|
Commencement 2000: Gary Winnick's Remarks
Global Crossing Founder Urges Graduates to Risk
Failure,
"Move Ahead with Compassion for Those Left Behind"
Gary Winnick, founder and chairman of telecommunications
giant Global Crossing, Ltd., delivered the commencement address
at the 42nd annual graduation ceremonies at the C.W. Post Campus
of Long Island University. Mr. Winnick is a 1969 graduate of
C.W. Post and founder, chairman and chief executive officer of
Pacific Capital Group.
Gary Winnick
Commencement Address
42nd Annual Commencement Exercises
C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University
Brookville, New York
Sunday, May 14, 2000
 Today, it is a pleasure and an
honor for me to address you - the first C.W. Post graduating
class of the new millennium.
Looking at all of you, I see a thousand young men and women.
But more than that, I see a thousand hopes for the future, a
thousand life journeys about to move on to their next exciting
phase.
That is what today is about - commencement - the beginning
of the rest of your lives.
I remember going to a football game during my freshman year
here at C.W. Post. I was sitting next to a distinguished looking
woman in the stands, and I thought she was a student's grandmother.
She asked me my name, and, to make polite conversation, I asked
her what her name was. When she said "Marjorie Post,"
my heart began to race and I almost fell off of the bleachers.
My memory of that moment is as clear as if it happened yesterday.
There are probably not many people in this audience who've
had the privilege of meeting Marjorie Merriweather Post. But
I am sure that if she were here today, she'd probably tell you
something very similar to what I am going to say to you this
morning.
The world you are entering is different from the world of
her youth, and also different from my youth. But much of your
education on this campus, and most of what you will learn in
the future, is as constant as the surrounding trees and buildings
of this beautiful campus.
Commencement speakers often try to give you great words of
wisdom, but sometimes they're just words. You have heard all
the clichés, and so have my three sons. Some speeches
are made by people who tell you how to see the world, but you're
going to see it through 1,000 different eyes - your own.
All I can tell you is how I've seen the world, and the rest
is up to you.
Thirty-one years ago, I was hoping to sit where you are today.
But, in the second semester of my senior year, I was drafted
into the Army. I did graduate, but I received my diploma in the
mail. So today is not only your graduation, but it's mine as
well.
The late 1960's were a different time, and C.W. Post was a
different place.
The war in Vietnam was raging, and student protests were spreading
through the country. Two years before I started college, John
F. Kennedy was assassinated. Within a few years, his brother
Robert and Martin Luther King Jr. were also assassinated. The
civil rights movement was sweeping the nation and there were
riots in our major cities. It was a time of great skepticism
of authority - cynicism toward government, big corporations,
and even schools like ours. These dramatic events were taking
place around me, but they did not affect my own life. I was living
here in an insular world here on the north shore of Long Island.
My world was rushing into the cafeteria every morning and putting
tables together with friends - staking out our corner - our own
special place.
There were the midnight runs to the old Greenvale Diner over
on Northern Boulevard and Glen Cove Road. It's no longer there,
but the memories are. At the end of every semester, I'd go into
the Quad with the other students to look at my grades. They were
posted in large glass cases, and I'd stand outside in a crowd
of students ten rows deep, wearing my gloves and my beanie...
middle of February, wind chill ten below zero. I wouldn't focus
with both eyes - I'd amble up with one eye shut and, if I liked
what I saw, then I'd open both eyes. The smiles and frowns that
we shared was our method of e-mail. In my sophomore year, I joined
Phi Sigma Delta fraternity, and it extended my community beyond
the corner of the cafeteria. I also remember the late night huddles
around a six pack of beer with my friends in the dorm.
I had to earn my way into Post - it was no lay-up for me.
I worked a lot of jobs. I ran the soda fountain at Howard Johnson's.
To you, Howard Johnson is probably the name of one of your classmates
or a former ballplayer for the Mets. Your parents and I knew
it as a restaurant chain. I was assistant manager at a golf club
in Old Brookville. I worked at the Princeton Ski Shop and at
Waldbaum's, when they were both in Manhasset.
I'm a true Long Island boy, born and bred, and I'm very proud
of it.
I probably went to some of the same bars and beer halls that
this graduating class has gone to. I'm sure by now they have
different names, but they're the same places. I commuted to school
from my home, a few miles away in Roslyn.
On my way to the school this morning, I drove past my old
house, and I was flooded with memories. This was my world...my
community... and it still is, even though my world has grown.
Europe, Asia and South America were places on the map. Nobody
ever told me they would be a part of my life, but they will certainly
be a part of yours. But as much as things were different in those
days, some things remain the same.
The Quad, the Great Lawn, the Mansion are still the hart of
the campus. Many of you belong to fraternities and sororities,
including Phi Sigma Delta, which is now part of ZBT. None of
you work at Howard Johnson's but I know that many of you work
as I did. Few, if any, had the chance to meet Marjorie Merriweather
Post at a football game, but her legacy and spirit have touched
all of us and everything on campus.
The world beyond C.W. Post has many of the same issues now
as then. The Vietnam War is long over and America is at peace,
but there is still violence in hot spots around the world. There
are no more Freedom Riders in Mississippi, but the struggle for
racial tolerance continues.
Thirty-one years ago, I was probably thinking and feeling
the same things you are thinking and feeling today. I was filled
with aspirations for the future - and uncertainty as well. But
in uncertainty, there can be a great deal of excitement. None
of us has all the answers, but all of us can imagine the possibilities.
All of us have the capacity for great success. Success is the
process of becoming who you already are.
Success is not out there, at the end of your career - it is
in here - in your heart and its in your mind. In our world of
the Internet, e-mail, cell phones and dot-com entrepreneurs,
all of you will be blessed with more opportunities than anyone
who has come before you - opportunities that recognize no international
borders, opportunities to learn to skills, opportunities to transform
your communities, and the opportunity to change the world.
You are thinking and feeling the same emotions I was 31 years
ago...but you have far more power than my classmates and I had
- because you have more possibilities and you have more choices.
The best measure of a person is what he or she does when they
are free to choose. And you will be carrying a powerful tool
in making your choices - your education.
Your education is your greatest advantage - but learning is
an ongoing process. Mark Twain once said, "I never let my
schooling interfere with my education." I am still learning
how valuable my education is. I was a business major, and when
I was sitting in class taking Marketing or Accounting 101. I'd
say to myself, "Why am I here? When will I ever need this?"
But I can tell you, I was wrong! Your education - and your continuing
quest for knowledge and information - will enable you to make
wise choices - most of the time. It will enable you to enrich
the journey you are already about to undertake. Many of the choices
you make will come with their sets of responsibilities - responsibilities
to yourself, your families, your community and your world. Some
of the choices you make will be mistakes. Don't be afraid of
failure. NOBODY succeeds in a big way except by risking failure.
Three years ago, I set out to build a company, Global Crossing.
At the beginning, I didn't realize the opportunity to transform
the world of telecommunications - but I started out with no limit
on my imagination. With the combination of deregulation, new
technology and the growth of the Internet, what started as a
company of four people has grown into a family of 14,000 men
and women worldwide. What started as a good idea has become a
network, connecting every major continent and 200 cities around
the globe. Some would call it innovation, others opportunity.
I only know it as imagination. I have never placed any limit
on that imagination, and don't ever let anyone limit yours. If
you push the frontiers of your mind, you will always have more
choices in life. One of your first choices will be a career.
Choose a career that nourishes you, something you love to do.
John D. Rockefeller once said, "The road to happiness lies
on two simple principles: Find what it is that interests you
and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole
soul into it."
Along the way you will experiment. It's all right if your
first job and your first career choice isn't your last. And it's
OK if you fail. To be successful, you've got to be willing to
embrace failure and to learn from it. Many of life's REAL failures
are the people who didn't realize how close they were to success
when they gave up.
Memories of our choices - good or bad - help us make better
choices the next around. And the best part of choosing wisely
is the gift of empowerment. For when we finally get it right,
when we are nourished by the love and support of family and friends
by the satisfying work we have chosen, by the community of which
we are part, we become powerful.
Powerful enough to give back - powerful enough to make a difference.
Power and passion are partners. Passion is the essential ingredient
- the passion to believe in who you are and what you do. Move
ahead with all your passion for all you hope to accomplish. But
move ahead, too, with compassion. For the others who are moving
alongside you. For those ahead and, most of all, for those left
behind.
The greatest reward I have received from my achievements is
the opportunity to reinvest my good fortune in making our world
a better place for all of our children.
My greatest accomplishment comes from sharing my success with
the people and causes in which I believe - my family and friends,
my communities, and my core values: education, literacy, tolerance
and world peace. And, lastly and don't ever forget it, my college
and yours, C.W. Post.
Some people have described me as a self-made man, but I've
never believed there are self-made men. I believe we are all
parts of the thousands of people who have touched our lives.
And part of our good fortune is that we will have the chance
to touch the lives of many people in return.
All of you graduates have more possibilities, more advantages
and more choices than any class before you. All you need is the
IMAGINATION to dream - the PASSION to turn those dreams into
reality -the COURAGE to risk failure along the way - and the
COMPASSION to make a difference in our world.
Soon all of you will throw your caps in the air. Throw them
high will all your might, for when they come down, a new phase
of your life will begin!
Congratulations to all of you men and women, you Pioneers
of the new millennium.
Thank you all very much.
|
