May 15, 2020 • 7 mins
In this episode of Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, restaurateur, author, and TV personality David Chang advises graduating students that true happiness comes from being selfless, encouraging them to leave the world better than you found it.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Commencement Speeches for the Class of is a production of
I Heart Radio. Class of Parents, faculty, rising graduates, Welcome
to commencement. You made it. This year is a little different,
(00:23):
a difficult time to graduate because the traditional graduation day
has been put on hold. So we're bringing it to
you wherever you are, because this is still your day,
your moment. And now put your hands together. It's time
to be inspired. This year's commencement speaker the one and
only David Change to the Class of It's an honor
(00:53):
to have the chance to celebrate you. My name's Dave Chang.
I'm a Korean American. I grew up in Virginia. I'm
majored in religion, and at your age, I had no
idea what the hell I was doing. By that, I
don't just mean that I was young, naive, and unsure.
I mean that I was unhappy and unremarkable. I graduated
college near the bottom of my class. I taught English
(01:14):
in Japan for a little while because it was the
only job I could get, and then I came back
to the States to work the one desk job that
I could get. To say the least, I did not
find my place in either environment, but I was already
used to not fitting in growing up. I never felt
Korean enough to make Korean friends, and I wasn't American
enough to fully hang with my friends at school. Compared
(01:35):
to most of my classmates, I wasn't blessed with any
natural talents, and I was very quiet. Like I said,
I was pretty down the middle because I'm a chef. Now,
you might think that things clicked when I wound up
in cooking school at twenty two, but that would be incorrect.
I did have a good feeling about cooking, but I
was so mediocre. In fact, I was just bad. That
one of my classmates actually quit the program because of
(01:57):
my lack of talent. I'm kidding. They told her that
I was going to be a partner for one semester
and that she couldn't switch, so she decided to drop
out then be my partner. I stayed at cooking school
mostly because I had exhausted all other options. It's crazy
to think, but by my mid twenties, I had worked
so many jobs and tried so many things. I'd seen
(02:19):
a good chunk of the world too, Yet I was
convinced that it was all a waste. I looked at
my friends that could not believe how far ahead of
me they were. Maybe some of you know that feeling,
and if you don't, I'll tell you the same thing.
Life begins right about where you are right now. Conventional
wisdom says that college is the time to experiment, but
now is when you can truly accumulate data to your advantage.
(02:44):
This is the moment in your lives to be selfish,
so use it and be smart about it. Welcome all
the heartache, disorientation. Enjoy that you can most of all,
lean into situations that might lead to mistakes. You have
to taste failure so much and so early, so you
know how to deal with it later on when the
(03:04):
stakes are higher. I firmly believe that all of it
eventually comes in handy down the road. In my twenties,
I obviously would have disagreed, no question about that. It
may surprise you to hear that depression is what changed
my mind. I'll try to explain. Around the time I
started cooking, I figured out that I wasn't just programmed
to be a wallflower. My depression I gotten so debilitating
(03:26):
that I finally sought a diagnosis and some help depression
is different for everybody, so I can only speak to
my experience. But during that process, I was able to
look at my life and see that I was luckier
than I thought. Eventually, I asked myself a question, what
can I offer the world? In my case, it was
a restaurant, an idea that I had always bettered around
(03:47):
out of fear, and it would always been so easy
to find reasons not to do it. But strangely enough,
in the darkest moment, I gained unprecedented clarity and I
had to get it off my chest. So I just
said screw it. I opened a tiny noodle bar in
Manhattan called Momo Fubu, the size of a one car garage,
and then I poured myself into that place. In a
(04:09):
way that's difficult to convey. I worked like there was
no tomorrow. I became a different person. Along the way.
I found that I was able to channel all the
memories and frustrations that I had been through and yet
I was too timid to express. And it was astonished
to see how experiences I had once thought were pointless
actually helped me to do my job. All of this
(04:30):
is to say that it's not just about exploring and experiencing.
At some point you have to be in a position
to do something with that data that you've collected. You
have to choose a job, a cause, a project, and
operate as if you have everything and nothing to lose.
Of course, it doesn't take depression to get there, and
sure some of you may already be on your way,
(04:53):
but you will be tested. And this is a long journey.
It's a marathon of marathons, and you will need a
draw upon an endless reserve, a willpower of grit. Hard
work is a great equalizer. It's something I didn't quite
figure out until much later. It's how you'll be able
to meet the thousands of challenges that away, whether it's
(05:13):
humiliation or the apartment bathtub upstairs that's now flooding on
your dining room floor, when there's a critic eating a meal.
On some days, it may feel like it's just too
damn hard, like it's not worth climbing back up that
mountain again. But you have to keep going. It's as
simple as this. Honor your time here. But just as
I urged you to look inward to find yourself, your voice,
(05:35):
and your purpose, I want to tell you that conviction
can also be dangerous, or at least it was for me.
Five or so years into Momofuku, the company had gone
from being an army of one into employing over one people.
Now we have several hundred, and they were all unhappy.
The problem was me. I was miserable to work for
(05:56):
in my fanatical quest, I was blind to those around
on me and their needs. In my little world, all
that matter what was good for me. This somehow had
an immediately affected the quality of our work. But that
luck didn't last forever. Not only did our magic spark dim,
I was more alone than when I graduated college. So
I want to leave you with the greatest piece of
(06:17):
knowledge I've gained so far, an idea we should all
remind ourselves in times like these. It's not about you.
You're going to be happiest, in my opinion, when you
try to be selfless. I hope you're safe, I hope
you're proud of your achievements, and I hope you're going
to get to work so that decades from now you
can take a look around you and say you left
(06:37):
things a little bit better than you found them. Congratulations.
Now the hard work begins. You can find a collection
of incredible commencement addresses from all your favorite speakers at
(06:58):
the Commencement Podcast on radio or wherever you listen to podcasts.
M
Commencement Speeches for the Class of is a production of
I Heart Radio. Class of Parents, faculty, rising graduates, Welcome
to commencement. You made it. This year is a little different,
(00:23):
a difficult time to graduate because the traditional graduation day
has been put on hold. So we're bringing it to
you wherever you are, because this is still your day,
your moment. And now put your hands together. It's time
to be inspired. This year's commencement speaker the one and
only David Change to the Class of It's an honor
(00:53):
to have the chance to celebrate you. My name's Dave Chang.
I'm a Korean American. I grew up in Virginia. I'm
majored in religion, and at your age, I had no
idea what the hell I was doing. By that, I
don't just mean that I was young, naive, and unsure.
I mean that I was unhappy and unremarkable. I graduated
college near the bottom of my class. I taught English
(01:14):
in Japan for a little while because it was the
only job I could get, and then I came back
to the States to work the one desk job that
I could get. To say the least, I did not
find my place in either environment, but I was already
used to not fitting in growing up. I never felt
Korean enough to make Korean friends, and I wasn't American
enough to fully hang with my friends at school. Compared
(01:35):
to most of my classmates, I wasn't blessed with any
natural talents, and I was very quiet. Like I said,
I was pretty down the middle because I'm a chef. Now,
you might think that things clicked when I wound up
in cooking school at twenty two, but that would be incorrect.
I did have a good feeling about cooking, but I
was so mediocre. In fact, I was just bad. That
one of my classmates actually quit the program because of
(01:57):
my lack of talent. I'm kidding. They told her that
I was going to be a partner for one semester
and that she couldn't switch, so she decided to drop
out then be my partner. I stayed at cooking school
mostly because I had exhausted all other options. It's crazy
to think, but by my mid twenties, I had worked
so many jobs and tried so many things. I'd seen
(02:19):
a good chunk of the world too, Yet I was
convinced that it was all a waste. I looked at
my friends that could not believe how far ahead of
me they were. Maybe some of you know that feeling,
and if you don't, I'll tell you the same thing.
Life begins right about where you are right now. Conventional
wisdom says that college is the time to experiment, but
now is when you can truly accumulate data to your advantage.
(02:44):
This is the moment in your lives to be selfish,
so use it and be smart about it. Welcome all
the heartache, disorientation. Enjoy that you can most of all,
lean into situations that might lead to mistakes. You have
to taste failure so much and so early, so you
know how to deal with it later on when the
(03:04):
stakes are higher. I firmly believe that all of it
eventually comes in handy down the road. In my twenties,
I obviously would have disagreed, no question about that. It
may surprise you to hear that depression is what changed
my mind. I'll try to explain. Around the time I
started cooking, I figured out that I wasn't just programmed
to be a wallflower. My depression I gotten so debilitating
(03:26):
that I finally sought a diagnosis and some help depression
is different for everybody, so I can only speak to
my experience. But during that process, I was able to
look at my life and see that I was luckier
than I thought. Eventually, I asked myself a question, what
can I offer the world? In my case, it was
a restaurant, an idea that I had always bettered around
(03:47):
out of fear, and it would always been so easy
to find reasons not to do it. But strangely enough,
in the darkest moment, I gained unprecedented clarity and I
had to get it off my chest. So I just
said screw it. I opened a tiny noodle bar in
Manhattan called Momo Fubu, the size of a one car garage,
and then I poured myself into that place. In a
(04:09):
way that's difficult to convey. I worked like there was
no tomorrow. I became a different person. Along the way.
I found that I was able to channel all the
memories and frustrations that I had been through and yet
I was too timid to express. And it was astonished
to see how experiences I had once thought were pointless
actually helped me to do my job. All of this
(04:30):
is to say that it's not just about exploring and experiencing.
At some point you have to be in a position
to do something with that data that you've collected. You
have to choose a job, a cause, a project, and
operate as if you have everything and nothing to lose.
Of course, it doesn't take depression to get there, and
sure some of you may already be on your way,
(04:53):
but you will be tested. And this is a long journey.
It's a marathon of marathons, and you will need a
draw upon an endless reserve, a willpower of grit. Hard
work is a great equalizer. It's something I didn't quite
figure out until much later. It's how you'll be able
to meet the thousands of challenges that away, whether it's
(05:13):
humiliation or the apartment bathtub upstairs that's now flooding on
your dining room floor, when there's a critic eating a meal.
On some days, it may feel like it's just too
damn hard, like it's not worth climbing back up that
mountain again. But you have to keep going. It's as
simple as this. Honor your time here. But just as
I urged you to look inward to find yourself, your voice,
(05:35):
and your purpose, I want to tell you that conviction
can also be dangerous, or at least it was for me.
Five or so years into Momofuku, the company had gone
from being an army of one into employing over one people.
Now we have several hundred, and they were all unhappy.
The problem was me. I was miserable to work for
(05:56):
in my fanatical quest, I was blind to those around
on me and their needs. In my little world, all
that matter what was good for me. This somehow had
an immediately affected the quality of our work. But that
luck didn't last forever. Not only did our magic spark dim,
I was more alone than when I graduated college. So
I want to leave you with the greatest piece of
(06:17):
knowledge I've gained so far, an idea we should all
remind ourselves in times like these. It's not about you.
You're going to be happiest, in my opinion, when you
try to be selfless. I hope you're safe, I hope
you're proud of your achievements, and I hope you're going
to get to work so that decades from now you
can take a look around you and say you left
(06:37):
things a little bit better than you found them. Congratulations.
Now the hard work begins. You can find a collection
of incredible commencement addresses from all your favorite speakers at
(06:58):
the Commencement Podcast on radio or wherever you listen to podcasts.
M
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