--- title: NYU: President Obama Speechwriter Cody Keenan Commencement Speech description: Cody Keenan gave this commencement speech to NYU’s Graduate School of Public Service canonical: https://time.com/3921833/cody-keenan-nyu-commencement-speech/ author: Cody Keenan article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T21:39:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:08:44.612Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Cody Keenan to Public Service Grads: Be Afraid to Fail og:description: Cody Keenan gave this commencement speech to NYU’s Graduate School of Public Service og:url: https://time.com/3921833/cody-keenan-nyu-commencement-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5452cf450d91b458/698854cd428a9e76b6ccdbed/cody-keenan.png?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 828 og:image:height: 466 og:image:alt: cody keenan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cody Keenan to Public Service Grads: Be Afraid to Fail twitter:description: Cody Keenan gave this commencement speech to NYU’s Graduate School of Public Service twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5452cf450d91b458/698854cd428a9e76b6ccdbed/cody-keenan.png?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cody Keenan to Public Service Grads: Be Afraid to Fail > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=692dd79a-52b1-4392-a1f2-74308d0d746f&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: NYU Wagner 2015 Convocation Keynote Address - Cody Keenan [Watch (HLS stream): NYU Wagner 2015 Convocation Keynote Address - Cody Keenan](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Id0NKN5o.m3u8) (18:25)  _Published 2015-06-16. NYU Wagner 2015 Convocation Keynote Address - Cody Keenan_ by [Cody Keenan](https://time.com/author/cody-keenan/) ## Cody Keenan Jun 16, 2015 9:39 PM UTC by [Cody Keenan](https://time.com/author/cody-keenan/) ## Cody Keenan Jun 16, 2015 9:39 PM UTC Good morning! Thank you Jessica, thank you Dean Glied, faculty, families and friends. So this is what it’s like to actually deliver a speech. I confess it’s my first time. Usually, my job ends when I click “print.” But as strange as this feels, I’m excited to be here, because I remember well how much fun this day is. Congratulations to the Class of 2015! I was sitting where you are, as a public policy graduate, just seven years ago. Which brings me to my first piece of advice. Stay out even later with your friends tonight. If you already did that last night, and I can tell that some of you did, do it again. With respect to your professors, the friends you’ve made here will be what lasts you longest. By the way, give it up for your professors! But I can tell you from experience that you will have so much fun watching what your fellow students do. You will see their names in the paper, sure, but more importantly, you will see their updates from the trenches — in schools, on the streets, from secluded corners of the world — everywhere that begs for people willing to do what we do — the hard work of change. It will make you proud. It happens, sooner than you think. And it will confirm something: You made the right choice. Public service is important. It matters. Parents — your kids made the right choice. Public service is important. It matters. So thank you for helping us along the way. And while today might feel bittersweet, the best stuff is still coming, I promise. Four years ago, I met a wonderful woman at the White House. Three nights ago, here in New York City, she agreed to marry me. One of her team’s many responsibilities, by the way, is to factcheck my team’s speeches. So she’s the envy of partners everywhere: she literally gets paid to tell me I’m wrong. Get ready: She did not factcheck this one. And I admit I underestimated how hectic a proposal would make the past few days, so I had to finish this speech yesterday on a bench in Union Square Park. I’ve written in stranger places — but usually with fewer strangers yelling at me. But it’s true — I am President Obama’s chief speechwriter. So who knows what he’s saying today. I did ask his advice for this, though. He said, why don’t you try something new for you — and keep it short? Over the years, I’ve studied hundreds of commencements, drafted or edited more than a dozen, and come up with all manner of life lessons and clichés. What makes my task easier today is that you already know them. I don’t have to spend time trying to convince you to serve others, or to hitch your wagon to something bigger, or to change the world — you already made those choices when you chose a school of public service. You have chosen a calling that is fundamentally hopeful — because it’s full of people who actually believe we can make a difference in this world. Besides, I don’t have a lifetime of wisdom to offer you. There’s a solid chance that I’m the first commencement speaker in history to be three months removed from living in a group house. And I have no idea what I’ll be doing a year and a half from now, when my boss has to hand over the keys to the White House. All I have on most of you is a head start. So all I can offer you is the cheat codes — how I got here, and what I’ve learned by giving the prime of my life to public service. When I moved to Washington right out of college, I knew one person — a fraternity brother teaching elementary school. So when it came to finding a job, I was on my own. I figured I went to a good school, and I’d seen every episode of The West Wing, how hard could it be? Several failed interviews and dead-ends later, my ego was dust. Just when I was rethinking the whole thing, I saw a posting for an unpaid internship in a senator’s office — Ted Kennedy. In him, I saw someone who got things done, and cared about the people I cared about. So, oblivious to the way things work in Washington, I called and asked for his chief of staff. I was quickly transferred to an annoyed intern coordinator, who hired me over the phone on the spot. Not because I was super awesome — but, as she would tell me a few months later, because it was five pm on a Friday and she just wanted to go home. I showed up on Monday morning in my $150 power suit, ready to make a name for myself in Congress. I was one of fifty interns. And I was assigned to a windowless mailroom. But I threw myself into it, reading and routing mail, walking the Senator’s dogs, Sunny and Splash, running memos to and from the Senate floor, whatever the job required. And three months later, I was hired to answer the phones and greet visitors to his front office for the princely sum of $18,500 a year. I lived with three guys and two girls in a group house and drank cheap beer. Life was actually pretty great. Over the next few years, I moved up the ranks, and eventually gained a small legislative portfolio of my own. I got to go to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and found myself on the floor the night a man named Barack Obama introduced himself to the country. I even got an unexpected entrée into speechwriting when my boss, who usually wrote Senator Kennedy’s policy speeches, had too much on his plate and asked me if I wanted to give it a try. And that one led to a few more. Then, like a lot of people who aren’t sure what to do with their life, I went to public policy school. And towards the end of my first year, a former colleague introduced me to Senator Obama’s chief speechwriter. The campaign had just started. He was swamped, which made him desperate enough to hire me, someone with maybe five speeches under my belt, as his unpaid intern. So, four years after my last internship, I was the lowest guy on the totem pole again. And again, I threw myself into it, doing whatever the job required. I have no formal training as a speechwriter — to which critics of the President’s speeches would say, “duh.” But I had a facility with the written word, and what I lacked in skill, I tried to make up for with heart. And when the chief speechwriter had too much on his plate and needed someone to step up, I made sure I was ready. The truth is, I have been really lucky in my career. I wish I could tell you that my story was entirely self-made; that it included crushing failure followed by a “Rocky IV”-style montage of moving to a mountain cabin, growing a beard, and teaching myself how to write speeches from scratch all to a monster power ballad. But any successful person who tells you that luck hasn’t played a role in their success is lying to your face. Now, you can improve your odds of getting a lucky break. Work your tail off. Be the last to leave the office at night. Appreciate being part of a team, rather than just acting like you do. Don’t just embrace, but enjoy being surrounded by people who are smarter than you are. And be nice. As it turns out, people notice these things, and reward you for them. That’s not to say you can’t succeed by being insufferably brazen and overeager and narcissistic. I do work in Washington. Letting your ambition run wild is actually a pretty effective tactic. It’s just less fun to live with yourself. So in my book, success is the place where hard work meets luck. But I know that “get lucky” isn’t great guidance — though I do hope you all get lucky. So with my remaining time, based on what I’ve learned along the way, I humbly offer two pieces of advice that hold true regardless of whether luck finds you or not, and might even take you to a better place. The first is to remember that the career path you’ve chosen isn’t about you at all. Now, that’s kind of implicit in the words “public service.” But I didn’t get it until I worked in that windowless mailroom back in the Senate. There, I learned that politics is not about sexy walk-and-talks, power lunches, or using witty banter to solve the world’s problems in an hour. With each envelope I opened; with each of the hundreds of letters and phone calls a day from people desperately asking a senator who was not their own for help; with each perfect stranger’s private hopes and pains laid bare across the page — I learned how deeply policy, politics, and public service matter. I learned that my job was no longer about me or my future. When President Obama took office, and took us along with him, he asked his correspondence staff to give him ten letters a night from everyday Americans. As his speechwriter, I get to read those letters, too. And they really are a representative sample. Some are mean. Some are nice. Some are about specific issues. It wouldn’t surprise any of you that a lot are about the unfairness of student loan debt. But most of them are from ordinary people who work really hard, and do what’s expected of them, but can’t seem to make life work out the way we’re told it should. They don’t ask for anything — they just desperately want somebody to know. I often think about what it takes for someone to sit down and write a letter that’s so personal. And even when they’re at the end of their rope; even when you can tell that they had to wipe a tear off the page — I still think there’s something inherently hopeful about what they’re doing. It’s the hope that the system still works; that someone will hear their story and care about what’s happening in their life. It is a constant, searing reminder of why what we’re trying to do has to work. Now, some of you will go on to work directly with the people whom you got in this business to help. Others of you will work in institutions like government, with colleagues who are well-meaning, but where bureaucracy and convention tend to divorce you from the very people who drew you to this calling in the first place. And that can take you down a road where you’re fighting with a speechwriter to actually write something along the lines of: “This synergistic public-private partnership will leverage innovative micro-financing mechanisms to deliver educational services to the city’s four year-old humans,” when you could just say “Boom — little Billy gets to go to Pre-K now.” As an aside, my general rule is, “If you wouldn’t say that to a friend in a bar, don’t make me put it in a speech.” You should join those institutions — but you should resist that separation. Even if you truly love writing regulations more than anything else — in which case, wow — wherever you go from here, always remember who brought you here. It grounds you. It’s why I stay in touch with some of the people whose stories the President tells. Some of them have become friends. I’ve seen their kids grow up via Facebook. And sometimes, I’ve seen their lives improve because of something we did — which is exactly what this is all about. Whenever the President suffers a political or policy setback, no matter how minor, you can bet that someone in the media will inevitably call it his biggest crisis yet, or, my favorite, “Obama’s Katrina,” of which there have been about twenty. But I’ll tell you, for me, it has never been darker than it was in January 2010\. There was a special election to fill my old boss’s seat in the Senate after he passed away. A Republican won, which left us exactly one vote short on Obamacare. The irony was cruel — it was the cause of Ted Kennedy’s career. The President was advised to set his sights lower, cut a deal to expand coverage to some more kids, and move on. But he refused to go small. He went big. Not for his own sake; not because he was concerned with his legacy; but because he had read too many stories, in too many letters, to let that mail go unanswered. And he won. And for all the noise and nonsense, there are about 16 million newly insured Americans whose lives are better because he did. That brings me to my final piece of advice. Be afraid to fail. Now, I know you’ve heard people say “don’t be afraid to fail.” You should ignore that advice. You should be so afraid of failure that you’re willing to do anything to succeed. I say this as someone who works in a town where so much is driven by a fear of failure. It takes guts to run for office, and good people, with good intentions, fight and claw and suspend their pride to basically panhandle from millionaires to win that office. But when they win, a lot of them become afraid to lose. They end up playing it safe, not rocking the boat, not doing much of anything at all for fear of angering the base or making a “gaffe” — which is another word for “telling the truth.” That’s how you get people running for a fifth, sixth, seventh term saying that government is the problem, not me, send me back there to fix it — without even a hint of irony. And I’ll tell you, as a writer, I know fear — or at least crippling self-doubt. I told another speechwriter I was doing this today, and he said, “just tell them not to become writers.” Because there’s nothing scarier than a blank page. It taunts you, because it knows you have to shape it into something with a purpose — a rally, a eulogy, a State of the Union Address. But that’s the thing — fear of failure is a powerful motivator. I’d been in the White House for two years before I was asked to write a speech that would earn national attention. And I pretty much stayed up for sixty hours straight to make sure it was good. Fear of failure keeps you sharp, even if it keeps you sleepless. It’s why, for weeks before something like the State of the Union Address, my car is the last one in the parking lot at night. I’m afraid all the time. I’m afraid to let my colleagues see that I’m not as smart as they are. I’m afraid to let the President down. I was afraid to do this commencement, for fear of being exposed as a lousy speechwriter. Though if you didn’t like it, I’m just going to blame it on the fact that it was really hard to concentrate in Union Square Park. And I’m not perfect — I still succumb to that fear sometimes. Not too long ago, the President and I were working on a speech that we knew would get a lot of attention. Here, let me point out that he’s really the chief speechwriter. He’s a better writer than I am — which he won’t hesitate to point out — and if he had 48 hours in a day, he’d write his own speeches. So I view my job as to gather his thoughts, and try to give him a draft he can work with — one that says what he would if he had the time. So two days before the speech, I handed him the first draft in the Oval Office. A half hour later, his assistant called and asked me to come back. Typically, when that happens, it’s not just so he can tell you how awesome you are, and send you on your way. And that day, he started out by saying, “Look, this is well-written, and I could probably deliver it as is,” which almost never means he actually wants to deliver it as is. “But we have two days, so let’s make it better.” And then he gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten, one I wish he’d given me years ago. “You took a half-swing on this. Take a full swing.” He was right — I did take a half swing. Because I was afraid of what people would think and how they would react. I was afraid of what he would think. And that made me forget a lot of what I’d learned over the years, which is that we have never regretted going big; we have never regretted provoking uncomfortable conversations; we have never regretted poking holes in the B.S. that pervades most political speech and commentary. I let my fear of failure rein me in, when usually, it’s what propels me forward. And I did not make that mistake on the second draft. The point is, fear of failure forces you to push yourself. And if there’s one place worth pushing yourself, it’s in public service. Complacency is the enemy of change, and we already have enough complacent people in power. The halls of power are full of the timid. Separate yourselves from them. You will always regret taking a half swing, I promise. You will never regret taking a full swing. If you’re going to strike out, you go down swinging — not by watching the pitch go by. There is something worse about failing that way. Public service is a tough profession, whatever flavor of it you’re heading into. All the theory you learned here is about to run up against cold, hard practice. And I promise you, anytime you try to change something, you will run into a chorus of cynics who tell you that you can’t do it; it won’t work; we don’t do things this way; fall in line. Ignore them. No one remembers people like that. I don’t care if you’re delivering clean water in Africa, devising new traffic patterns in Wichita, or launching a educational nonprofit in TriBeCa — people remember those who take great risks and do big things on their behalf. Cynicism is easy. Anyone can do it. Change is hard. That takes us. Today is a day all about you, as it should be. It’s hard-earned, and well-deserved. But take a minute to think about who it was that set you on this course in the first place — not a policy, or a theory, but the people that policy would help. If they sat down today, and wrote you a letter about their lives, what would it say? Hold on to that. Stay true to that. Tell their story — then work to change their story. One of the things I love about my new fiancée is that she still takes photos of the White House like she just got there. My hope for all of you, as you enter or re-enter your careers, is that you do it with those same wide eyes. Do it with the same sense of wonder you had when you first set foot in New York City. Because public service is important. It matters. Remember who brought you here, and take a full swing on their behalf. Because whether they know you or not, they’re still hopeful that somewhere, someone is listening. So get out there and show them that we are. Thank you, congratulations, and good luck. _Read more 2015 commencement speeches:_ [_Alan Alda to Grads: Everything in Life Takes Time_](http://time.com/3889343/alan-alda-graduation-speech-cmu) [_Arianna Huffington to Grads: Make Time to Connect With Yourself_](http://time.com/3910921/arianna-huffington-graduation-speech-vassar/) [_Bernard Harris to Grads: You Are an Infinite Being With Infinite Possibilities_](http://time.com/3892197/bernard-harris-graduation-speech-wpi/) [_Bill Nye to Grads: Change the World_](http://time.com/3882613/bill-nye-graduation-speech-rutgers-university/) [_Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Grads: Make Feminism an Inclusive Party_](http://time.com/3921492/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-graduation-commencement-wellesley/) [_Chris Matthews to Grads: ‘Make Them Say No. Never Say No to Yourself’_](http://time.com/3895685/chris-matthews-commencement-address/) [_Colin Powell to Grads: Learn to Lead_](http://time.com/3889524/colin-powell-graduation-speech-2015/) [_Darren Walker to Grads: Build a Bridge to a Better World_](http://time.com/3897166/darren-walker-graduation-speech-ut-austin/) [_Ed Helms to Grads: Define Yourselves_](http://time.com/3891310/ed-helms-graduation-speech-2015/) [_Eric Schmidt to Grads: You Can Write the Code for All of Us_](http://time.com/3889977/eric-schmidt-graduation-speech-vt) [_Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel to Grads: ‘This Is the World We Were Born Into, and We Are Responsible for It’_](http://time.com/3881609/snapchat-evan-spiegel-graduation-speech/) [_Gwen Ifill to Grads: If You See Something, Do Something_](http://time.com/3891033/gwen-ifill-graduation-speech-utica/) [_GE CEO Jeff Immelt to Grads: Become a Force for Change_](http://time.com/3888086/jeff-immelt-graduation-speech-siena/) [_Ian Brennan, Creator of_ Glee_, to Grads: Audition for Everything_](http://time.com/3922642/ian-brennan-graduation-speech-loyola-chicago/) [_Ian McEwan to Grads: Defend Free Speech_](http://time.com/3883212/ian-mcewan-graduation-speech-dickinson/) [_Joe Plumeri to Grads: Go Out and Play in Traffic_](http://time.com/3896557/joe-plumeri-graduation-speech-nyls/) [_Jon Bon Jovi to Grads: Lead By Example_](http://time.com/3892791/bon-jovi-graduation-speech-rutgers-camden/) [_Jorge Ramos’ Message for Journalists: Take a Stand_](http://time.com/3881590/jorge-ramos-usc-commencement/) [_Joyce Carol Oates to Grads: Be Stubborn and Optimistic_](http://time.com/3893106/joyce-carol-oates-to-grads-be-stubborn-and-optimistic/) [_Katie Couric to Grads: Get Yourself Noticed_](http://time.com/3882654/katie-couric-graduation-speech-2015/) [_Ken Burns to Grads: Set Things Right Again_](http://time.com/3890954/ken-burns-graduation-speech-wustl/) [_Kenneth Cole to Grads: Find Your Voice_](http://time.com/3889495/kenneth-cole-class-speech-emory) [_Madeleine Albright to Grads: The World Needs You_](http://time.com/3882439/madeleine-albright-tufts-graduation-speech/) [_Mark Ruffalo to Grads: Buck the System_](http://time.com/3883345/mark-ruffalo-award-speech-dickinson/) [_Matthew McConaughey to Grads: Always Play Like an Underdog_](http://time.com/3881954/matthew-mcconaughey-graduation-speech-university-of-houston/) [_Maya Rudolph to Grads: Create Your Own Destiny_](http://time.com/3883091/maya-rudolph-tulane-university-graduation-speech/) [_Mellody Hobson to Grads: Set Your Sights High_](http://time.com/3889937/mellody-hobson-graduation-speech-usc/) [_Meredith Vieira to Grads: Be the Left Shark_](http://time.com/3882465/meredith-vieira-graduation-speech-boston-university/?iid=time%5Fspeed) [_Michelle Obama to Grads: Shape the Revolution_](http://time.com/3895761/michelle-obama-to-grads-shape-the-revolution/) [_Mitt Romney to Grads: America Needs You to Serve_](http://time.com/3882769/mitt-romney-graduation-speech-saint-anselm-college/) [_Natalie Portman to Grads: Carve Your Own Path_](http://time.com/3899747/natalie-portman-to-grads-carve-your-own-path/) [_President Obama to Grads: We Should Invest in People Like You_](http://time.com/3889866/barack-obama-graduation-speech-lati/) [_President Obama to Cadets: Lead the Way on Fighting Climate Change_](http://time.com/3891078/barack-obama-graduation-speech-uscga/) [_Salman Rushdie to Grads: Try to Be Larger Than Life_](http://time.com/3889267/salman-rushdie-graduation-speech-emory/) [_Samantha Power to Grads: Start Changing the World By ‘Acting As If’_](http://time.com/3883303/samantha-power-graduation-speech-upenn/) [_Stephen Colbert to Grads: You Are Your Own Professor Now_](http://time.com/3883513/stephen-colbert-graduation-speech-wfu/) [_Tim Cook to Grads: Tune Out the Cynics_](http://time.com/3882479/tim-cook-graduation-speech-gwu/) ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] Well, good morning. So this is what it looks like to give a speech. [ LAUGH ] Confess that I've never done this before, my job usually ends when I click print. So thank you Justin, thank you Dean Bleed, faculty, family, friends. As exciting as this is, the bagpipes. It's like total bucket list thing, now I can cross that off. [ LAUGH ] But I'm really excited to be here, mostly because I remember how How much fun it is, you guys has already not disappointed so we had a good time. Congratulation to the Class of 2015! [ APPLAUSE ] As Jessica said, I was sitting where you are as a public policy graduate just seven years ago. Which brings me my first piece of Stay out even later with your friends tonight. [ LAUGH ] You already did that last night. I noticed that some of you did, do it again. Because with respect to your professors, the friends you made here will be what lasts the longest. By the way, give it up to your professors. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] But I can tell you from experience, you will have so much fun watching what your fellow students do from there. You will see their names in the paper, sure but more importantly you will see their updates from the trenches. In schools, on streets, from secluded corners of the world, everywhere that begs for people willing to do what we do. The hard work of change. It will make you proud like Jessica said you will say, I knew them well. And it happens sooner than you think. It will confirm something. You made the right choice. Public service is important, it matters. Parents your kids made the right choice. [ LAUGH ]. Public service is important. [ Laughter ] So thank you. [ Applause ] And while today might feel bittersweet, and it is, the best stuff is still coming, I promise. Four years ago I met a wonderful woman at the White House. And three nights ago here in New York City, she agreed to marry me. [ APPLAUSE ] She's here somewhere, hiding under a seat I can't see her. There she is. What of her teams many responsibilities at the White House By the way, it's to fact check my team speeches. [ LAUGH ] So she's the envious partners everywhere. She literally gets paid to tell me I'm wrong, but get ready, she would not fact check this speech. [ LAUGH ] I do admit I underestimated how active a proposal would make me the last few days, so I had to finish this speech yesterday in a bench in Union Street Park. I have written in stranger places. But they're usually through a stranger who's yelling at me while I do it. [ LAUGH ] But it's true, I am President Obama's speech writer, so who knows what I am / he is saying tonight. [ LAUGH ] I did ask his advice for this, though, and he said, why don't you try something new? And keep it short. [ LAUGH ] But even though this is my first commencement, over the years I've studied hundreds of them. I've drafted or edited more than a dozen, I've come up with all manner of life lessons and cliches. What makes my task easier today is what you already know. I don't have to spend time trying to convince you to serve others Or to get your wagon something bigger, or to change the world because you've already made those choices when you choose a school of public service. You have chosen a calling that is fundamentally hopeful because it is filled with people who actually believe we can change the world. Also, I happen to have a lifetime of wisdom to offer you. There is a solid chance that I am the first commencement speaker in history to be three months from living in a group house. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] Stupid. And I have no idea what I'll be doing a year and a half from now when my boss has to handle the keys to the White House. All I have [ UNKNOWN ] is a head start. So all I can offer you is the cheap [ UNKNOWN ] how I got here, and what [ UNKNOWN ] applying to my life of public service. What I went to Washington out of college, I knew one person. A fraternity brother teaching elementary school. So I couldn't find a job [ UNKNOWN ] I figured how to [ UNKNOWN ] I've seen every episode of the West Wing, how hard could this possibly be? [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] Well several failed interviews and dead- ends later, my ego was dust. And just when I was rethinking the whole thing, I saw an unpaid internship in Ted Kennedy's office. In him I saw someone who got things done, and who cared about the people that I cared about. So I called his front desk and asked for his chief of staff because obviously The way things work in Washington. And I was quickly was transferred to an annoyed entry coordinator, who hired me over the phone on the spot. Not because I was super awesome but, as she would tell me several months later, it was 5: 00PM on Friday and she just wanted to go home. [ LAUGH ] But I showed up on Monday morning in my $ 150 power suit, ready to make Make myself [ UNKNOWN ]. [ LAUGH ] I was one of 50 interns, and I was assigned to a windowless mail room. But I threw myself into it, reading and routing mail, walking the Senator's dogs, Sunny and Splash, running memos to and from the Senate floor. Whatever the job required. A few months later I was hired to answer phones in the front office and greet visitors. For the princely sum of $ 18, 500 a year. I lived with three guys and two girls in a group house and we drank cheap beer and life was actually pretty good. [ LAUGH ] Over the next few years I moved up the ranks and eventually gained a small legislative portfolio of my own. I got to go to the Democratic National Convention in Boston and found myself on the floor of the Barack Obama introduced himself to the country. I even got an unexpected entrée into speech writing when my boss, who usually wrote Sen. Kennedy's policy speeches, had too much on his plate one day and asked me if I wanted to give it a try. And that one led to a few more. Then, like a lot people who aren't sure what to do with their life, I went to public policy school. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] And towards the end of my first year a former colleague from [ UNKNOWN ] introduced me to Senator Obama's chief speech writer. Now the campaign had just started and we're a few months in and he was swamped [ UNKNOWN ] which made him desperate enough to hire me. So with five speeches under my belt this is [ UNKNOWN ]. So four years after my last internship, I was the most [ UNKNOWN ]. And again I threw myself into it doing whatever the job required. I have no formal training as a speech writer. To which critics of present speeches would say duh. [ LAUGH ] But I had a facility with the written word and what I lacked in skill I tried to make up for in heart. And when a chief speechwriter had too much on his plate, He needed someone to step up and make sure I was ready. And the truth is, I have been really lucky in my career. I wish I could tell you my story is entirely self made, that it included crushing failure, followed by a Rocky IV style montage of moving to a mountain cabin, growing a beard, teaching myself to write speeches from scrap while a monster power ballad played in the background, [ LAUGH ] [ Laughter ] But any successful person that tells you that luck hasn't played a role in their career is lying to your face. Now you can improve your odds of getting that lucky break. Work your tail off. Be the last person to leave the office at night. Actually appreciate being part of a team, rather than acting like you do. Jump with some grace, but enjoy being surrounded by people who are smarter than you. And be nice, cuz it turns out people notice these things. They reward you. And that's not to say you can't succeed by being insufferably brazen and overeager and narcissistic. I do work in Washington. And letting your ambition run wild is actually a pretty effective tactic. It's just less fun to live with yourself. [ INAUDIBLE ] So my [ INAUDIBLE ] successes the place where hard work meets luck. But I know that good luck and using great guidance, but I do hope that all you get lucky. [ LAUGH ] She got it. [ LAUGH ] She got it. [ LAUGH ] So if [ INAUDIBLE ] in time based upon what I I learned along the way. I humbly offer two pieces of advice that hold true regardless of whether luck / finds you or not, and it might even take you to a better place. The first is this. Remember that the career path you have chosen is not about you at all. [ INAUDIBLE ] public service, but I didn't get it until I worked in that windowless mailroom back in the '70s. Politics is not about sexy walk and talks, power lunches, or using witty banter to solve the world's problems [ UNKNOWN ]. With each envelope I open, which each [ UNKNOWN ] hundreds of letters and phone calls a day from people desperately asking senators not [ UNKNOWN ]. With each perfect stranger's private votes and paintings laid bare across the page, I learned how deeply policy politics in public service matter. I learned that my job is no longer about me or my future. So when president Obama took office, he took us along with him. He asked his correspondence staff to start giving him ten letters a day from ordinary Americans, and as his speech writer I get to read those letters too. Now they really are a representative sample. Some of them are quite mean. [ LAUGH ] Some of them are nice. Some are about specific issues, and it wouldn't surprise any of you to know that a lot are about the unfairness of student loan debt. [ LAUGH ] But most are for ordinary people who work really hard, and do everything that's expected of them. But can't seem to make life work out the way we're told that it should. And they don't ask for anything. Most of the time, they just desperately want [ UNKNOWN ]. I want somebody to know. And I often think about what it takes for someone to sit down and write one of the harder letters, that's so personal. You wonder if at the end of their rope, even when can tell that they had to wipe a tear off a page, there's still something inherently hopeful about in what they're doing, It's the hope that the system still works. It's a hope that someone will hear their story and care about what's happening in their , >> [ COUGH ] In life. It is a constant searing reminder of why what we are trying to do has to work. Now some people go work directly with the people you got into this business of helping in the first place. Others of you will work in institutions like government with colleagues who are well- meaning will work bureaucracy, conventions and the divorce [ INAUDIBLE ] Some of the very people who dreamed here in the first place. Sometimes I can take you down a road where you're fighting with speed records, actually write something along the lines of, this synergistic public private partnership leveraged innovative micro financing mechanisms to provide educational services in cities four year old [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ LAUGH ] When you could just say, boom, little Billy gets but freaking out. [ Applause ] As an aside, my general rule is if you're not going to say something to someone in a bar, I'm not putting it in a speech. You should join those institutions, but you should resist that separation. Even if you truly like writing regulations more than anything else in which case wow where ever you go from here always remember who brought you here. [ LAUGH ] Always remember who rushed you as a groundsman. That's why I stay in touch with a lot of people who's stories we tell in president speeches. Some of them become friends, I watched their kids grow up in Facebook. And sometimes I've seen their lives actually improve because of something we did. Which is exactly what this is all about. Now whenever the president suffers a political or policy set back you can bet that someone in the media will inevitably call it his biggest crisis yet. White House under siege. Or my personal favorite, Obama's Katrina, of which there have been about 20 . >> [ LAUGH ] But, I'll tell you for me it has never been darker than when it was, January 2010. There was a special lecture to fill my boss' seat that passed away. And a republican won, which left exactly one vote short of Obamacare. The argument was cool because it was the cause of Ted Kennedy's career. The president was advised by a lot of people in the White House to set aside slowly to cut a deal with the Was gonna cover some more kids and move on. But he refused to go small, he went big. Not for his own sake, not because he was concerned with his legacy, but because he read too many stories and too many letters to let that mail go unanswered. And he won. And for all the noise and nonsense, there are about 16 million A newly insured Americans whose lives are better because he did. [ APPLAUSE ] That brings me to my final piece of advice. Be afraid to fail. And I know you hear people say all the time that say don't be afraid to fail. You should ignore that of us. [ LAUGH ] You should be so afraid of failure that you are going to anything to succeed. I say this as someone who works in a town where so much is driven by fear of failure. It takes guts to run for office and there are good people in both parties with good intentions who fight in [ UNKNOWN ] and suspend their pride to basically panhandle Of millionaires would like to win an office. But when they win, a lot of them become afraid to lose. They're either playing it safe, not rocking the boat not doing much of anything at all and that's how you get people running for fifth, sixth, or seventh terms saying that government is the problem not me. Send me back there to fix it without even a hint of irony. And I'll tell you as a writer, I know fear. Or at least, totally crippling, crushing, self- doubt. [ LAUGH ] I told [ UNKNOWN ] I was doing this today, and he said just tell them not to become writers. [ LAUGH ] Because there's nothing scarier than a blank page. It taunts you, because you know you have to shape it into something with a purpose. A rally, a eulogy, a state of the union address. But that's the thing. Fear of failure is a powerful motivator. I've been in the White House for three whole years before I was asked to write a speech that would earn any national attention. And I pretty much stayed up for 60 hours straight to make sure it was good. Fear of failure keeps you sharp, even if it keeps you sleepless. It's why for weeks before something like the State of the Union Address, my car The last one in the parking lot every night. I'm afraid all the time. I'm afraid to let my colleagues see that I'm not as smart as I'd like, I'm afraid to let the President down. I was afraid to do this commencement for fear of being exposed as a lousy speech writer. [ LAUGH ] But if you didn't like it, I'm just gonna blame it on the fact that it's really hard to concentrate in Union Square Park. [ LAUGH ] And I still succumb to that fear sometimes. Not too long ago the President and I were working on a speech that we knew would get a lot of attention. Now here, let me point out that he's really the chief speech writer in the operation. He's a better writer than I am, which he will never hesitate to point out. And if he had 48 hours in a day, he would write his own speeches. But he doesn't. To I view my job as to gather these thoughts and try to get him a draft that he can work with, one that says what he would if he had the time. So two days before this big speech, I handed him the first draft in the oval office. A half hour later, his assistant called and asked me to come back. Now typically when that happens, it's not just so he can tell you how awesome you are and send you on your way. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] And that day he started out by saying look, this is well written and I could probably deliver it as it is, which almost never means he actually wants to deliver it as it is. [ LAUGH ] But we have two days so lets make it better. And then he gave me one of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten. One of which he gave me years ago. You took a half swing on this. Take a full swing. [ LAUGH ] And he was right, I did take a half swing, because I was afraid of what people would think, and how they would react. And that made me forget a lot of what I'd learned over the years, which is that we have never regretted going big at the White House. We have never regretted provoking uncomfortable conversations. We have never regretted poking holes in the BS that pervades most political Speech and commentary. So I let my fear of failure rein me in, when usually it's what propels me forward. And I did not make that mistake on the second draft. My point is, fear of failure forces you to push yourself, and if there is one place worth pushing yourself, it's public service. Those people are depending on you. Complacency is the enemy of change. We are not a complacent people in power. The halls of power are full of contenders, separate yourselves from them. You will always regret taking a half swing, I promise. You will never regret taking a full swing. If you're going to strike out, you go down swinging, not by watching the pitcher. About it. There is something worse about- [ APPLAUSE ] Public service is a tough profession, whatever flavor you guys head into. All the theory you learned here is about to run up against cold hard practice. And I promise you Any time you try to change something you will run into a course sentence that will tell you you can't do it, it wont work, we don't do things this way, just fall in line. You should ignore them too. Nobody remembers people like that. I don't care if you're delivering clean water in Africa, devising new traffic guides in Wichita or starting starting education non- profits in Tribeca, people remember those who take great risks To do big things on their behalf. [ INAUDIBLE ], anybody can do it. Change is hard. That takes us. Today is a day all about you as it should be. It's hard earned and its well deserved. But take a minute to think today about who it was that set you on this course. In the first place. Not a policy or a theory, but the people that policy or theory would help. If they sat down and wrote you a letter about their lives, think about what it would say. Now hold on to that. Stay true to that. Tell their story and then work to change their story. To wrap it up, one of things that I love about my new fiance. Is that she still takes photos of the White House like she just got there. [ LAUGH ] And my hope for all of you as you enter or re- enter your careers is that you do it with those same wide eyes. Do with the same sense of wonder you had when you first set foot in Ney York City. Because public service is important. It matters. Remember who brought you here, and took a full swing on your behalf. Because whether they know you or not, they are still hopeful that somewhere, someone is listening. So get out there and show them that we are. Good luck, congratulations, and thank you very much. 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