Thursday, May 25, 2006 Remarks by
William R. Brody, President
The Johns Hopkins University Good morning. To our honorary degree recipients and our new members
of the Society of Scholars, to our Trustees and alumni,
faculty and staff, to our parents, family members and
friends, but most of all, to our brand new graduates, I
bring greetings on behalf of all of the Johns Hopkins
University. What a wonderful day for a celebration. Today, our
new graduates are like the bubbles in champagne. And it
falls to me, as commencement speaker, to be the cork. On the occasion of graduating from an august and
serious institution like the Johns Hopkins University, it
seems fitting you should receive some august and serious
advice. But then I pause to remember a young schoolboy's
history report I saw not long ago. He was assigned to
write about the world's first great advice-giving academic,
and so he wrote the following: "Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around
giving people advice. They killed him. He died from an
overdose of wedlock." Although cut short, Socrates enjoyed a long and
fruitful life. At the other end of the spectrum consider
the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He blazed through
18th Century Europe in a flash of glory, and is the
preeminent example of just how great can be the
accomplishment of human living in so very few years. It gives me pause to remember that when Mozart was my
age, he had been dead already for 27 years. Mozart was the exemplar of human living, accomplishing
so much in so very little time, and proving beyond doubt
that, as Abraham Lincoln observed, in the end it's not the
years in your life that count — it's the life you put
in your years. I just returned from Vienna, where I had the
opportunity to attend the opening performance of a Mozart
opera, Zaide. The starring role wass played by Hyunah Yu,
who obtained her bachelor's, master's and artist's
performance diplomas from the Peabody Conservatory of
Music. This was Hyunah's first major operatic role since
graduating from Peabody, and her premier performance in
Vienna, the center of the classical music universe. The two male leads in Zaide were well-recognized opera
singers who had performed with the Metropolitan Opera
Company. So this was a very big deal for a young singer to
be given such a visible role for her very first operatic
performance. And, Hyunah was, as I had fully anticipated,
fantastic. She has one of the most beautiful soprano
voices one could ever expect to hear. I mention this in the context of your commencement,
not because I would expect you to become famous opera
singers, but rather because Ms. Yu didn't expect to become
one either. Her career path was anything but conventional.
And my expectation is that the same may hold true for
you. Ms. Yu was an honors student who graduated from the
University of Texas with a degree in molecular biology and
was headed for medical school and a career as a physician.
And I am certain that she would have made an outstanding
physician. But life dealt her a tragic twist. Married with a
young child, her husband was murdered and Hyunah was forced
to abandon any career hopes she might have had to move in
with her parents and care for her 3-month-old infant
son. Another twist of fate brought her in contact with the
Peabody voice faculty who heard Hyunah sing. Although she
had little or no formal instruction in voice, her talent
was hard to disguise and a scholarship to Peabody allowed
her to restart her education, and catapulted her onto an
entirely new career path. And that, very briefly, is the subject I would like to
raise with our graduates today. The author Po Bronson correctly observes that of all
the gifts our modern society gives us, the ultimate
privilege is choice. Most of us will get to choose what we do with our
lives — what jobs we take and whether and in what way
we either contribute to society or take away from it. For
most societies, and almost all of human history, this was
not the case — you were born to the tasks your family
did before you. If they were farmers, you farmed; if they
were boat owners, you fished; if they were kings and
queens, you ruled. Nowhere did the idea of choosing that
role come into play. But today we do choose, and that is both a tremendous
opportunity, and at the same time, a great burden. This process of choice is not just about choosing
where we make our money; it is choosing our identity, about
deciding who we are. And that demands both deliberative
thought, and difficult decision-making. The idea that we get to choose who we become so
fascinated Bronson that he spent the better part of two
years following dozens of people through their daily lives.
His observations became a book, What Should I Do With my
Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate
Question. If there is some downtime in your schedule this
summer, it's a book I think you will find worthwhile. One important observation Bronson makes in his book is
that although we are presented with this tremendous
opportunity to choose what to do with our lives, too many
of us choose badly, or worse yet, fail to choose at all.
He recognized three decision traps that, over and over,
stymie even the brightest people in their quest to make not
just a living, but a life. These are three major pitfalls hidden in the road
before you. This morning I want to offer you a map, of
sorts, that gives you some idea of what to look out for as
you navigate, with new independence, the rush to meet your
future. The first warning is that money alone will not make
dreams come true. May, by tradition, is the month when college graduates
take their diplomas in hand and go out to conquer the
world. June is when the world counter-attacks. You are about to face the real world squarely in the
face, and the real world will make many demands: money for
rent, and car payments, living expenses and paying back
student loans. It would seem the most practical thing to
do would be to defer those dreams for a while and take any
job that pays well. Make your money first and then pursue
your dreams. You can't, of course, argue against necessity. Bills
must be paid. But the trap lies in thinking this is an
either/or situation, in which paying your bills can only be
achieved at the expense of your dreams. It is a trap to
think you can earn your money now and pursue your dreams
later. Dreams deferred are dreams denied. How then to resolve this dilemma? Surprisingly
enough, the so-called 'dismal science' of economics offers
an important insight. Consider for a moment the person lost in the desert,
dying of thirst. To that person, a pitcher of water has
enormous value. Life itself depends upon it. And after
that pitcher has been consumed, additional pitchers of
water would have lesser, but still significant value
— but only up to a point. Bring enough pitchers of
water to fill a bathtub and there is some value for each;
but as you bring measure after measure enough to fill a
swimming pool, the need and value of each additional
pitcher becomes less and less. This is what economists call the phenomenon of
decreasing marginal value. Simply put, this means the more
you have of something, the less you will value it. Most
people fail to realize that decreasing marginal value plays
out in very important ways in their daily lives. This
includes how much money we have. Studies have shown that
very poor people — people who have to worry about
being thrown out of their homes and must struggle to put
food on the table for their children — typically are
significantly unhappier than people who have money. This
is what we would expect. But those studies also show that once individuals
reach a fairly low economic threshold where their basic
needs are covered, then beyond that point additional money
brings only small increases in happiness. Eventually the
association of more money and greater happiness disappears
entirely. Johns Hopkins alumnus and New York City mayor Michael
Bloomberg described this exactly when he wrote: "Once
[you] make a fortune, the real question is, what's it for?
That sounds ridiculous to the average 'working stiff'
daydreaming about the lottery, but after you've accumulated
a certain amount of wealth, you've got a serious problem.
You can only eat so many meals, have so much domestic help,
travel to so many places, and live in so many rooms. You
can only sleep in one bed at a time." [End quote.] Mike Bloomberg is right. Though it's difficult to
foresee, having 'enough' is probably closer at hand and
easier to achieve than might first seem apparent. The
challenge at every stage of your life will be learning to
live happily within your means. Believing that money alone will save you is a trap on
one side of the road. On the other side lies the trap of
thinking that intelligence alone is going to assure your
success. But like money, the value of intelligence is sometimes
over-estimated. This is probably because, being human,
most of us dream of getting something for nothing —
hence, the nearly universal belief in genius as the
underlying cause of great achievement. In this mind-set,
genius is a 'gift of the gods' possessed for no apparent
reason by random individuals. Expertise comes through the drudgery of hard work and
endless repetitious practice; genius, on the other hand,
seems bestowed from above. And it is often to genius that
we attribute the truly remarkable human achievements. Recently though, researchers have begun to question
this widely held belief. Thomas Edison — a man who
should have certainly known something about genius —
famously asserted that genius is 'one percent inspiration
and 99 percent perspiration.' A growing number of
psychologists are wondering if he wasn't exactly right.
This view suggests that talent is overrated. By dint of
sheer hard work, geniuses are made, not born. Mozart, for example, was composing music at the age of
six — a remarkable achievement clearly indicative of
a superior intellect. But it is important to keep in mind that Mozart's father
was an accomplished composer himself, and wanted to be
respected as the greatest music teacher of his age.
Mozart's early compositions are highly derivative, and
often arrangements of works by other composers. The works
that demonstrated his genius for composing came only later,
after he had worked at his craft for many years. In fact, a study by John Hayes, of Carnegie Mellon
University, found that almost all of the great classical
composers took ten years or more of sustained study before
they composed music celebrated today for its greatness and
originality. In Mozart's case, none of his truly great
compositions appeared before he had been playing and
writing music for a dozen years. How did he get to be
'Mostly Mozart' at the Lincoln Arts Center? The same way
you or I would get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice,
practice! Success is hard work. Kemmons Wilson, the founder of
Holiday Inns, was once asked to give a commencement speech
at the high school he attended. "I really don't know why I'm here," Wilson told the
graduating students. "I never got a degree, and I've only
worked half days my entire life. I guess my advice to you
is to do the same. Work half days every day. And it
doesn't matter which half-the first twelve hours or the
second twelve hours." This brings to mind a story told by Donald Coffey,
Distinguished Professor of Oncology, Professor of
Pharmacology, Pathology and Urology at the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine. When Don was a young assistant professor, he
befriended one of the security guards with whom he chatted
whenever he was leaving his laboratory. One day the
security guard said to him, "Dr. Coffee, you will become a
full professor here at Johns Hopkins." Coffey was surprised to think this security guard
would have the wisdom to identify talent in such a young
faculty member. "Tell me," he asked, "have you been able
to observe other young faculty and predict their future
promotion?" "Yes sir," replied the guard. "I predicted Dr. Dan
Nathans would go on to become a great Hopkins
professor." I should point out that Dr. Nathans not only became a
full professor, he also was awarded the Nobel Prize along
with professor Hamilton Smith for their discovery of the
restriction enzyme that enabled the biotechnology
revolution. Coffey at this point was both astounded and perplexed
at how anyone could predict this. "So, how do you make
these predictions?" he inquired. "It's actually very simple," said the guard. "I work
evenings and weekends and I look at the windows of the
research laboratories. Those that have the lights on are
the labs of the faculty members who will go on to become
the full professors." In the end, a high level of intelligence is needed to
get into any intellectually challenging field. But focus,
determination, and hard work is what makes all the
difference. As University of Washington psychology
professor Earl Hunt says of intelligence: "It is important
to have enough of it, but having lots and lots does not buy
you that much. My regrets to Mensa, but that is the way
things are." Expertise, mastery, and genius are not bestowed; they
come through hard work and many long hours of study and
practice. But this too suggests the importance of dreams.
Geniuses get that way because they work so hard at it.
They demonstrate a 'rage to master' their subject matter in
no small part because they are daring to follow their
dreams. Which brings me to my final observation, the last
upset you should be watching for in the road ahead. It's
always important to remember that, more than any of us
would like or admit to, we are defined by the company we
keep and the environment in which we work. Every
organization has its own culture, and each culture is
defined by its own unique set of values and concerns. If
false praise and flattery are not to your liking, you
should probably avoid working in Hollywood. If power and
pecking order hold no interest, stay out of Washington,
D.C. The value system in your working environment will
define in many ways what you see and hear and think about
all day. One of the most common mistakes is failing to
recognize how these value systems will shape you. We all like to think that we can insulate ourselves
from our surroundings and remain true to our inner selves.
But in fact, that's very nearly impossible to do. We
cannot help but be deeply affected in our outlook and ideas
by what we see and do on a daily basis. Europeans are often dismayed by the American habit of
asking politely what a stranger does for a living. But
that quirk in our national personality comes from an
implicit recognition that, at some level, we are what we
do. And so today, and here after as you progress through
lives of many careers and many new opportunities, remember
to ask yourself not, 'What will I do?' but rather, as Po
Bronson suggests, 'Who will I become?' Today, on behalf of the Johns Hopkins University, it
is my privilege to award you honors and degrees certifying
you as scientists and physicians, performers and engineers,
writers and teachers, inventors and leaders. Nowhere on
these diplomas does the word 'dreamers' appear, but my
fondest hope today is that each of you will hold that word
deep in your hearts. It is not the destination you are
choosing that matters, it is the journey to getting there
that will count. To all of you I wish good fortune, great luck, and God
Speed. Thank you. | 
