we don’t score a touchdown every time
but we move the ball forward John F
Kennedy didn’t look up at the moon and
say oh that’s too far none of us can
afford to be complacent stuff gets
better if we work at it it wasn’t
because of my brilliance or something
that these things happen it spent time
thinking about poles but not about
principle nobody cares how tough your
upbringing was yeah you can’t take
yourself too seriously you have to take
the job seriously we get real exercise
for about two weeks and then we fall
asleep for two years Winston Churchill
was dismissed as little more than a
has-been
who enjoyed scotch a little bit too much
he’s the 44th and current president and
the United States he was inaugurated as
president on January 20th 2009 he struck
Obama and here are his top ten rules for
success we have looked at a whole slew
of problems when we came into office and
we’ve said where can we advance the ball
down the field each and every time in
across the board and we don’t score a
touchdown every time but we move the
ball forward do you feel like you hit
the metrics that you wanted to hit even
within you’re always going to fall short
because if you if you’re if you’re
hitting your marks that means you didn’t
set them high enough that’s what hope is
imagining and then fighting for and then
working for what did not seem possible
before that’s leadership John F Kennedy
didn’t look up at the moon and say oh
that’s too far we can go false hopes
Martin Luther King and stand on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial and say go
home everybody the dreams deferred false
hopes you all need a reality check
there is a moment in the life of every
generation when that spirit of
hopefulness has to come through if we
are to make our mark on history we too
often let the external the material
thing serve as indicators that we’re
doing well even though something inside
us tells us that we’re not doing our
best that we’re avoiding that which is
hard but also necessary that that we’re
shrinking from rather than rising to the
challenges of the age and the thing is
in this new hyper competitive age none
of us none of us can afford to be
complacent that’s true whatever
profession you choose professors might
earn the distinction of tenure but that
doesn’t guarantee that they’ll keep
putting in the long hours and late
nights and have the passion and the
drive to be great educators the same
principle is true in your personal life
being a parent is not just a matter of
paying the bills doing the bare minimum
it’s not just bringing a child in the
world that matters but the acts of love
and sacrifice it takes to raise and
educate that child and give them
opportunity the one thing that I feel
deeply about and this is something like
I’ll feel deeply about what I leave
Leave leave government is stuff gets
better if we work at it and we stay
focused on where we’re going
it doesn’t immediately get all solved
and I warned against this when I was
running for office because everybody had
the hope posters and the Bess and that
everybody was feeling like hey we’d make
those you may
I was a butcher thank you from you it
was a nice poster but what I’m saying is
is that the if you look at what I said
at the time I said this is going to be
an ongoing project and it’s a project of
citizens it’s not just fix it it’s how
do we work together to get things done
and it will be imperfect yes but over
time is it better and here’s the thing I
can say John yeah I can say this
unequivocally the VA is better now than
when I came into office it is better now
than when I came into office government
works better than when I came into
office the economy by every metric is
better than when I came into office and
so the reason I can sleep at night is I
show myself you know what it’s better
now
am I satisfied with it no and should
voters be satisfied with it absolutely
not because otherwise you know if we get
complacent lazy then stuff doesn’t
happen you just don’t succeed in any
endeavor unless you’ve got a team that’s
been supporting you and that’s part of
my political philosophy it’s really
based on my own experience which was if
somebody hadn’t been out there looking
out for me starting with my mom my
grandmother my grandfather then I would
have made it it wasn’t because of my
brilliance or something that these
things happen it had to do with people
investing in you and so we’ve got to
make sure we’re investing in the next
generation just like somebody invested
in us I want to highlight two main
problems with that old tired me first
approach to life first of all it
distracts you from what’s truly
important and it may lead you to
compromise your values and your
principles and your commitments think
about it it’s in chasing titles and
status in worrying about the next
election rather than the national
interest and the interests of those who
you’re supposed to represent that
politicians so often lose their
ways in Washington they spend time
thinking about polls but not about
principle it was in pursuit of gaudy
short-term profits and the bonuses that
came with them that so many folks lost
their way on Wall Street engaging in
extraordinary risks with other people’s
money
in contrast the leaders we revere the
businesses and institutions that last
they are not generally the result of a
narrow pursuit of popularity or personal
advancement but of devotion to some
bigger purpose the preservation of the
Union or the determination to lift a
country out of a depression the creation
of a quality product a commitment to
your customers your workers your
shareholders and your community a
commitment to make sure that an
institution like ASU is inclusive and
diverse and giving opportunity to all
that’s the hallmark of real success we
know that too many young men in our
community continue to make bad choices
and I have to say growing up I made
quite a few myself sometimes I wrote off
my own failings as just another example
of the world trying to keep a black man
down I had a tendency sometimes to make
excuses for me not doing the right thing
but one of the things that all of you
have learned over the last four years is
there’s no longer any room for excuses
I understand there’s a common fraternity
Creed here at Morehouse excuses are
tools of the incompetent used to build
bridges to nowhere and monuments of
nothingness well we’ve got no time for
excuses not because the bitter legacy of
slavery and segregation have banished
entirely they have not not because
racism and discrimination no longer
exists we know those are still out there
it’s just that in today’s
hyper-connected hyper-competitive world
with millions of young people from China
and India and Brazil many of whom
started with a whole lot less than all
of you did all of them entering the
global workforce alongside you nobody is
going to give you anything that you have
not earned nobody cares how tough your
upbringing was nobody cares if you
suffered some discrimination
and moreover you have to remember that
whatever you’ve gone through it pales in
comparison to the hardships previous
generations endured and they overcame
them and if they overcame them you can
overcome them too part of the way you
survive the stress of the White House is
being able to laugh with your team about
some of the crazy stuff that happens and
you know you can’t take yourself too
seriously you have to take the job
seriously you have to take your
responsibilities seriously but you have
to be able to laugh at yourself first
and foremost in order to be able to
manage the whole thing you have to have
a plan you have to have a strategy and
then you have to have stick-to-itiveness
because you know that the strategy is
not going to immediately bear fruit the
American character is one that lurches
between spasm and trance we get real
exercise for about two weeks and then we
fall asleep for two years and what
Charles Hamilton Houston understood is
is that our vision extends decades
extends generations and those young men
I talked about we may not be able to
reach them right now but I tell you what
if we set the trend lines just a little
bit better than the infant that’s crying
in Compton or Harlem or Anacostia or the
Ninth Ward that infant may have a
different future and then when that
infant has a different future the
country has a different future and then
we as a people have a different future
so there’s got to be an understanding of
how time can actually help us move
mountains if we’re working with time
we’re not waiting for time we’re working
with them you may have setbacks and you
may have failures but you’re not done
you’re not even getting started not by a
long shot
and if you ever forget that just look to
history Thomas Paine was a failed corset
maker a failed teacher and a failed tax
collector before he made his mark on
history with a low book called common
sense that helped ignite a revolution
Julia Child didn’t publish her first
cookbook until she was almost 50 Colonel
Sanders didn’t open up his first
Kentucky Fried Chicken till he was in
the 60s Winston Churchill was dismissed
as little more than a has-been who
enjoyed scotch a little bit too much
before he took over as prime minister
and saw Great Britain through its finest
hour no one thought a former football
player stocking shelves at the local
supermarket would return to the game he
loved become a Super Bowl MVP and then
come here to Arizona and leave your
Cardinals to their first Super Bowl your
body of work is never done
each of them at one point in their life
didn’t have any title or much status to
speak of but they had passion a
commitment to following that passion
wherever would lead and to working hard
every step along the way thank you so
much for watching we made this video
because Jerome a asks us to so there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do and
please say no we want up the top ten
rules that you like the most
please leave a comment below thank you
so much for watching continue to believe
and we’ll see you soon
but we move the ball forward John F
Kennedy didn’t look up at the moon and
say oh that’s too far none of us can
afford to be complacent stuff gets
better if we work at it it wasn’t
because of my brilliance or something
that these things happen it spent time
thinking about poles but not about
principle nobody cares how tough your
upbringing was yeah you can’t take
yourself too seriously you have to take
the job seriously we get real exercise
for about two weeks and then we fall
asleep for two years Winston Churchill
was dismissed as little more than a
has-been
who enjoyed scotch a little bit too much
he’s the 44th and current president and
the United States he was inaugurated as
president on January 20th 2009 he struck
Obama and here are his top ten rules for
success we have looked at a whole slew
of problems when we came into office and
we’ve said where can we advance the ball
down the field each and every time in
across the board and we don’t score a
touchdown every time but we move the
ball forward do you feel like you hit
the metrics that you wanted to hit even
within you’re always going to fall short
because if you if you’re if you’re
hitting your marks that means you didn’t
set them high enough that’s what hope is
imagining and then fighting for and then
working for what did not seem possible
before that’s leadership John F Kennedy
didn’t look up at the moon and say oh
that’s too far we can go false hopes
Martin Luther King and stand on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial and say go
home everybody the dreams deferred false
hopes you all need a reality check
there is a moment in the life of every
generation when that spirit of
hopefulness has to come through if we
are to make our mark on history we too
often let the external the material
thing serve as indicators that we’re
doing well even though something inside
us tells us that we’re not doing our
best that we’re avoiding that which is
hard but also necessary that that we’re
shrinking from rather than rising to the
challenges of the age and the thing is
in this new hyper competitive age none
of us none of us can afford to be
complacent that’s true whatever
profession you choose professors might
earn the distinction of tenure but that
doesn’t guarantee that they’ll keep
putting in the long hours and late
nights and have the passion and the
drive to be great educators the same
principle is true in your personal life
being a parent is not just a matter of
paying the bills doing the bare minimum
it’s not just bringing a child in the
world that matters but the acts of love
and sacrifice it takes to raise and
educate that child and give them
opportunity the one thing that I feel
deeply about and this is something like
I’ll feel deeply about what I leave
Leave leave government is stuff gets
better if we work at it and we stay
focused on where we’re going
it doesn’t immediately get all solved
and I warned against this when I was
running for office because everybody had
the hope posters and the Bess and that
everybody was feeling like hey we’d make
those you may
I was a butcher thank you from you it
was a nice poster but what I’m saying is
is that the if you look at what I said
at the time I said this is going to be
an ongoing project and it’s a project of
citizens it’s not just fix it it’s how
do we work together to get things done
and it will be imperfect yes but over
time is it better and here’s the thing I
can say John yeah I can say this
unequivocally the VA is better now than
when I came into office it is better now
than when I came into office government
works better than when I came into
office the economy by every metric is
better than when I came into office and
so the reason I can sleep at night is I
show myself you know what it’s better
now
am I satisfied with it no and should
voters be satisfied with it absolutely
not because otherwise you know if we get
complacent lazy then stuff doesn’t
happen you just don’t succeed in any
endeavor unless you’ve got a team that’s
been supporting you and that’s part of
my political philosophy it’s really
based on my own experience which was if
somebody hadn’t been out there looking
out for me starting with my mom my
grandmother my grandfather then I would
have made it it wasn’t because of my
brilliance or something that these
things happen it had to do with people
investing in you and so we’ve got to
make sure we’re investing in the next
generation just like somebody invested
in us I want to highlight two main
problems with that old tired me first
approach to life first of all it
distracts you from what’s truly
important and it may lead you to
compromise your values and your
principles and your commitments think
about it it’s in chasing titles and
status in worrying about the next
election rather than the national
interest and the interests of those who
you’re supposed to represent that
politicians so often lose their
ways in Washington they spend time
thinking about polls but not about
principle it was in pursuit of gaudy
short-term profits and the bonuses that
came with them that so many folks lost
their way on Wall Street engaging in
extraordinary risks with other people’s
money
in contrast the leaders we revere the
businesses and institutions that last
they are not generally the result of a
narrow pursuit of popularity or personal
advancement but of devotion to some
bigger purpose the preservation of the
Union or the determination to lift a
country out of a depression the creation
of a quality product a commitment to
your customers your workers your
shareholders and your community a
commitment to make sure that an
institution like ASU is inclusive and
diverse and giving opportunity to all
that’s the hallmark of real success we
know that too many young men in our
community continue to make bad choices
and I have to say growing up I made
quite a few myself sometimes I wrote off
my own failings as just another example
of the world trying to keep a black man
down I had a tendency sometimes to make
excuses for me not doing the right thing
but one of the things that all of you
have learned over the last four years is
there’s no longer any room for excuses
I understand there’s a common fraternity
Creed here at Morehouse excuses are
tools of the incompetent used to build
bridges to nowhere and monuments of
nothingness well we’ve got no time for
excuses not because the bitter legacy of
slavery and segregation have banished
entirely they have not not because
racism and discrimination no longer
exists we know those are still out there
it’s just that in today’s
hyper-connected hyper-competitive world
with millions of young people from China
and India and Brazil many of whom
started with a whole lot less than all
of you did all of them entering the
global workforce alongside you nobody is
going to give you anything that you have
not earned nobody cares how tough your
upbringing was nobody cares if you
suffered some discrimination
and moreover you have to remember that
whatever you’ve gone through it pales in
comparison to the hardships previous
generations endured and they overcame
them and if they overcame them you can
overcome them too part of the way you
survive the stress of the White House is
being able to laugh with your team about
some of the crazy stuff that happens and
you know you can’t take yourself too
seriously you have to take the job
seriously you have to take your
responsibilities seriously but you have
to be able to laugh at yourself first
and foremost in order to be able to
manage the whole thing you have to have
a plan you have to have a strategy and
then you have to have stick-to-itiveness
because you know that the strategy is
not going to immediately bear fruit the
American character is one that lurches
between spasm and trance we get real
exercise for about two weeks and then we
fall asleep for two years and what
Charles Hamilton Houston understood is
is that our vision extends decades
extends generations and those young men
I talked about we may not be able to
reach them right now but I tell you what
if we set the trend lines just a little
bit better than the infant that’s crying
in Compton or Harlem or Anacostia or the
Ninth Ward that infant may have a
different future and then when that
infant has a different future the
country has a different future and then
we as a people have a different future
so there’s got to be an understanding of
how time can actually help us move
mountains if we’re working with time
we’re not waiting for time we’re working
with them you may have setbacks and you
may have failures but you’re not done
you’re not even getting started not by a
long shot
and if you ever forget that just look to
history Thomas Paine was a failed corset
maker a failed teacher and a failed tax
collector before he made his mark on
history with a low book called common
sense that helped ignite a revolution
Julia Child didn’t publish her first
cookbook until she was almost 50 Colonel
Sanders didn’t open up his first
Kentucky Fried Chicken till he was in
the 60s Winston Churchill was dismissed
as little more than a has-been who
enjoyed scotch a little bit too much
before he took over as prime minister
and saw Great Britain through its finest
hour no one thought a former football
player stocking shelves at the local
supermarket would return to the game he
loved become a Super Bowl MVP and then
come here to Arizona and leave your
Cardinals to their first Super Bowl your
body of work is never done
each of them at one point in their life
didn’t have any title or much status to
speak of but they had passion a
commitment to following that passion
wherever would lead and to working hard
every step along the way thank you so
much for watching we made this video
because Jerome a asks us to so there’s a
famous entrepreneur that you want me to
profile next leave it in the comments
below and I’ll see what I can do and
please say no we want up the top ten
rules that you like the most
please leave a comment below thank you
so much for watching continue to believe
and we’ll see you soon
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