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Thank you very much for the honor of speaking to you, the future leaders of our
community. Congratulations to all the graduates. Whether you realize now or not, your successful
graduation today is a cumulative achievement shared by you, your family and your community.
We should all celebrate it.
I was asked to speak today because your scheduled presenter was unable to be here. So I'm sorry
to say but you're stuck with the 2nd string presenter ;) I only had a couple days to prepare
for this presentation and I'm approaching 30 now so I'm a little out of touch with your
generation. So I decided to ask some of my younger friends and relatives what they would
want to hear about. The consensus was "what I wished I knew in high school" - so that
will be the theme of our discussion today - I hope you approve.
But first let me start by telling you a little about myself because I know that if I was
in the audience I would be wondering who the heck is this Dude talking? My name is Travis
Stoliker. I grew up and graduated from Holt. Attended LCC and got my bachelors from Northwood.
I'm the Son of a UAW tool and die maker for Generous Mortors (as my grandmother called
them) and my mother is a Realtor. I've traveled to a few places in the world as a product
manager for the software company, TechSmith. Worked for WILX Channel 10. And now I am the
Marketing and Sales director for Liquid Web. A web hosting company in Lansing. I've started
my own company - that failed. I've been nearly fired from jobs for refusing to shave my beard
and I had my neck cut by a hockey skate during my senior year in highschool. --- That experienced
changed my life - and I want to start this speech by telling you why.
On Christmas break in 2007 my hockey team headed to Saginaw to play in a weekend tournament.
I was playing center and one of my chief responsibilities was to keep the front of the goal cleared
so that the goalie could see the puck at all times. As I was pushing the opposing teams
player from the front of our net, he fell and the edge of his hockey skate cut a 6 inch
long - very deep, cut in my neck. I lost a tremendous amount of blood and had to be rushed
by ambulance for emergency surgery. I was awake through the surgery when the doctor
told me I was a quarter inch away from dying .
That experience completely changed my perception on life, forever. I began to question every
assumption that I had formed about life. I found a new thirst for life and I wanted to
experience everything.
It took a near death experience to wake me up and call my attention to the incredible
amount of possibilities we are all capable of pursuing. It made me realize that my life
didn't have to be a random collection of events which I passively observed from the sideline.
I started to realize that - You can make your life. You can choose to be great. You can
choose to achieve your goals. But you can only do that if you make a choice. It doesn't
matter much what you choose, it only matters that you make a choice. Do you choose to be
great? Are you capable of what that takes?
One of my favorite authors, Malcom Gladwell, has a new book out called Outliers which demonstrates
that most of the successful people in the world have one unifying trait in common -
ten thousand hours of experience in their field.
So I ask you now - If you knew that you could be the best at anything that you wanted to
be - would you invest the ten thousand hours in it? Many of us want to be great - but we
are unwilling to do the work.
I am begging you. Please, make a choice. Choose to be great. If you are willing to do the
work, you are guaranteed success.
For all intents and purposes, today is the beginning of your adult life. Up until this
point your parents, your society, even the law pretty much mandates that you get to this
point. After high school is when it becomes your decision. It is the start of your adult
life. Are you going to choose to be great? Or are you going to watch your life from the
sideline?
So that is the first thing that I would have liked to know in High school - if I choose
to be great today, I am guaranteed success.
I sound a bit like a optimist right now and a lot like a liar. I'm not saying it's going
to be easy. I'm not going to be one of the people that tell you everyone is equal and
you all have the same chance at success. The reality is that some of the people in this
room are more intelligent than others, some are more attractive, some are more popular
and some are going to be more successful.
I am not saying it's going to be easy for everyone - what I am saying is that if you
want to change something - with enough time - you can change anything.
The second thing that I wished I had known in high school is - Failure is okay but results
matter.
One of my married friends was talking the other day about their kids soccer team and
how they don't keep score anymore. They want to encourage the children to play for the
love of the sport and not be focused on competing with the other team. They don't want any of
the children to feel like they lost. -- We have a tendency to do that in society now.
We try to pretend like failure doesn't exist. We pretend like everyone is a winner - all
the time. This isn't just prevalent for children. It is pervasive throughout our society. If
a company fails - we bail it out. If our school can't pass MEAP, we lower the threshold. If
our government lies to get us into a war, we are complacent. Our society has decided
to ignore failure. To pretend like we cannot learn from our mistakes.
I am here to tell you that the most memorable learning experiences in your life will be
your failures and the most successful people in the world are the ones that are not scared
to risk failure over and over and over!
Failure is okay. Failure is the result of risk and risk is the only way to attain reward.
Do not let your failures distract you. Accept them - learn from them - and move on. You
will be better for it, I assure you. Do not think you are a failure simply because one
of your ideas was.
That leads me to my third point - have ideas - not beliefs.
Beliefs are hard to change, but idea's can flex with time and evidence. Beliefs are things
that get people burned at the steak. Beliefs are what make people hate without logic.
Ideas on the other hand can change the world. Ideas are what make you great. Ideas can change
with time. Ideas can be discussed. Idea's can be shared.