Good afternoon. 

I would like to begin by offering my congratulations to the members of the Class of 2009, their families and friends who are with us today, and to the faculty of John Carroll University.

I am honored to share today with Father Robert Niehoff, President of John Carroll University, the University Board of Directors and Mr. J. Thomas Mullen, President & CEO of Catholic Charities Health and Human Services of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

As an alumnus of John Carroll University, I’m honored to have this opportunity to address the graduates of my alma mater on this most auspicious occasion.

In my role as commencement speaker, I promise to do my best to entertain and inspire — but most of all, I promise to be brief!  You may think of this graduation address as the last college lecture you’ll ever have to listen to.

The School of Business has an interesting slogan that I think captures the significance of graduation day — Come Ready to Learn, Leave Ready to Lead.

After four years of intense and comprehensive study, the time spent at John Carroll has prepared you for entry into the workforce. Your university experience has taught you to excel in learning, leadership and service, and I would like to offer some additional insights into what it means to be truly successful in life.  

While there are many ways to succeed, I’ve found that truly successful people share these traits:

• They always tell the truth 
• They always do the right thing
• They always do their best

Living by these three tenets can make your life easier and more productive — and, it will keep you out of trouble!

Sounds simple, right? 

It’s not.

You see, “telling the truth” is more than just not lying.  It’s about earning credibility.  It means not being afraid to ask questions or say I don’t know.  It’s about keeping your word.  It’s about saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

“Doing the right thing” means both how you deal with others and with yourself. Your parents were right — following the “golden rule” and treating others as you would like to be treated — is and always will be the best way to deal with people. 

But following the “golden rule” means more than just being nice. It’s being respectful.  It’s taking the time to listen to what other people have to say. It’s having true empathy for others and taking genuine interest in how they think and feel.  

It’s giving people the benefit of the doubt — even when you think they may not deserve it.  We all have a tendency to jump to conclusions, but what you perceive as “being wronged” could just be a simple misunderstanding, a failure to communicate. 

“Doing the right thing” also means taking people under your wing and showing them the ropes.  Mentoring is one of the most under-appreciated and under-utilized aspects of business. 

Find folks you think set a good example to follow and ask them to mentor you.  Then, when you are established in your career, don’t forget to mentor those who look to you for example and wisdom.

Make the effort to learn from all the different people around you — each person you meet has a unique perspective. Don’t just acknowledge diversity — embrace it! 

I recently retired as president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, where I spent the last 35 years of my career.  While I am very proud of my role in helping Carnival become the world’s largest cruise operator, I am even more proud of the talented and dedicated people who work there.

Carnival employs individuals from 100 different countries, so it’s sort of a mini-United Nations.  It’s amazing to think that so many different individuals can get along and work together as a team — there’s a lesson to be learned there.

“Doing the right thing” also means living a life of integrity, a life where our choices are made transparently and we never have to fear discovery of our acts or intentions.

“Doing your best” is another expression your parents continually reinforced when you were younger that still holds true today.

“Doing your best” means giving your all, being passionate … and persevering through adversity.  It also means learning from your mistakes. 

Carnival got off to a rocky start back in 1972 when our first ship, the Mardi Gras, ran aground on its inaugural voyage. Sure, we were kidded about “Mardi Gras on the rocks” being the drink of the day, but we looked at it as a learning experience.  Our early struggles helped us learn valuable lessons on the path to becoming the industry leader. 

“Doing your best” also means maintaining a positive attitude.  There are two kinds of people — the Negatives who say “can’t,” and the Positives who say “why not?”  Bring positive energy to everything you do. Be a glass-half-full kind of person.  The people around you will appreciate it, and you’ll live a healthier, more stress-free life.

Those are my tips on becoming successful.  Now, let’s talk about something much more important:  significance.

We all have seen successful people with fabulous careers, fancy houses and fast cars.  But it’s a sad fact that many successful people are arrogant, self-centered and selfish.

Somehow, they came to the bizarre conclusion that the success they enjoy was all their doing!

Even given the current economic conditions, here in the United States we enjoy the highest standard of living in the history of modern civilization. Yet still we take for granted many of our blessings and opportunities.  Each of us could have been born into different circumstances where we would have had no chance for the life we have today, let alone the opportunity to pursue a college education. 

Let me put that into perspective. 

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, maintaining all existing human ratios, it would look something like this:

There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 individuals from the entire Western Hemisphere and 8 Africans

52 would be female, 48 male

30 would be white, 70 non-white

30 would be Christian, 70 non-Christian

6 people would posses 59 percent of the world’s wealth

80 would live in substandard housing

50 would suffer from malnutrition

70 would be unable to read

And one — just one out of that 100 — would have a college education

Here are some additional facts to ponder:

• If you woke up this morning with more health than sickness, you are more blessed than the million people who died last week
• If you have never experienced the horrors of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation — you are more blessed than 500 million of your fellow humans
• If you can attend a church, synagogue or mosque without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death — you are more blessed than three billion of your fellow humans
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep — you are richer than 75 percent of the world’s population
• If you have money in the bank, a few dollars in your wallet and spare change in a dish on the dresser — you are among the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy

When you consider the world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. 

You are among the fortunate few in the entire world to be blessed with such unbelievable opportunities.  You have a duty — a moral obligation — to take the blessings you have received and give back to society. 

We have been especially blessed to have received a Jesuit Catholic education.  We have been exposed to the values of the Society of Jesus’s intellectual tradition, and we have been charged with loving one another as God loves us. 

As the Jesuit priest and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin explained it, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Success is fine, but it’s limited by time and it will not last.  Our time on earth is but one grain of sand on the endless beach of eternity.  We cannot let the trappings of temporary success take our eyes off the prize, which is to extend God’s creation by loving one another here … and spending eternity in the bliss of the Father.

To whom much is given, much is expected…

The reality of life is that we come into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing.  All you can leave behind is your legacy, and the best legacy any of us can hope for is to leave the world a better place than we found it.

No one is going to remember you because of the car you drove or the house where you lived. They’ll remember you for the type of person you were.  If you use your time and your talent and your treasure to love one another, to help those less fortunate and to make our world a better place, not only will you be successful, you will be significant.

Whether it’s working to combat the causes of poverty and homelessness, volunteering at a local charity, helping kids as a Big Brother or Big Sister, or mentoring someone just starting a career, make maximum use of your talents to help others.  Be a good friend.  Be a good parent.  Be a good child. Love one another.

That’s the difference between being just a successful person and a being a person of significance.
 
Earning a college diploma is certainly an outstanding achievement — one that you should be extremely proud of because, after all, you are just one in one hundred.

Today truly is a crossroads for each of you graduates. During your time here at John Carroll University, you have learned much — but are you now ready to lead?

During college you developed the academic tools you will need to be successful. But will you use the moral and spiritual tools you have to lead a life that is not just successful, but is significant? 

That, my fellow alumni, is entirely up to you.

Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen — your last college lecture is ended.

Thank you and congratulations.