毕业典礼老师三分钟激励英语演讲稿范文（精选29篇）
Hello! My name is Chen Danqing. My English name is Joy. I'm 14 years old. I'm a happy girl. I have a happy family. My father and my mother are both office workers. They're busy. But at weekends, they always cook nice food for me. I'm happy in the family. I love my parents and they love me very much.
I'm a student at Dongzhou Middle School. It is very big and beautiful. There are many classroom buildings and office buildings. Besides the buildings, there is a big playground. After school, there are lots of boys playing basketball on it. I think they are happy. There are a lot of flowers and trees in my school. They are beautiful. I like my school. In my school, I have many friends. All my friends are polite and helpful. My friends are all nice to me. They can make me happy. So I like playing with them.
My hobbies are listening to music and reading. I like pop music very much. I dislike sports because I'm not strong. It's hard for me.
I have a happy family, a beautiful school and many nice friends. I enjoy every day.
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”.
So, I’m not just asking you, I’m advising you to anticipate defeat, strongly advising it. Don’t be surprised when it comes your way. Acknowledge it. Engage with inquisitive abandon and leave indelible fingerprints wherever you may go. Search for environments that may give you grief but they may also help you to grow.
Now, no one taught me the importance of that existential exploration better than my parents. And it was my father who showed me that in fact, it is in discomfort that we find our most defining moments.
My dad became a doctor because he knew the circumstances were not the same for everybody, that some people were not as fortunate as our family was. And as he put it, he wanted to eliminate “dis-ease.” Are you with me, graduates? “Dis-ease.” That’s exactly how he said it to me.
When I was a little girl, I would go on house calls with him. The patients all knew and loved him and I saw how much he prided himself on being a caretaker, someone who did his very best to reverse their compromised positions of his patients – to put their mind and bodies at ease.
But there was one house call I remember in particular. It’s seared in the back of my brain as if it happened yesterday. His diabetic patient was having a hypoglycemic attack. He told me to get the orange juice. I did, and I watched him save a woman’s life that day.
God willing, none of you will face at any age the kind of dangers and fears that Fred and Tyler did. But they, and so many others like them, have left us all a legacy that provides perspective and proportion for those inevitable moments when the pressures and disappointments of life get us down.
Don’t misunderstand this, but I wish for you many such tough moments. You can easily avoid them; just lead a safely inconsequential life: run no risks, confront no injustice, accept no roles of leadership. But that’s not the path we expect you to choose. You are about to become graduates of Purdue University, which, throughout its history, has supplied leaders to a world that needs them now as rarely before.
Long after you leave us, your senior year will be remembered as the year of Tyler Trent. His is a story I need not recount; everyone here knows who he was, and how he faced a situation for which words like “adversity” and “stress” don’t come close. He impacted more people, and left deeper footprints, than most who will enjoy lives several times longer than his. We’ll never forget you, Tyler.
Last December, we said goodbye to a great man. A great man, but a typical Boilermaker. In his 94 years, Fred Fehsenfeld built a series of businesses that employed and enriched thousands of people around Indiana and the world. A model for what we now call lifelong learning, he was always on top of the latest technology, always conceiving large new projects and looking far into a future he could not possibly live to see. And modest about his achievements every step of the way.
He almost didn’t get the chance to do any of that. On his 18th birthday, in 1942, he left his freshman dorm room in Cary Hall and enlisted in the Army. He flew 86 missions over Europe with a storied unit in which almost half his fellow pilots were killed in action.
In an oral history of his experiences, Fred told of his first close-air dogfight combat. He was low to the ground, with bullets everywhere, and death perhaps an instant away. The interviewer asked, “What were you thinking at a moment like that?” Fred answered, “I was thinking, I finally got a chance to make some German pay for yanking me out of Purdue University.” He survived the war, came back, still younger than most of you, to finish his M.E. degree and lead a life of epic accomplishment.
I think the cause is more complicated. I think, as a society, we put more pressure on our boys to succeedthan we do on our girls. I know men that stay home and work in the home to support wives with careers,and it's hard. When I go to the Mommy-and-Me stuff and I see the father there, I notice that the other mommies don't play with him. And that's a problem, because we have to make it as important a job,because it's the hardest job in the world to work inside the home, for people of both genders, if we're going to even things out and let women stay in the workforce. Studies show that households with equal earning and equal responsibility also have half the divorce rate.And if that wasn't good enough motivation for everyone out there, they also have more — how shall I say this on this stage?
No, this is Penn. That stuff wouldn’t go over well here. Maybe at Drexel—but not here. I’m in trouble now.
I was back to square one—and feeling the pressure.
So now you’re probably thinking—if it was gonna be this difficult, why’d I even accept today’s invitation in the first place?
Well, you know my son goes here. That’s a good reason. And I always like to check to see how my money’s being spent.
And I’m sure there’s some parents out there who can relate to what I’m talking about!
And there were other good reasons for me to show up.
Sure, I got an Academy Award… but I never had something called “Magic Meatballs” after waiting in line for half an hour at a food truck.
True, I’ve talked face-to-face with President Obama… but I never met a guy named “Kweeder” who sings bad cover songs at Smokes on a Tuesday night.
Yes, I’ve played a detective battling demons… but I’ve never been to a school in my life where the squirrel population has gone bananas, breaking into the dorm rooms and taking over campus. I think I’ve even seen some carrying books on the way to class!
So I had to be here. I had to come… even though I was afraid I might make a fool of myself.
Now I know this feels really good to you to be here today and feels even better to me. And let me tell you why. May I tell you why? Because I got the mic. You know I’m going to do it anyway. It’s not only your graduation day, it’s Sunday.
And Sundays have always been special in my family. Sundays are for speaking up – and for bringing people together. My grandfather, the late William Holmes Borders Sr., was the pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church in Atlanta. Martin Luther King, Jr. attended many of his sermons – the very same sermons I loved as a girl, and the same sermons that encouraged me to be the person that I am today.
And it’s not just any Sunday for me. It’s been forty years since I graduated from Duke. Can you believe – do I look like it’s been 40 years?
So because it’s such a really special day, what I thought I would do is commemorate this day. Will you indulge me with a selfie? Come on now. Will you indulge me? Okay, here we go. You ready? Let me start with section one over here. You ready, section 1? Oh, wait. Okay. Love it! Section 2. Thank you! All right, let me get over here and get section 3. You’re ready? Let’s do this. Let’s do this. And then section 4, last but certainly not least. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I applaud Prime Minister Abe for expanding paid family leave here in Japan, an important step in addressing the modern challenges of working families and maintaining women’s attachment to the workforce.
This year, for the first time ever, the President’s Budget included a proposal to establish a nationwide paid family leave program. We know this will take time, but we are deeply committed to working with members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, to get it done and deliver more pro-family solutions to hardworking Americans.
Third, in this age of rapid technology, we must also confront the challenges of workforce development.
It is critical as we look toward the future, that we don’t allow women in the United States and around the world to be left behind by the 4th Industrial Revolution – a revolution that’s integrating robotics, computer programing, artificial intelligence, social media, and cutting-edge technologies into every aspect of our society.
As technology transforms every industry, we must work to ensure that women have access to the same education and industry opportunities as men.
Female and minority participation in STEM fields is moving in the wrong direction. Women today represent only 13 percent of engineers and 24 percent of Computer Science professionals, down from 35 percent in 1990. We must create equal participation in these traditionally male-dominated sectors of our economy, which are among the fastest-growing and most lucrative industries in the world. Over the coming decades, technologies such as automation and robotics will transform the way we work, and we want to make sure that women can lead in the economy of the future. Otherwise, not only will we fail in closing the persistent gender wage gap, we will risk reversing the hard-fought progress we have made in this fight.
But in 1968, with the Soviet invasion and crackdown, Klima’s ideas became dangerous. He could have fled, but he chose to return home and continue his work in defiance of the Communist regime. He organized an underground meeting of writers who circulated manuscripts in secret. Over the course of 18 years, those writers produced three hundred different works of art. They were critics, of course: critics of tyranny, critics of violence. But they were creators, too, creators of plays, novels, and poetry. They imagined, and helped create, a new and better world.
What will you imagine? A better business, a smarter school, a stronger community? Whatever you are against, it is time to create something you are for.
At Yale, you have learned to do both: to imagine and create. You have studied and explored new ideas; made art and music; excelled in athletics; launched companies; and served your neighbors and the world. You have created a vibrant, diverse, and exciting community.
Take these experiences with you and draw on them when you need encouragement. Remember a class that surprised you; a conversation that inspired you; a professor who believed in you. And take care to avoid what Toni Morrison calls “second-rate goals and secondhand ideas.”
“Our past is bleak. Our future dim,” Morrison writes. “But if we see the world as one long brutal game, then we bump into another mystery, the mystery of beauty, of light, of the canary that sings on our skulls.”
Being for something is a search for those mysteries, for that light: it is an act of radical optimism, a belief that a more perfect world is within reach and that we can help build it.
What are you for?
You may well turn that question back to me. What are you for, Peter Salovey?
I am for the transformative power of a liberal education – one that asks you to think broadly, question everything, and embrace the joy of learning.
I am for the American Dream in all its rich promise – the idea that opportunities are shared widely and that access to education is within reach for the many, not the few.
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i think one of the things i have been talking about, the mentorship, we have so many services. there is score, offices manned by retired executives, or executives lending their time to advise on business programs, web design, to kind of walk youthrough how you can expand and scale your business. small business development centers are also available. you can go to any of those district offices, 68 around the country. those areeven more bountiful in the district offices in every state. you cango to and look at the different modules. you can self-study. lots of tools are available.one of the things i got excited about in early discussionswith ms. mcmahon about the capacity of sba, most people think of it along the lines of capital. availability of capital, and how they can support businesses in that regard. these mentorship opportunities are very impactful. as i meet with entrepreneurs,consistently they talk about what is the biggest barriers to scaling a business is lack of mentorship opportunities. that is what made the difference in terms of execution on their ideas.first of all, congratulations on now being a small business owner and job creator. thank you for your service prior to that as a firefighter. my advice to you would be to look at the whole ecosystem as you think about how to start this business for thefirst time . listen to a lot of people, including people who say your ideas are bad. internalize that feedback. ultimately, i think that thinking through and bringing on partners, and people that can complement your skill set and help you to think about theexecution of your business plan is critical as you think aboutscale any meaningful way. in addition to utilizing resources,getting feedback, from people about the idea and the concept, think about how you can supplement your team to complement the skill set that you have.
any other questions? ok.
I said, "You're thinking about this just way too early." But the point is that what happens once you start kind of quietly leaning back? Everyone who's been through this — and I'm here to tell you, once you have a child at home, your job better be really good to go back, because it's hard to leave that kid at home. Your job needs to be challenging. It needs to be rewarding. You need to feel like you're making a difference. And if two years ago you didn't take a promotion and some guy next to you did, if three years ago you stopped looking for new opportunities,you're going to be bored because you should have kept your foot on the gas pedal. Don't leave before you leave. Stay in. Keep your foot on the gas pedal, until the very day you need to leave to take a break for a child — and then make your decisions. Don't make decisions too far in advance, particularly ones you're not even conscious you're making.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Eden, I'm 9 years old.Today, I'm going to tell you about my first special memory. It wasunforgettable, because it was my first flying on a plane.
When I got on the huge, white thing with two big ‘fans’, I was so scared. I was thinking what if the big thing couldn’t balance itself? What if in the middle of the trip, the airplane ran out of oil? What if the airplane crashed onto the ground when it landed? I was scared that I would falldown and smash into pieces!
Just then, the plane started to take off, and my ear started tohurt as well.So, I closed my eyes for a long long time. What a surprise! WhenI woke up, I didn't smash into pieces, and neither did I have an ear pain.Then, I looked outside the window. How amazing it was!
The sun was orange, and all the cloud turning into golden color, just like the toasted marshmallows and chicken. I could still rememberthat they looked very tasty and inviting! Furthermore, there were the golden lions,dancing bears, and more, just like the cloud zoo! I couldn’t take my eyes offthose impressive views, but it was time to land.
Never would I forget my first amazing flight, my first specialmemory! From then on, I was not afraid of flight any more, instead, I enjoyedhaving the trip in the sky. Thank you!
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.
I can't even notice that the men's hands are still raised, and the women's hands are still raised, how good are we as managers of our companies and our organizations at seeing that the men are reaching for opportunitiesmore than women?" We've got to get women to sit at the table.Message number two: Make your partner a real partner. I've become convinced that we've made more progress in the workforce than we have in the home. The data shows this very clearly. If a woman and a man work full-time and have a child, the woman does twice the amount of housework the man does, and the woman does three times the amount of childcare the man does. So she's got three jobs or two jobs, and he's got one. Who do you think drops out when someone needs to be home more? The causes of this are really complicated, and I don't have time to go into them. And I don't think Sunday football-watching and general laziness is the cause.
good morning,dear teacher and my friends.
its a very intresting topic today.
i think my dad was a hero for me when i was a young child. wed go fishing, walks, and other fun things for a kid.
every child has a good and great father, and so do i. my dad played a very important role in my daily life`````exactly speaking, in my past 16 years.
my family was rather poor when i was in my childhood. we didnt have our own house and had to live in a shabby， small room rented from my fathers factory. the room was so small that there was little space for people to walk. i didnt have my own bed and had to sleep with my parents. this is terrible both for my parents and me.
but father made this all different!he works very hard on his own business, now we have our own 2 housese,surly,i have my own room.and he take our family so much happiness, richer and richer.
when i was little, i did everything with my dad. you could always find me sitting on his knee or walking and doing everything with him. every night he would read me a bed time story and make the voices of each character.
i learnt a lot from my daddy. i learnt to never take things to seriously and to always smile.
years pasted, my father is over 45 now. it is time for me to look after him and i am sure i will do and we will live an even better life. and i will say,i really love you dad,cause you are the hero in my mind.
thank you so much!
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.
You’re about to hear a fine student response at the end of today’s program. (I know that because I get a sneak peek at those remarks.) But I wish you could also have heard the two talks given at last December’s winter commencements.
Jordan Cebulla told of being a poor student in high school here locally who almost abandoned any idea of higher education. But, told by a family friend that Lafayette is, quote, “a gritty town full of gritty people,” he gave Ivy Tech a try. And four years later, he is a Purdue alum. He told his classmates, “In the end, if we quit on ourselves, everyone else will quit on us, too.”
In his response speech, Seon Shoopman confided that, out of sixteen schools he applied to, Purdue was the only one to admit him, provided he attend our summer boot camp. Three and a half years later, he, too, earned his Purdue degree, with honors, becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. Seon said that, more than any other motive, he wanted to do it for the mother who had pushed him all the way. “When I wanted to quit, she told me not to. When I wanted to leave school, she told me not to. She told me to fight, be strong, and make something of myself.”
Some in today’s world think they have discovered something new in the concept of “grit.” A Harvard Business School article just last fall was titled “Organizational Grit,” and reported that, quote, “High achievers have extraordinary stamina. ... When easier paths beckon, their commitment is steadfast. Grit predicts who will accomplish challenging goals.” So that’s why a Harvard MBA costs 200 grand.
I’ve never been able to shake the haunting feeling of this specific house call because of the significance it would take on later in my own life – and it reminds me, of course, that even doctors can meet the same inevitable fate of becoming patients.
When I tried to tend to the diabetes my father developed later in life, I thought of that woman’s shaking, pale face.
And when I looked at his limbs – a double amputee, and recognized he was in renal failure, I thought of how he fought for a life, when she could not fight for her own.
And I thought of how in his twilight years, he was experiencing the same discomfort and dis-ease he had so seamlessly kept at bay for everyone else.
But even so, I knew we were lucky, my family. We could afford my father’s insulin. We could afford to do what it took to take care of him.
Hello everyone. My name is … I am a student of Grade eight . I am an outgoing , lovely girl and I am so welcomed by my friends and my classmates.
I have a best friend, xiao hai. She is very interesting and lovely too. She often tells funny stories and always make me laugh.
We often play together. I like action movies. I think they are exciting and interesting. I often go to the movies with my friends on weekends.
I can aslo play the violin and have won many prizes in the competitions. I take violin lessons twice a week.
It is a little hard for me but I am very happy , because I have a dream. I want to be a great violinist one day.
Thank you.
Looking around me today, I think of the generations of Yale graduates who have come before you. Individuals who have been for something.
There are many names we know and others that would be less familiar – presidents and world leaders, artists and business executives, scholars and scientists.
Like them, I know you will heed the call to leadership and service and leave your mark on every realm of human endeavor.
That is Yale’s mission – that is what Yale is for.
As members of the Yale community, what do we believe?
We believe that facts and expertise, applied with creativity and wisdom, can transform the world.
We believe that education and research save lives and make life more meaningful.
We believe that diversity of thought and diversity indeed are essential to human progress.
We believe, most of all, in the boundless potential of human ingenuity; that together, we can solve great challenges and bring light and truth to a world in great need of it.
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.
Leaders with the academic preparation to solve mind-bending technological challenges. With the moral character to help society navigate times of blurringly fast change, in ways that are ethical, equitable, and humanistic. Most of all, with the inner strength to take on the burdens of high responsibility, and the heat, envy, and hostility that comes with them, and deliver the positive change that human progress requires.
You showed the quality of grit before you arrived here. That’s why we admitted you. I hope that your days here, with a faculty that pushed and stretched you, and classmates like Jordan and Seon to inspire you, built your reserves of resilience.
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…?
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.
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.
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.
we all want the future to be better than the past. but the future can go better itself. dont cry because it is over, smile because it happened. from the past, weve learnt that the life is tough, but we are tougher. weve learnt that we cant choose how we feel, but we can choose what about it. failure doesnt mean you dont have it, it does mean you should do it in a different way. failure doesnt mean you should give up, it does mean you must try harder.
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.”