--- title: Advice for 2016 Graduates: Don't Follow Your Dreams description: In commencement addresses across this country, graduates are being told to follow their dreams. This is what they should be told instead. canonical: https://time.com/4337878/graduation-advice/ author: Rabbi David Wolpe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-17T13:43:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:34.734Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Dear Graduates: Don't Follow Your Dreams og:description: Learn to listen to the dreams of others og:url: https://time.com/4337878/graduation-advice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a76f653c100abc0/69889361bc6cfce1233dd00d/graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: Graduation day og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dear Graduates: Don't Follow Your Dreams twitter:description: Learn to listen to the dreams of others twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a76f653c100abc0/69889361bc6cfce1233dd00d/graduation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dear Graduates: Don't Follow Your Dreams > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=00c3b70a-4509-4814-9780-a9e147eb06eb&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Best Graduation Advice from Commencement Speeches [Watch (HLS stream): Best Graduation Advice from Commencement Speeches](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YcMjDxtp.m3u8) (2:32)  _Published 2015-05-21. The best words of wisdom from this year's commencement speeches._ by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 17, 2016 1:43 PM UTC  Graduation day Graduation day Getty Images by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 17, 2016 1:43 PM UTC In commencement addresses across this country, graduates are being told to follow their dreams. Instead of repeating this silver-lined cliché, I hope at least a few of the speakers say something like this to the graduates: “Today is not about following your dream.” This is my advice for graduates: Let me tell you a story. It is an old story from the Bible, often told. It is about a young man named Joseph who had dreams. He dreamt that his brothers and father and mother bowed down to him. His brothers, understandably, grew to resent him. They resented him so much that they ended up selling him into slavery in Egypt. While he was there, he refused the advances of his master’s wife and ended up in prison. In prison, through interpreting the dreams of the cupbearer and baker and eventually the dreams of Pharaoh himself, Joseph rose to be the second in command in Egypt. Here is the question: Joseph fell through dreams, and he rose through dreams. What marked the difference between the two episodes? In the first, Joseph listened only to his own dreams. In the second, he learned to listen to the dreams of others. Everyone has dreams. They do not make you special. One thing that can make you special is to listen to the dreams of others as well. You want to be rich? That’s not an uncommon dream, nor is it a very ambitious one. Do you want to enrich others? Now _that_ is a dream worth listening to. All over this world there are people who have dreams and no means to realize them. A child born in a relocation camp in Sudan has dreams. Will you listen to hers, or perhaps help her realize those dreams? I spoke to children in Haiti who had not a single possession other than the clothes on their backs, but they all had dreams. Will you take time from your life of blessing and privilege to make it your dream to listen to theirs? If you create a successful business, will you be fair to the people who work there and help them fulfill their aspirations while they work to fulfill yours? Will you donate, each of you, some of your money and time and heart and gifts to make sure that the dreams of those less fortunate do not evaporate in the mist of deprivation? All of us congratulate you today. You worked hard. So we hope you remember how many people worked hard as well in order to build the institutions, write the books, give the lectures and endow the study halls to help you learn. These things exist because countless people whom you never knew were listening to your dreams. Now go out into the vast world and listen to the dreams of others. If you do, you will find that their dreams become part of yours as well. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] You will soon realize that graduation is one of the five great milestones of life. The others being birth, death, marriage, and the day you finally pay off your student loan You are holding in your hand an idea that is so big we can not yet see the end of it. The digital age. Created by people your age. Bold, unconventional, useful, and just getting started. Those of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards, and distinctions, I say well done, and as I like to tell the C students, you too can be president. [ APPLAUSE ] You will compete in a global work place, shop in a global marketplace, and travel further and more often than any prior generation. [ INAUDIBLE ] Just add bravery. To me being brave means that even when you know an action can end very badly, you still forge ahead. So a lucky man or woman gets up in the morning. Puts both feet on the floor. Knows what they're about to do. And thinks it still matters. You should know that sometimes your passion finds you. That's exactly what happened to me. You've seen a lot of the perils of this economy firsthand. How good jobs and entire industries can manage. But instead of looking backwards you looked forward. You saw doors of opportunity waiting to be opened. Of course, you mustn't forget the parents, who to get you students to this day have sacrificed so many things, primarily money. I'm sure there are other things they've sacrificed but I'm gonna guess money's the one they bring up most often. I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere Most authentic parts of yourselves. I want you to ask those basic questions. Who do you want to be? What inspires you? That your passion may be hard to spot. So keep an open mind. Keep searching. And when you find your passion, it is yours. 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