Graduation Speeches

How do you write a good graduation speech?

Commencement | Graduation speeches aim to impart wisdom to students moving on to the next stage of their life. Traditionally they contain words of wisdom | life lessons – to be ready for whatever comes your way | insights of how to live a good life – to be happy (sometimes successful) | what to worry about and what not to worry about. Often when preparing a speech, you ask ‘what would I wanted to know when I was 18?’

So, what separates good speeches from the poor?

TOP TIPS on writing a graduation speech

"About all a commencement speaker can really do is to suggest a couple of things that she believes really matters." (Sue Monk Kidd, Best Selling Author, Scripps College)

“So, on this beautiful day, before these eager, wild-eyed graduates, I want to share a few stories and the lessons they have taught me when I faced tough times, when I stumbled, and when there has been an extreme rare occasion that I’ve made a mistake. “ (Rahm Emanuel, Politician, George Washington University)

  • Decide a theme. Graduation Wisdom is a great website which has collected the following 15 most common themes. Each theme comes with quotes from specific speeches.
    1.  Figure out who you are
    2.  Trust yourself
    3.  Do not let others define who you are
    4.  About those big dreams
    5.  Take initiative and get in the game
    6.  Be as persistant as you can be
    7.  Learn to fail or fail to learn
    8.  You do not need to be perfect
    9.  Use your imagination and your creativity
    10. Remind yourself to be present
    11. If you think you can, you can
    12. Nudge yourself to take more risks
    13. If you cannot embrace change, at least give it a hug once in a while
    14. Work hard and keep walking the road
    15. Try selflessness and give back
  • Speak from the heart, with emotion, passion and enthusiasm.
  • Illustrate with (personal) stories. Use metaphor | anecdotes | well-chosen quotes. Stories have the power to speak to peoples' hearts and gain empathy.
  • Keep it short - preferably around 10 minutes in order to hold the attention of the audience.
  • Include a local reference - know your context and make a specific personal reference to it.
  • Thank and congratulate the right people by their roles and names.
  • Repeat the main message throughout to make it stick.
  • End with a memorable statement | quote that captures the essence of the whole speech.

Great speeches

I have divided the following examples into specific categories.

Category 1: Key themes illustrated by personal stories

Structuring your speech around a small number of themes that are then illustrated with personal anecdotes can be a powerful way of delivering a message. The themes are introduced early on in the speech.

Two examples of such a style are Steve Job's speech to Stanford University (2005) and JK Rowling's speech at Harvard (2008).

STEVE JOB: How to live before you die

In his commencement speech to students at Stanford University Steve Job, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, tells three personal stories about his life. In this video he urges us to pursue our dreams and see the opportunities in life's setbacks -- including death itself.

In it he draws out three lessons for life.

The three lessons are:

  1. Join the dots - you can only connect the dots looking backwards, but believe that the dots will connect down the road.
  2. Love and loss - sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick - don't lose faith: find what you love and do what you believe is great work.
  3. Live each day as if it were your last. Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life - have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Reference: A transcript of his speech can be found HERE.

JK ROWLING - learn from failure and imagine

Author JK Rowling gave the Harvard commencement speech in 2008. In it she reflected on what she would have wished to know when she was 21 and what lessons she had learnt in the subsequent 21 years of her life. She drew out two key themes: embrace failure | imagine and empathise with the needs of others.

Reference: Excerpts from her speech can be found HERE.

Category 2: Rules for life

Traditionally graduation speeches contain words of wisdom on how to live life well. These 'rules for life' are often illustrated with personal stories and | or quotes from famous people.

“Do one thing at a time. Give each experience all your attention. Try to resist being distracted by other sights and sounds, other thoughts and tasks, and when it is, guide your mind back to what you're doing.” (John Walsh)

In this section you will find Simon Sinek's advice to

SIMON SINEK's 5 rules to follow

Simon Sinek is an unshakable optimist and bestselling author who believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together. He has devoted his life to sharing his thinking in order to help other leaders and organizations inspire action.

In this video, he offers five simple “rules” that will help you on your way to finding your calling and living happily. Using personal examples and observations, he helps you understand what makes you click.

His 5 rules are:

  1. Go after whatever you want, as long as you’re not preventing someone else from going after what they want.

  2. Sometimes you’re the problem - You can take credit for what you do right as long as you take responsibility for what you do wrong.

  3. Help each other out - that is how you will advance, by giving help and learning to ask for and accept help.

  4. Learn to speak last - Listen to what others have to say, and ask questions to understand, but reserve your opinion to the end

  5. None of us deserve the perks we get. Remember this lesson of humility.

TIM MINCHIN - 9 lessons for life

Timn Minchin is a musician and comedian. He delivered this address at the University of Western Australia in 2013. In it he gives 9 life lessons.

His 9 lessons are:

  1. You don't have to have a dream
  2. Don't seek happiness
  3. Remember, it's all luck
  4. Exercise
  5. Be hard on your opinions
  6. Be a teacher
  7. Define yourself by what you love
  8. Respect people with less power than you
  9. Don't rush

Reference: A transcript of his speech can be found HERE.

RICHARD BRANSON: Quilt of Quotes

Quotes have inspired people throughout the ages. Why not encourage your students and staff to build up their favourite bank of quotes?

Richard Branson provides his top 10 quotes to inspire smarter thinking.

1. “It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to has power over you.”  — Leon Brown

2. “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou

3. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

4. “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” — Angela Davis

5. “Wisdom begins in wonder.” — Socrates

6. “Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” — Charles Bukowski

7. “Empathy, and the ability to use your imagination, should have no limits.” — Emma Watson

8. “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

9. “Be open to learning new lessons, even if they contradict the lessons you learned yesterday.” — Ellen DeGeneres

10. “I’m always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso

Reference: These quotes can be found in THIS article written by Richard Branson.

ADMIRAL WILLIAM MCRAVEN -

Admiral William McRaven delivered this speech to the University of Texas in 2014. It contains the ten lessons he learned from basic SEALS training hoping that they will be of value to them as they move forward in life.
 

His ten lessons were:

Reference: A transcript of his speech can be found HERE.

Resources

Graduation Wisdom: a website devoted to advice on how to deliver graduation speeches. It contains a selected top 10 speeches, useful quotes to use in your own speech, and a graduation speech archive. Click HERE.

My best advice for graduates: 12 tips for a happy life, Gretchen Ruben, May 2019

Rebekah Barnett, What advice do you wish you’d gotten when you graduated from college? 25 TED speakers answer

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