Jim VandeHei commencement address: Don't be a loser!
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Jim gives his commencement address at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh last weekend. Screenshot via UWO
Mike Allen writes in Axios Finish Line: Axios CEO Jim VandeHei delivered an entertaining, no-BS commencement address on May 18 at his alma mater, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
- It was funny, inspiring, relatable ... and brief. Here's our Finish Line highlight reel:
I can't believe they're letting me give this commencement address — and not even asking what I'm going to say first. So we'll have some fun.
- Thirty years ago, I was you. Actually, I was a less impressive, probably rowdier version of you. I remember this very day, before I came to this ceremony, doing Jägermeister shots at Kelly's before popping over here.
So all the fidgeting parents are probably like: Why the hell is this guy giving the commencement address? I was able to pull it together, get my head out of my butt, and go on to go to D.C. and help start a couple of companies. I covered the presidency for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
- And the reason I was excited to do this commencement address is I very much want to share with you the things I wish someone had told me 30 years ago.
Secret 1: You're just not that special. You might think you're dazzling. You might think you're a dope. Either way, you're not that special. It doesn't matter if you graduated with a 4.0. Flip side: If you got crappy grades, and don't think that much of yourself right now, welcome to the club, buddy! Now you're in the real world.
- You might think sitting there — and I very much thought this — that because you're from a small town or went to a smaller school, you're at some kind of disadvantage. But knowing what I know now, I would take the UWO work ethic and I would take the street smarts and I would take the attentiveness of your faculty over a Harvard pedigree any day of the week. [Applause.]
Secret 2: We're all faking it. You're going to waste years of your lives thinking that others are better and smarter or cuter than you. Guess what? They're just as messed up as you.
- Life is hard. Life is messy for everyone in different ways. Don't make it harder by comparing yourself to some airbrushed photo on Instagram.
Secret 3: Find a job you'd do for free. This might sound nuts, but you're young, and most likely you're free to go do whatever you want to do. Maniacally pursue something you'd do just for fun.
- The older we get, the amount of time that we spend going to work, at work, bitching about work — it's basically your day. So, you might as well be happy doing what you do.
Secret 4: When crappy things happen, shine. I don't want to bust your bubble, but really bad things are going to happen to you and people you love. It's just part of life. And it's really easy to keep it together when everything's rolling. But when things go bad, shine.
- It's one of the paradoxes of life: The best, most lasting stuff comes in what feels like the darkest of days. Embrace it.
Secret 5: You control you. We live in a society of a bunch of bellyaching and grievances and whining. Don't do that. It's a loser attitude. Don't be a loser! [Applause]
- You get to decide a lot of stuff. You decide: What am I going to read? What am I going to look at? Am I going to work out? Am I going to eat healthy? Am I going to be nice?
Secret 6: Don't be a jerk. And don't hang around with jerks — backbiting, lying, gossiping. Life's too short for that crap.
- If you find yourself in a relationship with a jerk, get out. If your friend's a jerk, run. If you're working for a jerk, apply somewhere else.
Secret 7: Go big. I'm jealous of the world you're going to head into. You're going to head into this world of robots and AI and autonomous vehicles and drones and technology that will probably cure cancer.
- Don't sit there doomscrolling your life away. Plunge in.
Secret 8: You've got to fight for something beyond you. You're growing up in this world that's distrustful, and even disdainful, of religion and proud patriotism and government and, yes, even the media.
- It's tempting to worry about my life, my profile, my feelings, my needs, my reality. Don't. You've got to think about things bigger than yourself.
Secret 9: Never forget your roots. You went to a great college in a great city in a great state in an amazing country. I don't want to get too preachy, but I hate it, hate it, hate it when people dog this country.
- I don't get it. I honestly don't. [Applause.]
This is an amazing place, and it's full of possibility. It's full of ambition. It's full of freedoms. And others envy it. Why do you think people are trying to storm across our southern border? People yearn to be in this country. Don't take that for granted.
- Don't let the haters sap your faith. I'm living proof that you can do anything thanks to the freedoms of democracy and the animal spirits of capitalism.
- Hell, if a middle-of-the-pack guy like me could go on and interview presidents without worrying about getting tossed into jail, like I might if I lived in Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, any other crappy authoritarian regime ... if I could rise to be able to help start a company ... make money off ideas that I have ... write books ... then surely you can do anything — any one of you.
So, don't be a doomscroller. Don't be a whiner. Don't be a cynic.
- And then, 30 years from now, go to Kelly's, come back here, and give your own commencement address.
