astronaut. My personal journey isn’t over. Unfortunately, I’ve received word that I was not selected as a member of the 2017 astronaut candidate class. I’m announcing that for the first time here. I’ve had many other rejections in my life, at every stage. My “failure resume” is as impressive as my successes.
Those who eventually became astronauts are no different. NASA rejected astronaut Clayton Anderson 14 times before accepting him for astronaut training. I will apply again. Not giving up on your dreams means getting comfortable with rejection as you collect success.
A few things have surprised me on my journey so far that I’ve shared with you today. You’ll discover many more surprises along your journey, no doubt. I will not be surprised when you succeed at whatever path you choose. I invite you to dream big and to work together to achieve those dreams.
The worst is over, cultivate your inner rebel, success is a team sport, and persevere after rejections. Congrats again, class of 2017. You’ve earned your place in our future.