The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
As we are about to step into the real world, take off on our own journeys, and begin our own lives, I just want to say that I’m honored to be here with you all giving this speech. The last 4 years have been crazy and we all can agree on that. But, no matter how hard life or school got we never gave up.
I’m sure you all know Arnold Schwarzenegger as an actor and bodybuilder, but to me he is one of the greatest speakers alive. One of my favorite quotes of his is, “If you don’t have a vision of where you are going, if you don’t have a goal where to go, you will drift around and will never end up anywhere.” According to a survey in the year 2019 conducted by Gallup, 85% of people admitted they hated their job. One reason for this is because they didn’t follow their goals and aimlessly drifted around from job to job just because they needed the work. This is what happens if you get off track from following your goals and dreams. You may never get back on track and before you know it you are stuck in a job you hate. Do not be one of them! No matter what happens in life, your goals or visions and how you pursue them is what defines your character.
One of the biggest big problems in the world today is that people are too scared to fail in life. But the only way to have a successful life is to fail. After that failure, get right back up and learn from your mistakes. As most of you know, I’m a massive Rocky Balboa fan and I want to share with you one of the best quotes from all of the movies. “The world isn’t always full of sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are.
It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me or nobody will hit as hard as life but it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward, about how much you can take and keep moving forward and that is how winning is done.
You have to be willing to take the hits.” When life sucker punches you, get up in its face and fight back, otherwise life will be miserable.
Michael Jordan once said in one of his interviews when he was told “you’re unbelievable, you’re the greatest Basketball player of all time” Michael Jordan then responded ‘You are just mentioning the successes but for me to become the greatest basketball player, I missed 9000 shots when I was playing basketball in the NBA.”
So during those games where he was so successful he still missed 9000 shots. Does that make him a failure? No, he truly is one of the greatest players of all time but even he failed 9000 times.
Everyone fails in life at one time or another, so it’s ok to fail. Every single one of you is capable of doing great things in life, but you won’t get there if you do not believe in yourself.
The moment you give up on yourself is the moment you fail in life so no matter what, believe in yourself and take control of life before it controls you.
One final topic I would like to talk about is work ethic in life and once again I’m going to share with you a short motivational story that helps me. A young man goes up to a successful old man and he asks:
“Excuse me sir but how did you get so successful in life?"
The old man replied, "If you really want to be successful in life then meet me at the beach at 8 a.m."
So the young man goes to the beach at 8 a.m wearing his suit and tie wondering why he wants to meet here. The old man goes up to the young man and says, “Young man if you really want to be successful in life then walk out into the water”, the young man thinks to himself man this dude is crazy, but he walks out into the water till it gets up to his waist and stops. The old man then yells at him to go farther and the young man walks out till the water is up to his neck. The old man then walks out and holds the young man under water.
After a couple seconds the old man picks him up out of the water and asks him “when you were under water what did you want to do?” The young man said “I wanted to breathe,” the old man then says, “If you want to succeed in life as much as you want to breathe, then that is how you will be successful in life.”
Lastly I would like to share with you all before ending my speech-
One day when Muhammad Ali was training in the gym doing sit-ups a reporter asked, “Muhammad how many sit-ups are you going to do?” Muhammad then replied, "I don’t know because I don’t start counting till it hurts”.
Now I want you all to think about this. He doesn’t start counting till he feels pain. Now that is working hard, and no matter who you are, you will have to put hard work in life.
I wish you all the best of luck for your future.
I believe you all will do great things in life, even if you don’t think so.
I personally believe in every single one of you.
Thank you,
"BJ"
Brady Johnson