Inspiring personal philosophy - and great advice.

Each spring, schools from across the country produce another graduating class of seniors, and occasionally a commencement speech or two bubble to the top, (and as a result to my attention) Many are worthy of worthy of consumption. This year is no exception and a recent speech by Neil Galman to the University of the Arts class of 2012 tastes especially good. Mr Galman's soft spoken philosophy on life is spot on, and is something it took me more than forty years to realize. With my youngest daughter set to graduate in just a few days, this information is timely and my hope is that she discovers her passion - what ever it ends up being, and pursues that with reckless abandon.

Taylor, I am immensely proud of you!

My personal favorite part is his take on 'three important values'

1) Do Good Work (make great art).

2) Always be nice to people.

3) Meet your deadlines.

He further riffs: 'Only achieving two out of the tree is just fine, and it does not matter which two… You can be an ass, if your work is good, and is on time. You can be late if your work is good and you are nice to people. Your work does not even have to be that good, if its is on time and people like you (because you are nice to them!)'  - A truer statement was never spoken.

The speech is most definitely worth the twenty minutes.

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Bonus content….. if you have the time.

Steve Jobs' excellent commencement address to Stanford in 2005.