This is a speech I gave for a graduate program in the Winter of 2020 right about the time as COVID was kicking off. It may have been my last public appearance for a couple years. … I thought it appropriate to put in blog and podcast form during these special times.
I am going to do what no other teacher has asked you to do during a lecture … day dream
Close your eyes and place your hands flat on the table in front of you. Imagine that you are in an old meeting room at a Country Club, or maybe a the Michigan Law Library.
The table you are feeling is made out of a rich mahogany, and the surface is polished with an oil that has made the top remarkably smooth.
Now take a deep breath in and let it out slowly… there is a faint smell of stale cigar smoke in the air, and as you let your breath out you sink deeper into the soft leather club chair you are seated in
Open your eyes, It is 1916, you are part of the graduating class at the University of Michigan. You look to your left and to your right, and you know that 1/3rd of these men will soon be going off to fight WWI, the War that will end all Wars.
Your mind is now beginning to wander. And you start asking yourself the deep questions.
What has the World come to?
Looking back at the last 100-years in America, during this century, America has grown from a simple country of farmers to a major industrial nation.
The country now spans from Ocean to Ocean. With 48 Contiguous States in the country, you see no further room for growth.
The ingenuity of this past century has given us a transcontinental railroad, the automobile, and the airplane. People can travel from coast-to-coast in hours instead of weeks.
The US has been blessed innovation leaders such as; Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, JP Morgan, Bell, Edison and Rockefeller. The radio & telephone are now replacing mail, and the telegraph, and information is spreading faster than it ever has in history!
Sitting here in these soft leather club chairs, you are starting to speculate if this may be as good as it gets.
How can this generation ever repeat what the previous ones have?
Is the American Dream really achievable?
This is the generation that won WWI, and made it through the Great Depression, their Children would go on to win WWII.
Fast forward to 1946.
America and their Allies had just won the War that would end all wars. Nuclear weapons have been used for the first time, Europe was in shambles and needed to be re-built.
Could this be the end of the world as we know it?
Flash ahead to the mid-60’s
I am a 5 year old in a Detroit Suburb, and standing there with my Mother I see a tank driving down the street to protect our neighborhood from the riots that are a less than 2 miles away. One year later, I walk into the kitchen to see my mother crying as she listens intently to the radio and hearing that Bobby Kennedy has died overnight from an assassin’s bullet.
Although I was too young by a few years, my friends had older brothers that went off to Vietnam and never came back.
In the 70’s, I was given the opportunity wait in gas lines, and listened to the Watergate hearings on their car radios. Later in the decade, we would face unemployment of 12% and Inflation of 15%. And Americans were held hostage by an upstart nation of Iran for 444 days.
My generation faced a lot of adversity; most of our them didn’t believe the American Dream was possible. Over half of my high school graduation class left Michigan, leaving the rust belt behind, in pursuit of their dreams in Texas and other parts of the country. This is the generation that, ended the Cold War, created the Internet, and are working on DNA Mapping
Personally, I’ve worked all over the World, moving from that 800 Sq foot house on the Eastside of Detroit all the way to a board room of a Fortune 500 Company. Each decade our emerging adults get to look back and wonder, how can we do what previous generations have? How can we obtain the American Dream?
The operative word is “dream”. We don’t dream of things that have been achieved, we dream of things that haven’t been attempted yet. Each generation is offered challenges that are new. Each challenge is an opportunity. It is their responsibility and requirement to find solutions to them.
When you solve problems, big or small, opportunities for growth are also created.
We can learn a lot from our past. But the one thing we cannot learn is how far we can go. Or how far we have yet to go.
If the dream was truly unattainable, that would indicate that all problems, past, present, and future had been solved.
How many in this room, are that confident?
Yet in a 2014 CNN Poll, more than ½ of Americans believed the American dream was either dead or dying.
In 2016 a Washington Post Poll has 48% of Millennial’s believing that the American Dream is not achievable.
Each of the innovations over these past 200 years have created new industries that have attended to the needs of hundreds of millions of people.
I do agree, we will not invent a ‘new airplane’ industry, but we have recently invented a new transportation company called UBER.
I contend that Bell invented the Telephone, but we all agree that Apple re-engineered it and has created a new category for communication.
Henry Ford launched his famous Model T in 1908, and now we find Tesla is doing it without gasoline, and soon someone will be launching one without a driver!
Look at the world now, and try to look through the fog of the current issues, problems, and conflicts. There are roadblocks for sure, they may slow us down, but they will not stop the American Dream, Ingenuity, Exceptionalism or Desire.
Where will you fit it
What will this group be part of in the future?
Will it find the cure for cancer?
Will you be part of a team that puts a human on Mars?
Will you help negotiate a lasting peace that hasn’t been possible in 1,500 years?
It is very difficult to see through the smoke of today’s conflicts, viruses, and problems to believe that there is a brighter future. If that is the case, then listen to what JP Morgan so eloquently said,
“Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will be able to see further”
All man-made problems have man made solutions. Nothing we are facing today can stop YOU from dreaming and meeting your goals. If you truly believe and want to have your version of the American Dream, then you will achieve it.
Whether you dream of billions, cures for cancer, a happy family, security, or anything else is up to you. Every single thing, started with a dream. Create your dream, find your compelling reason to achieve that dream, set the goal, make the plan, and then work the plan.
“Purpose is the bridge between Dreams and Goals”
When life gets in the way, remember again, that you can only go as far as you can see. When you get to a corner, look around it, don’t think that it’s the end of your path.
Never compare yourself to others or other generations.
You only compare yourself to YOU, YESTERDAY! And then question yourself:
Are you moving along at a pace that you are happy with?
Are you on your plan?
Are you meeting your goals?
Are you working on you every day?
If those answers are yes, then you not only will achieve the dream, “you’ll be living it” … When someone asks you if you believe in the American dream - Remember what Henry Ford said:
Whether you believe you can, or believe you can’t, you are right!
Comparing yourself or your business to ...