We take a moment of a Point of Personal Privilege today. But I think it's more than worthwhile on its own merits. I've mentioned here having a cousin, Andy Elisburg (that branch of the family changed the spelling for a reason too long to go into) who is the General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Miami Heat basketball team in the NBA. Well, a week ago, on May 13, he was given an honorary doctorate from St. Thomas University, and I thought his commencement address was very well-done. Interesting, thoughtful, good stories, some nice quips and an extremely proper length. So, granting myself cousin's rights, here it is. The introduction by the school president David Armstrong is sort of rushed, I think, although the background material is good and worth hearing. Andy's speech starts around the 3:30 mark, and only runs about 7-1/2 minutes. By the way, Andy got the tall genes in the family. That is an especially good thing when you end up making a career in professional basketball. A few things stood out for me. I liked the line about “how that day not only changed my life, but the person I became. That is what an education can do for you.” It looked at education from an uncommon perspective, that it doesn’t just make you smarter and learn things…but changes who you are. We so often hear, “Why do I have to learn arithmetic or history, I’ll never use it,” and this – in one simple phrase – explains that education is about much more than that. What you learn and the process itself affect who you are and who you will become. But my favorite part was about how there is a catch, because there’s always a catch. “Doing something you Love is not a substitute for…” [fill in the blank]. It always bugs me when I hear “Follow your bliss” without the second part of the concept. Yes, absolutely, do something you love…but understand that you must still work at that. By the way, his advice at starting at the bottom for little pay (which I thoroughly agree with – among other things, as you go up the ladder, you learn how to do all the grunt things that most of those at the top never had to know, and it makes you more valuable) is somewhat similar to advice Mark Twain gave – It wasn’t a joke quip, but a serious response he wrote in a letter to someone. The short version was to offer your services for free where you wanted to work. Work very hard, become invaluable. And do that for a limited period of time, at which point you tell your employer you’re ready to move on. Because you’ve done such a good job, other businesses will have come in contact with you and want you to work for them – and your company will not want to lose you. And you’ll get good offers of pay to do what you love doing. Obviously, Twain wrote this at a very different time from today, but the basic concept holds: work at what you want to do, and don’t worry about the starting pay. If you work hard and do a great job, it will be recognized and rewarded. Anyway, again, very good speech. And a wonderful honor.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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