Fareed Zakaria's Commencement Speech

I heard Fareed Zakaria speak at the Oberlin College Graduation. It was very inspiring...if I can find the entire text, I will add it. Until then, here are a few excerpts.....also, he is hosting a new weekly news international CNN/US and CNN/International show that airs for the first time this Sunday at noon EST. Given his commencement speech, it should be a very worthwhile show.

"Do what you love....

So if I have any lesson from my career, it is to stay open to exploration and discovery. And I don’t mean that just in a professional sense. I mean that personally too. Don’t block off the unfamiliar. Stay open to new people, new ideas, new experiences, new possibilities, new cultures, new ways of doing things, and you will grow, in your mind and in your heart. These new things may come from anywhere: from a professor, a poem, a child, a colleague, a New York cab driver. Yeah, even that guy, who had the energy and ambition to travel 6,000 miles, and is working 16-hour days and knows two languages — well, three if you count English — he has something to teach you. You can learn something from anyone.

It is easier to stick with the road well traveled and to close yourself off to something that is strange or unsettling. It may even be the right path for you. But stay open to the possibilities out there. For countries and for people: stay open, and you will grow stronger and more resilient.

If you want to make a good life, human beings will probably respect and reward those talents that they have always honored — intelligence and hard work, discipline and cooperation, honesty and courage, and perhaps above all, love and faith and hope. If you can embrace these qualities of mind and spirit, people will honor you as they have honored men and women for thousands of years."