Bill and I thought a lot about what we wanted to say, and we tried to imagine what might be helpful to the graduates, and we came up with a speech about optimism… with a twist. We talked about the times we felt least optimistic….
We urged Stanford’s graduating class to be open to painful encounters. I said to them, “In the course of your lives, you’ll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don’t turn away from it. Turn toward it. “
You don’t have to be graduating to believe you can be that kind of innovator.
We all can. Just embrace your inner nerd,
but do it with empathy.
