May 15, 2020 • 20 mins
In this episode of Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020, Mellody Hobson, president and co-CEO of Ariel Investments and former chairman of DreamWorks Animation, provides real world advice and discusses the importance of valuing time, money, and people. She provides real-world advice that will point graduates toward a more secure financial future.
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Episode Transcript
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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 Melody Hubs in congratulations graduates. Commencement is a major
(00:55):
rite of passage, and I bet you're having all the
fields pride, enjoy in your account, wish mints, appreciation for
those who helped guide you, and disappointment that the ending
came with such an unexpected plot twist. We all know
how graduation is supposed to work. You put on a hot,
scratchy robe, gather with your friends on a sunny day,
(01:15):
ignore the speeches, then toss your cap in the air
and shed a few tears as you drive away. I'm
sorry you don't get to experience this milestone, but here's
what you've got in its place. Perspective. You're breathing. You
acted in a way that protected others, and you sacrificed
for the greater good. In the grand scheme of things.
(01:37):
With the world reeling from the loss of life and
the loss of jobs, missing out on Senior Week probably
looks pretty insignificant. George Lucas once said, every person experiences tragedy.
It's not a question of if, but when. He's right,
And I'm not just saying that because he's my husband.
The class of had a front rows seat to a
(02:00):
universal truth. Bad things happen. COVID nineteen is a massive
health crisis that has triggered a massive financial crisis. It's
just like a natural disaster. Think of an earthquake triggering
a tsunami. It's a heavy time, but don't anchor yourself
to now. I promise this weight will left. And I
(02:24):
know this storm is not hitting everyone the same. It's
a flurry to some and a blizzard to others. To
those who come from families in extreme financial distress, I
feel for you deeply. I have a six year old daughter,
and when I look at her, I can't help but
think what if this had happened when I was her age?
(02:44):
My mother and I might have been living in an
abandoned building. You see, I come from a background of scarcity.
I grew up in Chicago as the youngest of six
to a single mom. I was literally mortified every time
our phone was disconnected, the lights were shut off, or
we got evicted. As a result, I felt a deep,
(03:06):
gnawing need for financial security and to be in control
of my own life. My childhood's circumstances made me desperate
to understand money, not just how to earn it, but
how to budget and how to invest it, how not
to lose it, and how to responsibly give it away.
If I could understand money, I could master it. This
(03:27):
lifelong effort extends way beyond my professional life, and this
quest is what I want to share with you today.
Other commencement addresses focused on following your dreams or changing
the world. Those are lofty ideals, but my childhood forced
me to be brutally pragmatic. That's why I want to
talk about the two most measurable constructs in our culture,
(03:50):
time and money. You've probably heard that time is money.
Well that's actually true. I'm going to show you why
this is one of the most important equations that so
few learn in a classroom. I'm also going to offer
some real world financial advice that could end up changing
your world while you're busy changing the world. In our society,
(04:14):
mentioning money is considered ghost or tacky, although oddly singing
about money is okay. There are so many popular songs
about money. I bet one just popped into your head,
like the O J's money, Money, Money, Money, or maybe
it was more money, more problems, or Kanye telling us
I ain't saying she's a gold digger, or Cardi b
(04:36):
making it clear that she needs cheese on her egg.
If we can sing about money, why can't we talk
about it. Consider all the late night conversations you had
with roommates about crushes, hobbies, sports, music, life. How often
did a serious conversation about investing come up? Probably not
(04:57):
that often. But if we're being honest, money is a
big part of why you attended college in the first place.
It wasn't just to get a good education. There's wealth
in that piece of paper with the fancy font. Not
to mention, there's a direct correlation between a diploma and income.
That's why so many of you went into debt. And
(05:18):
let me assure you of all the debt you can
amass college debt is the best because it usually pays
for itself. So where does this discomfort about the subject
come from. I believe it starts with a lack of knowledge.
Few of us learn about finances at home. When it
comes to conversations with their kids, parents say they would
(05:39):
rather discuss sex and drugs than money. High schools still
offer wood shop classes, but no standard courses in financial literacy.
This makes no sense how many people whittle in their
spare time. These days, schools lecture on everything from responsible
drinking to the miner points of recycling. Now these are
(06:03):
important lessons, but so are finances. Money matters are unavoidable.
There are two constants in life, family and money. Good
luck trying to avoid either. I also think people avoid
talking about money because cash has this reputation for being
cold and hard, But in reality, money stirs deep emotions joy, shame, excitement, greed, anger.
(06:30):
Did you know that financial disputes are the leading cause
of divorce? Humorous Lewis Grizzard once said, instead of getting married,
he was just going to find a woman he didn't
like and give her a house. Let's accept that our
feelings about money will not always be rational to that point,
money has become a polarizing issue in our culture. I've
(06:50):
experienced both poverty and plenty. I've seen the glorification and
vilification of money up close, and I categorically reject both
extra raams. We should not stigmatize those who are struggling,
nor condemn those who are successful. It's so distressing that
a democratic society anchored in capitalism would castigate individuals simply
(07:13):
on the basis of their bank account. If too rich
or too poor is unacceptable, what is just right? In
my view, it's not what you have or don't have,
it's what you do. The o G billionaire Andrew Carnegie
built over twenty five hundred public libraries. The Rockefeller family
(07:34):
hoped fund the discovery of penicillin. More recently, Bill and
Melinda Gates are leading the charts to wipe out malaria
as well as polio, and I want to be clear,
generosity is not just found in the wildly rich. I
love the story about Osceola McCarty, who was born in Mississippi.
In Forced to drop out of school in the sixth grade,
(07:55):
she took in laundry and ironing to support herself in
her stand It family about Seventy years later, Miss McCarty
retired and stunned a local university by donating one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars to fund scholarships. Her generosity became contagious.
Donors added to the fund, pushing it to half a
(08:16):
million dollars. Miss McCarty's actions even inspired CNN founder Ted
Turner to give away a billion dollars. I admire her
charity and also equally amazed by the self restraint that
allowed her to save so much over all of those decades.
She not only understood that time is money, she recognized
(08:37):
that discipline and patience are key to saving and investing.
Which brings me to the five pieces of advice I'd
like to share. Grab your parents because some of this
applies to them. First, Lucky you, you're twenty two. Time
is on your side. Your youth provides the opportunity to
(08:57):
build wealth. This is simple, man. If you don't want
to take my word for it, take Albert Einstein's who
said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
He who understands it earns it. He who doesn't pays it.
One of the tried and trude ways to compound money
is by investing in the stock market. That's not a feeling,
(09:19):
it's a historical fact. Since opening in eighteen ninety six,
there is no twenty five year period when the SMP
five hundred has lost money, not one. Over decades, time
has equalled money. For example, if someone from my graduating
class had committed to putting just one dollar a day,
(09:40):
thirty dollars a month into the stock market, that investment
would be worth just shy a forty thousand dollars. Today,
thirty dollars a month is the equivalent of a soul
cycle class or a couple of Uber rides. One Jimmy
Choo shoe pays for the whole year. If you can
get used to living on less, you can su day
have more. Whatever you start with, the seed will grow. Now.
(10:05):
I went to college when grunge was big and living
small was easier. Trust me, Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vetter,
we're not trying to keep up with the Kardashians. No
one wore nice clothes. Oversized shirts and ripped jeans were everywhere.
There was solidarity in our schlumpiness. We were lucky that
we didn't have today's pressure to look camera ready all
(10:26):
the time. These days, social media promotes the idea that
everyone leads the glamorous life. That's a nod to Sheila e, who,
by the way, played drums sometimes with Prince. It's also
a song that concludes love is forever, while money only
pays the rep which reminds me you're going to need
a place to live. Number two, This advice is for
(10:48):
anyone who landed back home. Maybe your job fell through,
maybe it's safer for you there, maybe you're helping an
elderly family member. We're all improvising these days. But set
a date, perhaps a year from now, or choose a
specific age, and pledge to yourself right now that after
that date you will not ask your parents for money. Wait,
(11:13):
I think I can actually hear your parents applotting right now. Now.
Going home wasn't an option for me. My graduation gift
from my mom was two outfits from Ann Taylor to
replace the grunge, and from that point on I was
on my own. Every decision was mine to make scary sure,
liberating that too. I had a sense of independence, which
(11:36):
turned into a sense of accomplishment that many of my
peers didn't have. So set a firm date to become
responsible for everything, everything except maybe your health insurance. Write
it down and start to make a plan. Do this
for your parents and for yourself. I promise it will
give you a new appreciation for the sacrifices others have
(11:58):
made for you. It will also teach you to value
money in a very different way. Three. This is a
story about a very special couch. After working at Ariel
for a few years, I'd saved enough money to buy
my first apartment. It was an eight and fifty square
foot one bedroom in a great location. I put down
(12:19):
everything I had in order to get approved for a
mortgage that left no money for furniture. Still, I had
my eye on a couch, a really nice couch. I
started to save up. I talked about this couch so
much that my friends started rooting for me to hit
my goal. Couch in nine became a running joke. It
(12:40):
wasn't easy. I'd be so close to having the money,
and then a friend would ask me to donate to
a worthy cause. I'd pony up and secretly think to myself,
but my couch. It never dawned on me to just
buy furniture on credit. In my mind, I had to
pay cash. Eventually I saved enough. I bought my cherished couch,
(13:01):
and since I lived near my office, I go visit
my sofa at lunchtime. True story. I'd lay on it
or stand across the room and just look at it.
It was the only thing in the living room. I
valued that couch because it helped me to understand the
direct relationship between spending money and earning it. Some call
(13:22):
credit cards weapons of mass destruction because you can spend
money you don't have. Doing the map taught me to
avoid credit card debt. Minimums should never be the baseline.
They should be the worst case scenario. Otherwise the interests
can be really expensive. My recommendation to you is to
(13:43):
only have one credit card and always know the balance
as well as the interest rate. If you have already
collected several cards, try playing a game of rock plastic scissors.
Don't fall into the buy it now, pay for it later. Trap.
I don't think I can enjoy a vacation if I
knew I'd be paying it off two years after I
(14:03):
watched my last sunset on the beach. Everything worth having
is worth waiting for. I mean everything. A great soup
fla takes about an hour. A healthy baby about nine months.
My beloved couch took me about two years. One trick
that helped me figure out the value of a purchase
was to look beyond the price. Instead of just considering
(14:25):
the numbers on a tag, I would calculate how many
hours or days I'd have to work to pay for
any item or experience. This told me how much I
had to bleed for something, a perspective that changed how
I valued everything I bought. Financial literacy starts with awareness.
Do you know your monthly cell phone bill? How much
money is in your wallet? You're checking account. If you don't,
(14:49):
you're stunting your own financial growth, which brings me to
number four. Even in normal times, a lot of graduates
face uncertainty about the future. But this year, as we
all know, is one for the record books. For those
of you who lost your job or your internship, or
we're planning to travel, you probably feel a drift in
(15:10):
this unexpected free time. But time isn't free, it's valuable.
I watched my six year old and she's always exploring.
She's in first grade. In addition to being fluent in Chinese,
she now also studies Spanish. Over the past two months,
when not engaged in her daily distance learning, she's been
learning to knit, play checkers, write a scooter. If this
(15:34):
were a resume, we would say she's expanding her skill set.
You can do the exact same thing. Up until now.
You've been in a structured environment, finishing assignments while professors
assessed your work. What will you do now when no
one is looking. It takes discipline to create your own structure.
It's also quite exciting. Maybe you are a little disappointed
(15:57):
that you never got to take a computer pro gramming course.
Find an online class and do it now. Learn photoshop,
keep studying a foreign language, Write a novel, or at
least read a novel. Devote time to becoming more financially literate.
Little use this time to explore, absorb, and be productive.
(16:19):
When my husband was starting out, he made a pact
with himself to do one thing every day that further
to his goal of becoming a director. He would meet someone,
or study the construction of a scene, or watch a
movie and dissect what made it good or bad. Try
sitting goals that you can work towards every day. Wasting
time is like wasting money. This found time can offer
(16:43):
a remarkable opportunity if you seize it, and if you don't,
I guarantee there's someone else getting ahead while you're standing still.
Number five, America is the most charitable nation in the world.
That's obvious from all the fundraising campaigns and email that
we get asking for help. Now, supporting a charity financially
(17:04):
might not be realistic for you. I get it, but
once again, you can substitute money with time. My niece
is a public school teacher. She told me that after
finishing her online classes, she feels compelled to do additional
tutoring with kids who are struggling without a classroom structure.
She said, the days are really hard, but the kids
(17:25):
need us. There are things you can do from home,
calling the elderly, writing postcards to remind people to vote,
helping out on a crisis hotline. Put yourself out there
and you'll discover kindness is its own currency, except unlike money,
it compounds the more you spend it. I hope all
this money talk wasn't too awkward. I hope it also
(17:48):
inspires you to start a conversation with family and friends.
I promise it's not tacky, it's necessary. Peace of mind
does not come from the amount of money you have,
but from the amount of knowledge you have to make
wise decisions. And if you just do a couple of
these things, it will make a huge difference over the
(18:09):
long term. My dream is that you get to have
everything you need and want. That may not mean your
own island, although if you really want one and you're
willing to work for it, I said, go for it.
And here's one final thought. Every college graduate has to
make an adjustment from school to real life. It just
(18:29):
so happens you're doing it at a time when we're
all adjusting. We didn't have a choice to accept this challenge,
but we do have a choice to make the most
of it. I've talked about valuing money, and I've also
talked about valuing time. One bright spot to this crisis
is that it reminds us to value people. We're ap
plodding first responders, waiving at bus drivers, thanking postal workers,
(18:54):
cheering for nurses. Many of those who were routinely ignored
are now fully a pre cate it. We understand that
the worker stocking the grocery shelf is essential. We now
truly see the checkout person. Of course, this lesson comes
at a terrible price. It also comes at a pivotal
moment in your lives, which means there's a greater chance
(19:16):
you'll hold onto it like the depression Arab babies who
internalized they use it up, wear it out. Mantra let
the ability to appreciate every soul become a part of you.
Cherish humanity, yours and others. If we can all hold
on to this perspective, we will have gained something from
this pandemic which has taken so much, including your commencement ceremony.
(19:41):
I end by wishing you good luck and a good life.
You can find the collection of incredible commencement addresses from
all your faith at speakers at the Commencement Podcast on
(20:02):
I Heart 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 Melody Hubs in congratulations graduates. Commencement is a major
(00:55):
rite of passage, and I bet you're having all the
fields pride, enjoy in your account, wish mints, appreciation for
those who helped guide you, and disappointment that the ending
came with such an unexpected plot twist. We all know
how graduation is supposed to work. You put on a hot,
scratchy robe, gather with your friends on a sunny day,
(01:15):
ignore the speeches, then toss your cap in the air
and shed a few tears as you drive away. I'm
sorry you don't get to experience this milestone, but here's
what you've got in its place. Perspective. You're breathing. You
acted in a way that protected others, and you sacrificed
for the greater good. In the grand scheme of things.
(01:37):
With the world reeling from the loss of life and
the loss of jobs, missing out on Senior Week probably
looks pretty insignificant. George Lucas once said, every person experiences tragedy.
It's not a question of if, but when. He's right,
And I'm not just saying that because he's my husband.
The class of had a front rows seat to a
(02:00):
universal truth. Bad things happen. COVID nineteen is a massive
health crisis that has triggered a massive financial crisis. It's
just like a natural disaster. Think of an earthquake triggering
a tsunami. It's a heavy time, but don't anchor yourself
to now. I promise this weight will left. And I
(02:24):
know this storm is not hitting everyone the same. It's
a flurry to some and a blizzard to others. To
those who come from families in extreme financial distress, I
feel for you deeply. I have a six year old daughter,
and when I look at her, I can't help but
think what if this had happened when I was her age?
(02:44):
My mother and I might have been living in an
abandoned building. You see, I come from a background of scarcity.
I grew up in Chicago as the youngest of six
to a single mom. I was literally mortified every time
our phone was disconnected, the lights were shut off, or
we got evicted. As a result, I felt a deep,
(03:06):
gnawing need for financial security and to be in control
of my own life. My childhood's circumstances made me desperate
to understand money, not just how to earn it, but
how to budget and how to invest it, how not
to lose it, and how to responsibly give it away.
If I could understand money, I could master it. This
(03:27):
lifelong effort extends way beyond my professional life, and this
quest is what I want to share with you today.
Other commencement addresses focused on following your dreams or changing
the world. Those are lofty ideals, but my childhood forced
me to be brutally pragmatic. That's why I want to
talk about the two most measurable constructs in our culture,
(03:50):
time and money. You've probably heard that time is money.
Well that's actually true. I'm going to show you why
this is one of the most important equations that so
few learn in a classroom. I'm also going to offer
some real world financial advice that could end up changing
your world while you're busy changing the world. In our society,
(04:14):
mentioning money is considered ghost or tacky, although oddly singing
about money is okay. There are so many popular songs
about money. I bet one just popped into your head,
like the O J's money, Money, Money, Money, or maybe
it was more money, more problems, or Kanye telling us
I ain't saying she's a gold digger, or Cardi b
(04:36):
making it clear that she needs cheese on her egg.
If we can sing about money, why can't we talk
about it. Consider all the late night conversations you had
with roommates about crushes, hobbies, sports, music, life. How often
did a serious conversation about investing come up? Probably not
(04:57):
that often. But if we're being honest, money is a
big part of why you attended college in the first place.
It wasn't just to get a good education. There's wealth
in that piece of paper with the fancy font. Not
to mention, there's a direct correlation between a diploma and income.
That's why so many of you went into debt. And
(05:18):
let me assure you of all the debt you can
amass college debt is the best because it usually pays
for itself. So where does this discomfort about the subject
come from. I believe it starts with a lack of knowledge.
Few of us learn about finances at home. When it
comes to conversations with their kids, parents say they would
(05:39):
rather discuss sex and drugs than money. High schools still
offer wood shop classes, but no standard courses in financial literacy.
This makes no sense how many people whittle in their
spare time. These days, schools lecture on everything from responsible
drinking to the miner points of recycling. Now these are
(06:03):
important lessons, but so are finances. Money matters are unavoidable.
There are two constants in life, family and money. Good
luck trying to avoid either. I also think people avoid
talking about money because cash has this reputation for being
cold and hard, But in reality, money stirs deep emotions joy, shame, excitement, greed, anger.
(06:30):
Did you know that financial disputes are the leading cause
of divorce? Humorous Lewis Grizzard once said, instead of getting married,
he was just going to find a woman he didn't
like and give her a house. Let's accept that our
feelings about money will not always be rational to that point,
money has become a polarizing issue in our culture. I've
(06:50):
experienced both poverty and plenty. I've seen the glorification and
vilification of money up close, and I categorically reject both
extra raams. We should not stigmatize those who are struggling,
nor condemn those who are successful. It's so distressing that
a democratic society anchored in capitalism would castigate individuals simply
(07:13):
on the basis of their bank account. If too rich
or too poor is unacceptable, what is just right? In
my view, it's not what you have or don't have,
it's what you do. The o G billionaire Andrew Carnegie
built over twenty five hundred public libraries. The Rockefeller family
(07:34):
hoped fund the discovery of penicillin. More recently, Bill and
Melinda Gates are leading the charts to wipe out malaria
as well as polio, and I want to be clear,
generosity is not just found in the wildly rich. I
love the story about Osceola McCarty, who was born in Mississippi.
In Forced to drop out of school in the sixth grade,
(07:55):
she took in laundry and ironing to support herself in
her stand It family about Seventy years later, Miss McCarty
retired and stunned a local university by donating one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars to fund scholarships. Her generosity became contagious.
Donors added to the fund, pushing it to half a
(08:16):
million dollars. Miss McCarty's actions even inspired CNN founder Ted
Turner to give away a billion dollars. I admire her
charity and also equally amazed by the self restraint that
allowed her to save so much over all of those decades.
She not only understood that time is money, she recognized
(08:37):
that discipline and patience are key to saving and investing.
Which brings me to the five pieces of advice I'd
like to share. Grab your parents because some of this
applies to them. First, Lucky you, you're twenty two. Time
is on your side. Your youth provides the opportunity to
(08:57):
build wealth. This is simple, man. If you don't want
to take my word for it, take Albert Einstein's who
said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
He who understands it earns it. He who doesn't pays it.
One of the tried and trude ways to compound money
is by investing in the stock market. That's not a feeling,
(09:19):
it's a historical fact. Since opening in eighteen ninety six,
there is no twenty five year period when the SMP
five hundred has lost money, not one. Over decades, time
has equalled money. For example, if someone from my graduating
class had committed to putting just one dollar a day,
(09:40):
thirty dollars a month into the stock market, that investment
would be worth just shy a forty thousand dollars. Today,
thirty dollars a month is the equivalent of a soul
cycle class or a couple of Uber rides. One Jimmy
Choo shoe pays for the whole year. If you can
get used to living on less, you can su day
have more. Whatever you start with, the seed will grow. Now.
(10:05):
I went to college when grunge was big and living
small was easier. Trust me, Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vetter,
we're not trying to keep up with the Kardashians. No
one wore nice clothes. Oversized shirts and ripped jeans were everywhere.
There was solidarity in our schlumpiness. We were lucky that
we didn't have today's pressure to look camera ready all
(10:26):
the time. These days, social media promotes the idea that
everyone leads the glamorous life. That's a nod to Sheila e, who,
by the way, played drums sometimes with Prince. It's also
a song that concludes love is forever, while money only
pays the rep which reminds me you're going to need
a place to live. Number two, This advice is for
(10:48):
anyone who landed back home. Maybe your job fell through,
maybe it's safer for you there, maybe you're helping an
elderly family member. We're all improvising these days. But set
a date, perhaps a year from now, or choose a
specific age, and pledge to yourself right now that after
that date you will not ask your parents for money. Wait,
(11:13):
I think I can actually hear your parents applotting right now. Now.
Going home wasn't an option for me. My graduation gift
from my mom was two outfits from Ann Taylor to
replace the grunge, and from that point on I was
on my own. Every decision was mine to make scary sure,
liberating that too. I had a sense of independence, which
(11:36):
turned into a sense of accomplishment that many of my
peers didn't have. So set a firm date to become
responsible for everything, everything except maybe your health insurance. Write
it down and start to make a plan. Do this
for your parents and for yourself. I promise it will
give you a new appreciation for the sacrifices others have
(11:58):
made for you. It will also teach you to value
money in a very different way. Three. This is a
story about a very special couch. After working at Ariel
for a few years, I'd saved enough money to buy
my first apartment. It was an eight and fifty square
foot one bedroom in a great location. I put down
(12:19):
everything I had in order to get approved for a
mortgage that left no money for furniture. Still, I had
my eye on a couch, a really nice couch. I
started to save up. I talked about this couch so
much that my friends started rooting for me to hit
my goal. Couch in nine became a running joke. It
(12:40):
wasn't easy. I'd be so close to having the money,
and then a friend would ask me to donate to
a worthy cause. I'd pony up and secretly think to myself,
but my couch. It never dawned on me to just
buy furniture on credit. In my mind, I had to
pay cash. Eventually I saved enough. I bought my cherished couch,
(13:01):
and since I lived near my office, I go visit
my sofa at lunchtime. True story. I'd lay on it
or stand across the room and just look at it.
It was the only thing in the living room. I
valued that couch because it helped me to understand the
direct relationship between spending money and earning it. Some call
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credit cards weapons of mass destruction because you can spend
money you don't have. Doing the map taught me to
avoid credit card debt. Minimums should never be the baseline.
They should be the worst case scenario. Otherwise the interests
can be really expensive. My recommendation to you is to
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only have one credit card and always know the balance
as well as the interest rate. If you have already
collected several cards, try playing a game of rock plastic scissors.
Don't fall into the buy it now, pay for it later. Trap.
I don't think I can enjoy a vacation if I
knew I'd be paying it off two years after I
(14:03):
watched my last sunset on the beach. Everything worth having
is worth waiting for. I mean everything. A great soup
fla takes about an hour. A healthy baby about nine months.
My beloved couch took me about two years. One trick
that helped me figure out the value of a purchase
was to look beyond the price. Instead of just considering
(14:25):
the numbers on a tag, I would calculate how many
hours or days I'd have to work to pay for
any item or experience. This told me how much I
had to bleed for something, a perspective that changed how
I valued everything I bought. Financial literacy starts with awareness.
Do you know your monthly cell phone bill? How much
money is in your wallet? You're checking account. If you don't,
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you're stunting your own financial growth, which brings me to
number four. Even in normal times, a lot of graduates
face uncertainty about the future. But this year, as we
all know, is one for the record books. For those
of you who lost your job or your internship, or
we're planning to travel, you probably feel a drift in
(15:10):
this unexpected free time. But time isn't free, it's valuable.
I watched my six year old and she's always exploring.
She's in first grade. In addition to being fluent in Chinese,
she now also studies Spanish. Over the past two months,
when not engaged in her daily distance learning, she's been
learning to knit, play checkers, write a scooter. If this
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were a resume, we would say she's expanding her skill set.
You can do the exact same thing. Up until now.
You've been in a structured environment, finishing assignments while professors
assessed your work. What will you do now when no
one is looking. It takes discipline to create your own structure.
It's also quite exciting. Maybe you are a little disappointed
(15:57):
that you never got to take a computer pro gramming course.
Find an online class and do it now. Learn photoshop,
keep studying a foreign language, Write a novel, or at
least read a novel. Devote time to becoming more financially literate.
Little use this time to explore, absorb, and be productive.
(16:19):
When my husband was starting out, he made a pact
with himself to do one thing every day that further
to his goal of becoming a director. He would meet someone,
or study the construction of a scene, or watch a
movie and dissect what made it good or bad. Try
sitting goals that you can work towards every day. Wasting
time is like wasting money. This found time can offer
(16:43):
a remarkable opportunity if you seize it, and if you don't,
I guarantee there's someone else getting ahead while you're standing still.
Number five, America is the most charitable nation in the world.
That's obvious from all the fundraising campaigns and email that
we get asking for help. Now, supporting a charity financially
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might not be realistic for you. I get it, but
once again, you can substitute money with time. My niece
is a public school teacher. She told me that after
finishing her online classes, she feels compelled to do additional
tutoring with kids who are struggling without a classroom structure.
She said, the days are really hard, but the kids
(17:25):
need us. There are things you can do from home,
calling the elderly, writing postcards to remind people to vote,
helping out on a crisis hotline. Put yourself out there
and you'll discover kindness is its own currency, except unlike money,
it compounds the more you spend it. I hope all
this money talk wasn't too awkward. I hope it also
(17:48):
inspires you to start a conversation with family and friends.
I promise it's not tacky, it's necessary. Peace of mind
does not come from the amount of money you have,
but from the amount of knowledge you have to make
wise decisions. And if you just do a couple of
these things, it will make a huge difference over the
(18:09):
long term. My dream is that you get to have
everything you need and want. That may not mean your
own island, although if you really want one and you're
willing to work for it, I said, go for it.
And here's one final thought. Every college graduate has to
make an adjustment from school to real life. It just
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so happens you're doing it at a time when we're
all adjusting. We didn't have a choice to accept this challenge,
but we do have a choice to make the most
of it. I've talked about valuing money, and I've also
talked about valuing time. One bright spot to this crisis
is that it reminds us to value people. We're ap
plodding first responders, waiving at bus drivers, thanking postal workers,
(18:54):
cheering for nurses. Many of those who were routinely ignored
are now fully a pre cate it. We understand that
the worker stocking the grocery shelf is essential. We now
truly see the checkout person. Of course, this lesson comes
at a terrible price. It also comes at a pivotal
moment in your lives, which means there's a greater chance
(19:16):
you'll hold onto it like the depression Arab babies who
internalized they use it up, wear it out. Mantra let
the ability to appreciate every soul become a part of you.
Cherish humanity, yours and others. If we can all hold
on to this perspective, we will have gained something from
this pandemic which has taken so much, including your commencement ceremony.
(19:41):
I end by wishing you good luck and a good life.
You can find the collection of incredible commencement addresses from
all your faith at speakers at the Commencement Podcast on
(20:02):
I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to podcasts. M
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