Gilbert Cates
Commencement Address
May 17, 2009

Good afternoon. President Helm, Members of the Faculty, honored guests, The Champ of all Champions, (etc,) and you wonderful graduating class of 2009.

There are hundreds if not thousands of graduation speeches being given around the country this week. Probably dozens right now, including President Obama…and I believe there is an assumption with a commencement address that the speaker knows something that the graduating class doesn’t know or should find either helpful or at least interesting. 

I would like to respectfully disagree with that premise.  I think you graduates are the ones that know something important and unique…

You definitely know something that I do not…YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. You know how you look, what you think, what you know, what’s important to you.  And that is an important start in your post college experience. I think that a fulfilled working life basically requires two things… The first is, ‘knowing who you are’ and respecting that knowledge… and the second is deciding and then focusing on what you want to do with who are…  and how to get there.

Sounds simple?

Actually it is, but many things work against us.

Let’s take the first.  Knowing who you are.

I have a faculty colleague at UCLA who teaches in the graduate director program.  His class is composed of young men and women who want to direct in films and television.  He does the following experiment with his students.

Early in the course he asks his students, over a weekend, to cut out 100 pictures from magazines, newspapers, printed material from the internet. They bring them in on Monday morning and lay them out on long tables. He then apologizes to them and asks them to throw half of them away. Leaving them with 50. They are not happy with that. He asks them to do that again. Now they have 25 pictures left. He then apologize again and asks them to throw away half of them. So, now each student has 12 or 13 pictures in a group on the table.

Then the entire class walks and studies each group. And, lo and behold… one student has mostly black and white pictures, one has mostly landscapes, one close-ups, one group is mostly horizontal one group is vertical, another includes animals, yet another has mostly night scenes, and on and one.

In that instant, everyone learns how differently they see things.  How uniquely they view the world. More importantly, they learn what they are drawn to. You understand what I mean. Each person sees things differently. Every one has a view of the world which is slightly or perhaps significantly different from his neighbors.  For me, that is your secret weapon. Your approach to the world, interpersonal relations, problem solving.

Cherish that uniqueness… keep it close. Oh and by the way, don’t confuse this with stubbornness or arrogance. I am talking about that innate, artful, special manner that is different from the pack, different from your friends and colleagues.

Let me tell you that this involves physical uniqueness as well.

I went to Syracuse University and was a drama major. I received my MA degree there as well. A fellow student who was working on his Master’s Degree in government planning at the Maxwell School of Citizenship was an actor named Peter Falk. He is the actor who played Colombo on TV and worked a lot in both films and TV. Anyway, Peter had a glass eye. From a sports accident when he was very young. After graduation and working in city government in Boston he decided to go to Hollywood and try to get into films.  His agent secured him an appointment with the legendary Harry Cohen of Columbia Pictures.  Mr. Cohen a short man in a huge office, had a desk that was on a platform so he could be taller then anyone else, welcomed, Peter and his agent.

He looked at Peter and without missing a beat said to his agent, “Are you crazy this man is damaged.” Referring to his eye. His agent said well you can shoot around him and Mr. Cohen, totally ignoring Peter – it was as though Falk were not even in the room, said, “We are not nor will anyone else hire a person with a glass eye.”  That eye was unique to Peter and his entire film persona. Well, obviously he proved Jack Cohen wrong… and had a wonderful career.

When Barbra Streisand was just starting out, she played a small club in downtown New York City, in the Village. The William Morris agency, then the biggest theatrical agency in the world by far had heard of this new singer. They sent a young agent named Tony Ford to listen to her. He did. Thought she was great and visited her in her tiny dressing room. He said something like, “kid I think you are great. And when you have that taken care of, referring to her nose, we are going to do big things for you. Well, so the story goes, Barbra Streisand told him where to leave his card. The point being, be who you are, be yourself…  be distinctive… listen to your inner self. It didn’t hurt Ms. Streisand or Peter Falk.

OK. That is part one of the business career success story – ‘be your unique self’
Now for part two, “what you want to do and how to do it.”
Listen to these quotes:

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm…
Sir Winston Churchill

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration… l
Thomas Edison

It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?...
Henry David Thoreau

The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want…
Ben Stein

Eighty percent of success is just showing up…
Woody Allen

Any my personal favorite, from Harry S. Truman, “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.” Champion Mohammed Ali is the best example of that.

OK. What does all that really mean?
You all know the answer to that. As I said at the start I have nothing to say to you that you don’t already know. Find your goal and focus all your energy on it.

Many years ago, a film student at New York University befriended me. He asked to make a documentary short about a film I directed with Gene Hackman and Melvin Douglas called I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER. He was a very determined young man. Ira, that was his name, graduated NYU and asked if he could work on my next film, which was SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS, it starred Joanne Woodward. I asked the production manager and unfortunately there was no position available. We were going to shoot in New York, England and Belgium. So, I told my young friend who was naturally disappointed.

Our shooting began in England. We flew to London and checked into the hotel. Early the next morning, which in the film world is 5:00AM, I took the elevator to the lobby of the hotel to meet the van taking us to location. I passed a large couch in the lobby and to my absolute surprise there was Ira, fully clothed sleeping on the couch.  He had flown to London… had about fifty dollars in his pocket.  When I asked what madness made him do it. He just shrugged and simply said I just want to work on this film.

Well, I had no choice and went to the production manager and practically begged him to put Ira on the shoot. Which he did. He was made a production assistant. That was how he got his first real job. Oh today, Ira Gallen owns the largest collection and library of television commercials in the world. Which he rents… it is a good business.

Like Woody said, just showing up is 80% of success.

Whether it is laser focused Bill Gates starting Microsoft out of his garage…
Or Mikhail Baryshnikov, who in 1948 at 12 years old, might have been thought too short to be a dancer…

Or even, to the exclusion of much else, film obsessed, college drop out Stephen Spielberg

They each knew who they were and followed there dreams with focus and determination.

So, I hope you get it. People want authenticity, honesty, uniqueness, energy and commitment. Be yourself, know yourself, commit to 99% perspiration and keep at it until you succeed.

Muhlenberg has given you a great education. You are smart, learned and ready. So, go out there and make some noise. Change the world with your own unique vision… it certainly can use some help. And keep at it until 50 years from now when you give the 2059 address at some University or college willing to give you the chance. Have a great day and a great life. Good luck to you all.