优秀的英语演讲稿范文（精选32篇）
That is why this summer, at the G20 conference, the United States and Japan were founding members of a bold, new initiative with the World Bank – the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. This facility is the first of its kind to empower women entrepreneurs in developing countries. It will provide access to the capital, networks, and mentorship needed to thrive and will dramatically impact the ecosystem of women’s entrepreneurship globally.
And we are just getting started!
As we gather in Tokyo today, I can’t help but think of some of the great women pioneers in this country who have inspired our generation.
Women like Yoshiko Shinohara
She survived World War Two, started as a secretary and went on to open a small business in her one-bedroom apartment. Her company grew into a world renowned business in over a dozen countries. Today, as you all know, Yoshiko is Japan’s first female self-made billionaire. Now, she helps young people afford the education they need to pursue their dreams and contribute to society.
Because of pioneers like Yoshiko, women in this country – and around the world – aspire to greater feats, climb to higher positions, and pave new pathways forward.
Today, we are redefining success. We’re discarding the old formula of the ideal woman-the ideal worker -the ideal mother. We are helping to shape a more realistic and complete picture of what it is to be a woman who thrives – and who helps her business, community and family do the same.
The fact is, ALL women are “working women.” Whether they make the commute to work each morning, or spend each day with their children at home, or some combination of both. Truth be told, on Sunday nights, after a messy and wonderful weekend with my children, I am far more exhausted than on Friday evenings, after a long week of work at the office. I deeply admire women who choose to work inside the home raising their children and respect this decision.
how many people here in this room smile more than 20 times per day? raise your hand if you do. oh, wow. outside of this room, more than a third of us smile more than 20 times per day, whereas less than 14 percent of us smile less than five. in fact, those with the most amazing superpowers are actually children who smile as many as 400 times per day.have you ever wondered why being around children who smile so frequently makes you smile very often? a recent study at uppsala university in sweden found that its very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles. you ask, why? because smiling is evolutionarily contagious, and it suppresses the control we usually have on our facial muscles. mimicking a smile and experiencing it physically help us understand whether our smile is fake or real, so we can understand the emotional state of the smiler.
Good morning, my name Cindy, it is really a great honor to have this opportunity for a interview, i would like to answer whatever you may raise, and i hope i can make a good performance today, eventually enroll in this prestigious university in september. now i will introduce myself briefly,I am 23 years old,born in province ,and i am curruently a senior student at beijing university.my major is.and I will receive my bachelor degree after my graduation in june.in the past 4 years,i spend most of my time on study,i have passed CET6 with a ease. and i have acquired basic knowledge of packaging and publishing both in theory and in practice. besides, i have attend
several packaging exhibition hold in Beijing, this is our advantage study here, I have taken a tour to some big factory and company. through these I have a deeply understanding of domestic packaging industry. compared to developed countries such as us, unfortunately, although we have made extraordinary progress since 1978,our packaging industry are still underdeveloped, mess, unstable, the situation of employees in this field are awkard. but I have full confidence in a bright future if only our economy can keep the growth pace still.
I guess you maybe interested in the reason itch to law, and what is my plan during graduate study life,I would like to tell you that pursue law is one of my lifelong goal,I like my major packaging and I wont give up,if I can pursue my master degree here I will combine law with my former education.
I will work hard in thesefields ,patent ,trademark, copyright, on the base of my years study in department of p&p, my character? i cannot describe it well, but i know I am optimistic and confident. sometimes i prefer to stay alone, reading, listening to music, but I am not lonely, i like to chat with my classmates, almost talk everything ,my favorite pastime is valleyball,playing cards or surf online. through college life,I learn how to balance between study and entertainment. by the way, I was a actor of our amazing drama club. i had a few glorious memory on stage. that is my pride.
“Good morning, sir. My name is…”打招呼和过场基本是必须的。
“I’m , I’m , and I’m very .”按照我们的传统思维，自我夸耀一番也是难以避免的。但是这真的好吗?
如果说自我夸耀是正常的，那么就有99%的人在面试时这么做了。然而，那么多人都用一样的措辞自夸，真的会有积极的效果?就怕非但没有积极效果，反而让人觉得你很浮夸，尽说大话很不可靠。而且，老外们对此更加在意，一听到某些单词，说不定就触碰到“雷区”，马上say “Good bye”了。
这里有10个单词，不适合在面试的时候形容自己。看看你有没有如此自夸的习惯吧。
1. generous(宽宏大量的)
肚量是看在旁人眼里的，并不是喊出来的，尤其是不适合从自己的嘴巴里喊出来。真正心胸开阔的人，从不会炫耀，也不会索取别人的称赞。他们就不认为自己的心胸气度如此广阔，因为他们觉得他们还能做得更多。
2. humble(谦恭的)
认为自己很谦虚的人其实并不谦虚，因为真正谦虚的人从不称赞自己谦虚。如果你真要让别人了解自己有多谦虚，就在言语中表现出自己的谦和吧，千万不要直接就说“其实啊，我这个人很谦虚的”。你听到别人这么说，会怎么想?
3. self-disciplined(严格自律的)
自律是好事，但是如果自律过了头，会给别人什么印象?不懂变通，缺乏弹性，死脑筋，不好相处……你身边有没有对待自己特别严格的人?你觉不觉得这样的人太硬不太好相处呢?所以别说自我要求特别严格了，职场不如军队，不需要铁一般的纪律，这样反而会让人觉得你缺乏人性化的变通，也难以沟通。
4. passionate(充满激情的)
热情从来不是喊出来的，而是在实际工作中做出来的。说得好听比做什么都容易，千万别让人觉得你只是嘴巴上特别有干劲而已。另外，热爱工作是好事，但是太过于热爱工作，会让人担心你是否会做出什么过激的举动。而且，如果让别人觉得你动不动就满怀激情地工作，这样你的同事也会很累。
5. witty(机智幽默的)
一般很机智又有幽默感的人，是不会刻意这么称赞自己的，除非他擅长说冷笑话。想想，如果一个人对你说“你知道吗?我是个很机智幽默的人”，你的反应一定是两个字——呵呵。真正机智幽默的人，在谈吐间就能让别人感受到了，用得着挑明了说吗?这反而是愚笨的自夸。
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
in a recent mimicking study at the university of clermont-ferrand in france, subjects were asked to determine whether a smile was real or fake while holding a pencil in their mouth to repress smiling muscles. without the pencil, subjects were excellent judges, but with the pencil in their mouth, when they could not mimic the smile they saw, their judgment was impaired.in addition to theorizing on evolution in the origin of species, charles darwin also wrote the facial feedback response theory. his theory states that the act of smiling itself actually makes us feel better -- rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good. in his study, darwin actually cited a french neurologist, guillaume duchenne, who used electric jolts to facial muscles to induce and stimulate smiles. please, dont try this at home.
almost everyone knows the famous chinese saying：a young idler，an old beggar.
throughout history，we have seen many cases in which this saying has again and again
proved to be true.
it goes without saying that the youth is the best time of life，during which ones
mental and physical states are at their peaks. it takes relatively less time and pains
to learn or accept new things in a world full of changes and rapid developments. in
addition，one is less likely to be under great pressure from career，family and health
problems when young. therefore，a fresh mind plus enormous energy will ensure success
in different aspects of life. of course，we all know：no pains，no gains. if we dont make every effort to make
good use of the advantages youth brings us，it is impossible to achieve any goals.
as students，we should now try our best to learn all the subjects well so that we
can be well prepared for the challenges that we will face in the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
No one can imagine what our life would be like if we ran out of water. Many people ignore the fact that they waste a lot of water in their daily life. For example, people tend to do something else while the tap is still on or even forget to turn off the tap after using it.
Not until recently did people realize the serious water shortage. It is universally acknowledged that severe water pollution and waste result in water shortage. Therefore, it is high time that the public raised their awareness of saving water resources. In my opinion, we must take effective measures to deal with this problem. For one thing, population should be controlled and more sewage treatment facilities should be established to purify the polluted water. For another, it is our responsibility to develop a good habit to save water in our daily life.
Let's work together to protect and save water resources!
that was pretty powerful. we are in the white house. smallbusiness owners, you heard from a large former business owner and tremendous entrepreneur, and we're sitting withadministrator mcmahon, who has an incredible entrepreneurial history. but it is very powering. really, this administration day in day out is steadfast in its commitment to jobs and job creation.you are feeling that and driving that. we are looking to unleashyou. you can bring your full potential, create more jobs. 60 million jobs in this country are a direct result of small businessentrepreneurs sell it is tremendously impactful on the ecosystem of job creation. we are doing everything we can and look forward to your input on how we can do even more. through comprehensive tax reform to enable you to have more money toreinvest in the growth of your businesses. there are 800 regulations put on the books by the previous administration that really many of which stifle your ability to grow and continue to create and produce. we are committed to addressing thosethings, creating increased access to capital, mentorship, as the fca does through its transformative and innovative programs.access to networks, to markets to trade with across state lines.we are committed to supporting the american worker and the american job creator. we are excited to be here to celebrate anagency doing just that. and in incredible director as shecommences her 65th year of the sba. not quite your 65th. [laughter] i will turn it over now to administrator mcmahon. she will tell us about initiatives and how they can support your businesses. then we will takes and questions from the audience.
a poet said “to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an
hour. several days ago, i had a chance to listen to a lecture. i learnt a lot there. i?d like to share it with all of you. let?s show our right palms. we can see three lines that show how our and life is. i have a short line of life. what about yours? i wondered whether we could see our future in this way. well, let?s make
a fist. where is our future? where is our love, career, and life? tell , it is in our hands. it is held in ourselves.
i've had an interesting experience. i'm an entrepreneur, having started my own business, also worked in the context of a family business that was highly entrepreneurial.i've had both, working in a large family business, that grew to be arather large business. i think for me, one of the challenges wasmanaging the competing demands of raising a family and, and running a business, working in a family business. and then politics got layered on top of that. then i got pregnant with my thirdchild in the midst of that. one of the things, there is no right answer. people ask about balance a lot. i don't think you can plan for balance. you can structure your schedule to avoid worktravel, coming home and having an event or you have to be out.you can manage things like that. we are one kid illness away from losing balance. there's no way you can plan for certain things. i have found every time i think a challenge is large and will behard to overcome that has been put in my path, if you grindthrough it, you look back in retrospect and it feels much more manageable than it was in the moment. this perspective, staying in the moment, keeping a laser focus on what your priorities are. i tell people not to architect their life for balance, but aligned with what their priorities are. and fully measure yourself againstpriorities to ensure you are where you needed to be in the long term. give yourself a little slack in the short term. i will say as anadministration, we are focused on thinking about how weempower the american working family and empower people to achieve a balance through policies around making child caremore affordable and accessible, advocating strongly for paid family leave. to support the reality of of the dual income modernworking family. thinking through policies that support the family is informed by what i have seen and what i have witnessed.
My mother was right – because you will encounter difficult times in your life, requiring tough decisions and tough time-sensitive responses.
My first taste of adversity came in 1969, when I helped to integrate a private school in my home city of Atlanta. I was a handful of…I was one of a handful of African-American students – student of color8– who passed the entrance exam and was admitted to attend. Now while passing the exam was the technical requirement for admission and acceptance, it was not the path to acceptance from my peers. In fact, from 7th grade to 12th grade, I endured being called the N-word at least once a day.
It was tough to get through a single day, let alone come back and repeat the entire process all over again. I can recall that I told my mother I didn’t want to go to school there anymore; the challenges were just too much. And she would repeat the washing machine adage to me more times than I can count.
The problem with these stories is that they show what the data shows: women systematically underestimate their own abilities. If you test men and women, and you ask them questions on totally objective criteria like GPAs, men get it wrong slightly high, and women get it wrong slightly low. Women do not negotiate for themselves in the workforce. A study in the last two years of people entering the workforce out of college showed that 57 percent of boys entering, or men, I guess, are negotiating their first salary, and only seven percent of women. And most importantly, men attribute their success to themselves, and women attribute it to other external factors. If you ask men why they did a good job,they'll say, "I'm awesome. Obviously. Why are you even asking?" If you ask women why they did a good job, what they'll say is someone helped them, they got lucky, they worked really hard.
My father values talent. He recognizes real knowledge and skill when he finds it. He is colorblind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period.Words and promises, no matter visionary they sound will only get you so far. In our business, you’re not a builder, unless you’ve got a building to show for it, or in my father’s case, city skylines. Most people strive their entire lives to achieve greatsuccess in a single industry.My father has succeeded in many on the highest level and on a global scale. One of the reasons he has thrived as an entrepreneur is because he listens to everyone. Billionaire executives don’t usually ask the people doing the work for their opinion of the work. My father is an exception.
first, i want to ask you a question; what does family mean someone told me: it means father and mother, i love you.
today i am very happy to stand here to express my opinion to my dear parents. first, i want to say thank you to my mom and dady .without you, i would not enjoy such a colorful life. you both love me for ever and never leave me alone when i was in trouble. thank you. mom and dady, thank you. when i was in my hard time, you are my tender sunshine which encourages me to hold on and never give up. and now i am too excited .i dont know how to express my true feeling with limited words. what i know is that without you my life will be filled with endless suffering and mistake .
thank you!
Maybe this is all revelatory at Harvard. But in our part of the country, it’s not news. The slogan of the Whiteland (Indiana) High School Class of 1930 was “Grit Wins.” It could be a slogan at Purdue every year. I’m tempted to call Roget’s Thesaurus and let them know the antonym of “snowflake” is “Boilermaker.”
Just as physical strength is built through hard exercise, emotional fortitude is enhanced by adversity and conflict. Every great achievement requires a confrontation with stress, a conquest of fear. Our engineers know, there is no traction without friction. Wilbur Wright, father of the aviation world Purdue now leads, wrote, “No bird soars in a calm.” Your strength of intellect and character will give you opportunities to lead, but it will be your strength of purpose, your resilience, your grit that will enable you to lead successfully, and by your example, to give new heart and strength to those around you.
There’s one sure way to minimize stress and difficulty in life: attempt nothing that’s bold, challenge nothing that’s wrong, risk nothing that’s dangerous. Those endeavors always bring disappointment, frustration, criticism, setbacks. But they also are the source of the achievements that make life fulfilling, and the even greater grit that will get you ready for the next challenge.
From opposite ends of life’s continuum, and I offer you two closing examples of the qualities I hope you have built here at this institution. Both stories involve Purdue students even younger than you are today.
On Monday, tomorrow, during your commencement ceremonies, I will confer on you all the “rights and responsibilities” of a Yale degree. Yours is a great responsibility. You will have to know what you are for.
What are you for?
“Surely in the light of history,” Eleanor Roosevelt said, “it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.”
Yale has prepared you, as a scholar and a human being, to try; to face challenges with courage and determination. And I trust you are leaving Yale with a sense of your own responsibilities to one another, to the planet, and to our shared future.
By serving others and our communities with the many gifts you have been given, you will live a life that is for something, a life of meaning and purpose.
There is no time to waste; there are no words to waste: As a young Bob Dylan sang in 1965, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” We must give life to new ideas, imagine new ways of being in the world, new answers to the problems that vex us and our neighbors.
Now is the time.
Members of the Class of 20xx, please rise:
We are delighted to salute your accomplishments, and we are proud of your achievements. Remember to give thanks for all that has brought you to this day. And go forth from this place with grateful hearts, paying back the gifts you have received here by using your minds, your voices, and your hands to imagine and create the new worlds you wish to see.
What are you for?
Congratulations, Class of 20xx!
Thank you. Thank you.
As I said, my grandfather was a pastor for 50 plus years, leading the civil rights movement and marches, desegregating the public transit system and helping the first African-American policemen secure steady jobs. My father was a physician, one of only 100 black doctors in Atlanta when he started his practice, and my mother was a civic leader who co-founded a coalition of neighborhoods across segregated communities.
Following in the tradition of my elders, I pursued a role in public service as President of the City Council and you heard that I served for six years. As the leader of the Legislative Branch of municipal government, I learned all the mechanics and the operations of the City. And when it was time for my next step, I threw my hat in the ring and ran for Mayor.
I entered as the front runner with the highest name recognition. I raised a ton of money, I knocked on tens of thousands of doors. That said, there were issues along the way; my parents became ill – my father with the ravages of diabetes and two amputated legs and my mother diagnosed with the early onset of dementia – and I decided I needed to withdraw from the race to look after them.
But my father, he wasn’t having it. He told me I need to step up! That I should return to the race and try to get elected and give back to the city that had given us so much. But by then, my campaign’s momentum was gone. I lost the race and I was absolutely devastated. Every question you can possibly image went through my head. Had the people of Atlanta forgotten me? Had they forgotten all the work that I had done? Did they lose faith in me? Were they disappointing [disappointed]?
Good Morning.
Thank you.
Well, it’s a privilege to be here with all of you.
Let me thank President Price, for the opportunity to address the 20xx Graduates. It’s certainly a privilege and my great pleasure.
To my fellow trustees, the Faculty of the University, the Administrative teams, the parents, the guardians, significant others and friends, thank you for not only enabling this occasion, but also joining us to celebrate the fruits of your labor.
And to our Honorary Degree Recipients, thank you for your incredible contributions and achievements. There’s a reason you now hold ‘Laudable Blue Devil’ status. Give them some love, ya’ll.
Now, I’m from the South, so we’re going to offer a whole lot of gratitude today. And when I call you to respond to what I’m saying, do you have me, graduates?
I love it. I love it.
And most importantly, let me start with gratitude for the graduates, thank you for the work you’ve put in and the contributions that you’ve made to Duke. We are absolutely thrilled that you had...and I quote… “the courage to start, the strength to endure, and the resolve to finish.”
Somebody say amen.
And because of that, you are about to be awarded all the rights and privileges of minted Blue Devils. So, congratulations to you! I’m going to give you some love.
one day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of chile, in one of the most remote regions of the pacific ocean, 20 american sailors watched their ship flood with seawater. heyd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ships hull. as their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together inthree small whaleboats.these men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. in their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water.these were the men of the whaleship essex, whose story would later inspire parts of moby dick.we know how fear feels, but im not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.as we grow up, were often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates.
And life as a disabled person is actually somewhat difficult. We do overcome some things. But the things that we're overcoming are not the things that you think they are. They are not things to do with our bodies. I use the term "disabled people" quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses. So I have lived in this body a long time. I'm quite fond of it. It does the things that I need it to do, and I've learned to use it to the best of its capacity just as you have, and that's the thing about those kids in those pictures as well. They're not doing anything out of the ordinary. They are just using their bodies to the best of their capacity. So is it really fair to objectify them in the way that we do, to share those images? People, when they say, "You're an inspiration," they mean it as a compliment. And I know why it happens. It's because of the lie, it's because we've been sold this lie that disability makes you exceptional. And it honestly doesn't.
when we xfaced with the difficulty x,avoidingx is not a good way for us. it can not solve the problems.what we need to do is that analying the cause and trying to changed our place .so we should be brave and face the trap directly. the film also teachs us to love others.precious is someone who may exit near us .if precious own a good family and some friends,she may not fell so despaired. in spite of the development of our world ,there still many people suject misfortune.love and help can make them fell better ,so we should not scant our love .
as what i said at the beginning, “we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book, whose pages are infinite”. the past has gone. nothing we do will change it. but the future is in front of us. believe that what we give to the world, the world will give to us. and from today on, lets be the owners of ourselves, and speak out “we are the world, we are the future.”
I know no women, whether they're at home or whether they're in the workforce,who don't feel that sometimes. So I'm not saying that staying in the workforce is the right thing for everyone.My talk today is about what the messages are if you do want to stay in the workforce, and I think there are three. One, sit at the table. Two, make your partner a real partner. And three, don't leave before you leave. Number one: sit at the table. Just a couple weeks ago at Facebook, we hosted a very senior government official, and he came in to meet with senior execs from around Silicon Valley. And everyone kind of sat at the table. He had these two women who were traveling with him pretty senior in his department, and I kind of said to them, "Sit at the table. Come on, sit at the table," and they sat on the side of the room. When I was in college, my senior year, I took a course called European Intellectual History. Don't you love that kind of thing from college?
The key point is honest: Saying is nothing. It's all about acting.
In daily life, would you choose to play or to be cool, or choose to get things done? Choose to make things happen?
He stated that people should self-recognize. What's your strengths and weaknesses? It's rational and need to be honest to self.
You must be honest to yourself and find your automatic passion. So therefore, are you willing to sacrifice all these temptations to prevent you from practicing your arts., he said.
It seems like he gambled everything he's having. The fact is that he calculated a lot, and sign a few contracts. It is to make sure his business can survive and feed him for half year.
We need to be brave to create our own business, but we also need to prepare very well, and think rationally.
Practice Makes Permanence
Contract to "Practice makes perfect", he believes there is no prefection:
You will only have a much higher probability not to mess things up, but there is no perfection.
Here’s what I mean:
Reggie Jackson struck out twenty-six-hundred times in his career—the most in the history of baseball.
But you don’t hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs.
Fall forward.
Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that?
I didn’t either—because1,001was the light bulb.
Fall forward.
Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
You’ve got to take risks. And I’m sure you’ve probably heard that before.
But I want to talk about why it’s so important.
I’ve got three reasons—and then you can pick up your iPhones.
First… you will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.
That’s probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony. But, hey, I’m telling you—embrace it.
Because it’s inevitable.
in a related german study, researchers used fmri imaging to measure brain activity before and after injecting botox to suppress smiling muscles. the finding supported darwins theory by showing that facial feedback modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain in a way that helps us feel better when we smile. smiling stimulates our brain reward mechanism in a way that even chocolate -- a well-regarded pleasure inducer -- cannot match.british researchers found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate. (laughter) wait. the same study found that smiling is as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 pounds sterling in cash. thats like 25 grand a smile. its not bad. and think about it this way: 25,000 times 400 -- quite a few kids out there feel like mark zuckerberg every day.and, unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. smiling can help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin and reduce overall blood pressure.
good afternoon. i'm the president and ceo of pda drywall. we are based in raleigh, north carolina. one of the biggest setbacks in the last 12 years has been tax regulations. as we are embarking on tax forms discussions, what are you going to do for small businesses to help change those regulations in favor of small businesses?
many of the same things we have been discussing,comprehensive tax reform. mr. gary co. in the here has beenspearheading this charge at the white house. you can definitely pick his brain about tax reform. it is high on his mind these days.lowering the corporate rate, encouraging business to grow,encouraging businesses based here to stay here, bring theircapital back that has been trapped overseas will have anenormously positive impact within our country and free updollars that can be reinvested. in conjunction with regulatoryreform, we have come out of the gate swinging. it's a major focus. my father's particular sensitivity to this issue is havingbeen a successful person in business himself. he understands thelimitations, whether businesses he was looking to buy or grow, dealing with suppliers and smaller businesses that services companies. he very much understands how the regulatory environment, while important has grown to a place where it is the unintended consequences is stifling entrepreneurial spirit. we are going to bring that back. we have started doing it. tax reform is going to be incredibly important for every american. we are optimistic about those things. and continued progress.
i would like to add, small businesses will say to me any tax reduction will be great. just let me know what it is. what is going to be my percentage. tell me what the rate is going to be so i can plan. without fail, every single one of those businesses tell me they will take that money and reinvest it in their business and hire more people. that will grow our economy. we will see that growth when we see tax rates go down. especially those in thellcs, all that money flows through. you know exactly how that works. we are working on it.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you dramatically. I am not here to inspire you. I am here to tell you that we have been lied to about disability. Yeah, we've been sold the lie that disability is a Bad Thing, capital B, capital T. It's a bad thing, and to live with a disability makes you exceptional. It's not a bad thing, and it doesn't make you exceptional. And in the past few years, we've been able to propagate this lie even further via social media. You may have seen images like this one: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Or this one: "Your excuse is invalid." Indeed. Or this one: "Before you quit, try!" These are just a couple of examples, but there are a lot of these images out there. You know, you might have seen the one, the little girl with no hands drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth. You might have seen a child running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs. And these images, there are lots of them out there, they are what we call inspiration porn. (Laughter)
Now I seriously want to thank you for that. I had to take that picture. My mother always took photos of me at every progress point growing up. She’d show off those photos to everyone who came to our house, and she would be so proud that I am here at my old stomping ground with all of you.
So, now graduates, it’s certainly your day, but President Price already reminded us it’s Mother’s Day – but you know women never get enough love, never. So the one day we have here to offer a deserved salute to those who bore us biologically and those who stood in as surrogates for many of our needs and wants – deserve some more love. I want all the graduates to stand up and give their mothers and their surrogate mothers some love. Thank you.
Now this is my first Mother’s Day without my own mother, who I lost last August.
And while she’s not here physically, I can still hear her voice when I reach a significant milestone or face what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle.
And if she were here today, I know exactly what she would say to you.
In response to your achievement, it would, no doubt, be crisp and compelling a show of support: “You did it!” And she would offer you a huge smile and an even bigger hug.
But she would also keep it real with you like she always did with me. She would tell you that your future, like any of ours, is going to be hard work. I can hear her say: “Lisa, listen to me and hear me clearly. Adversity is like the agitator in the washing machine. It beats the heck out of the clothes, but they’re clean when they come out”.
we learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed, and not every earthquake brings buildings down. but maybe its no coincidence that some of our most creative minds fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.the same incredible imaginations that produced the origin of species, jane eyre and the remembrance of things past, also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives of charles darwin, charlotte brontand marcel proust. so the question is, what can the rest of us learn about fear from visionaries and young children?
After three days of self-pity, my perspective changed. I realized there were more ways to serve my fellow citizens and my city than just being in elective office.
But the lesson became crystal clear several roles into the future. And graduates, here’s the lesson:
Failure’s not fatal. It’s feedback.
Did you hear me? Put that in your phones. Failure is not fatal. It’s feedback.
I wasn’t supposed to be the Mayor. Had I been the Mayor, I would not have been available to work as a senior officer at the Coca-Cola company where my maternal grandparents had worked for a combined 45 years – jobs that enabled my mother and her sister to be ‘first generation college graduates’.
Nor would I perhaps have been on the radar to become a trustee here at Duke, alongside my good friend and fellow Dukie, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Ya’ll know who that is? That’s a bad boy.
And had I not met Adam, I may never have been a candidate for the President of the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association, somebody say amen, one of the most rewarding roles that I have ever undertaken.
Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters, awonderful afternoon to all of you. My name is Jeff. Today I want to share withyou part of my life experiences and I hope some of you will find it useful.
March 15, 20xx, Xiamen, China. My phone rang the moment when I stepped into themain entrance of our condominium. It was my 68-year-old mum. She said, “your dad and I are now at the boarding gate, but we couldn’t find your dad’s bag, which contains his IC and a few thousand dollars”. Just 35 minutes back, I saw my dadand mum off at the airport. They were about to board a domestic flight toPudong where they would join my sister to fly to Toronto and stay there for another one year. A couple of days before that, I purposely went back to Xiamen, my hometown to see my parents off. I asked my parents to board the airplane first and I would make a second trip to airport and fetch my dad’s bag home. We were so fortunate that my mum kept the passports of both in her handbag.I quickly called the airport and got to the team in charge of security check.They found the bag and verified my identity.
Dress me up in army fatigues. Throw me on top of a moving train. Ask me to play Malcolm X, Rubin Hurricane Carter, Alonzo from Training Day: I can do all that.
But a commencement speech? It’s a very serious affair. Different ballgame. There’s literally thousands and thousands of people here.
And for those who say—you’re a movie star, millions of people watch you speak all the time…
… Yes, that’s technically true. But I’m not actually there in the theater—watching them watching me.
I’m not there when they cough… or fidget… or pull out their iPhone and text their boyfriend… or scratch their behinds.
From up here: I can see every single one of you. And that makes me uncomfortable.
So please, don’t pull out your iPhone and text your boyfriend until after I’m done.
But if you need to scratch your behinds, go right ahead. I’ll understand.
Thinking about the speech, I figured the best way to keep your attention would be to talk about some really, juicy Hollywood stuff.
I thought I could start with me and Russell Crowe getting into some arguments on the set of American Gangster…
… but no. You’re a group of high-minded intellectuals. You’re not interested in that.
Or how about that “private” moment I had with Angelina Jolie half naked in her dressing room backstage at the Oscars?… Who wants to hear about that?
I don’t think so. This is an Ivy League school. Angelina Jolie in her dressing room…?