Receive this honorary degree. I have had the opportunity to be here multiple times. I was sharing the fact earlier that i had been to this campus more than any other time i have visited other institutions in our state. We should be proud of the colleges in michigan. They are part of the innovation and excitement going on. Adrian college is truly a leader in that effort. It is amazing what has been accomplished in the past few years. Veryath to the future is bright. You know it will be right when you look at these young people. As commencement speaker, let me share a few thoughts with you. Do not worry. I will stay away from talking about michigan statistics as i wanted to stay awake. One thing i will share with you is that, first of all, i hope you stay in michigan as you are our future. So, i have a brief commercial about that at the end, but, outside of that, i want to share some thoughts about the opportunities that you have in front of you today. Some challenges you may face, and how you can make good decisions down that path. I know you are on a great path, but maybe one of these points could be of some value to you. The first thing i would say to you is create a vision for your future. That is not an easy thing. Think about where you would like to be when you are 40 years old, 60 years old, or even 80 years old. Think about what things you want to accomplish. You cannot know all the answers, but you can say where you want to be in life. What do you want to say you want to have accomplished . What goals do you have . Where in my in my professional career and with my family . These are important, because if you have goals then you can hit them. I did that in my own life. You heard about my educational background, but it was based on coming up with a vision. My vision was to have three careers in my lifetime. A privatesector career where i could go out and work, learn how the real world works, and have an opportunity to raise a family and do well in that capacity. My goal was to do that through ages 40 or 50. After that, i hope to step back and say i could do well enough to do Public Service to give back to people. It was not about running for governor necessarily. In fact, i have been doing a lot of Economic Development work around the state to build jobs in our state and how to innovate. To spend 10 years or 20 years in that process helping the public sector. Believe it or not, i still have an aspiration for a third career when im done with this one, and that is to teach. To go back and help people on a smaller scale. To share knowledge and growth. So, these things can can make a difference. The second thing i would say is to be good at something. Be the best at something when you come out of school. Aspiratione an someday of running a company or doing something exciting or creating artwork. It may take time to get there. A half, you find that first position quite often, in getting their, you find that first position and you excel at it. Mine was very exciting. I started as a tax accountant. , can see you are very excited and i can see the smiles on your faces that say you wish you could be a tax accountant, too. Life, inple later in the last 10 years, i met someone named stephen ross, one of the most successful Real Estate Managers in the world. It started as a tax accountant in the same job and same office i am i was in. Chrysler of Fiat Chrysler started his career as a tax accountant, and he is now running one of the Largest Companies in the world. It is all because we started with the focus to be great on something to begin with. The third thing i would say is to find something you are passionate about. Something you love. Find something that gives you excited. Find your passion and let it. And live it. Life is short. Go for it. The fourth thing is the question of taking risk in making decisions. Manage risk, do not avoid it. At this point in your life, experiment and try new things. You can do that. I worst you can do is say, cannot decide what to do. When you say that, you are making a decision to let events take you in a direction rather than you taking a direction yourself. Be proactive and go for it. Number five, learn from mentors. Mentors have been an important part of my life starting with my parents. You have had great faculty and staff here at adrian. It was wonderful hearing of the given to someone who has worked hard to help students. Differentntors from points in your lifetime. As i have mentored people, i told him there is only one thing i ask give back. Mentor someone else at another point in your life. Sixth, treat others right. Quite often when you are working someplace, you treat that customer with great deference, and then you might see someone in the organization who might turn around and yell at someone just because they work with them. That is not right. Everyone should be treated as a customer. Everyone deserves courtesy and respect. That will pay dividends throughout your lifetime when you have that approach that you want to treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. Number seven, strike a balance of family and career. I was a workaholic. You Summit Educational background. I went into my you saw my educational background. The best thing that happened to me was that i met a wonderful woman who became my wife, and she brought alans to my life. You will be bettering brought balance to my life. You will be bettering your career by having balance. Having kids was one of the greatest things to happen to me in my career. When you stop and think about it , what i learned was that when you come home from work and you have a twoyearold child when they come running up to you holdying, daddy, daddy, me. That is the most important focus in the world than anything. That is better than having the best day at work and it puts life in perspective. Enjoy it. Notice, in that order i gave, family was first. Finally, have fun. Life is short. Enjoy it. Ornot worry about credit blame, just solve problems and make the world a better place. We live in a polarizing world today and that is not a healthy thing. We need to come together and solve problems together. You do that by saying what is the problem, what is the solution, and lets go. And have fun doing it. Weree those comments successful were helpful, because i am excited to be here with you today. I know michigan has a bright future, because i am looking at it. It is incredible to see what you have achieved, but know that there are decades to come with new achievements coming, new innovations that we cannot imagine in my age group. You will make those things happen. As you look for a place to go, there is no better place tahn than this state. What a place to live, to work, to play. So please, consider our state. If you go away, come on back. Because i knowe, with you here we are on a path to a bright future. Congratulations, and thank you so much. [applause] journalpans washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up monday morning, jan caldwell will talk about Public Policy issues affecting veterans. Michael beckel will look at how congressional fundraising has evolved to the years. Executive director for the john f. Kennedy Library FoundationStephen Rothstein will reflect on the political legacy of jfk as the country commemorates his 100th birthday. Journal liveington at 7 00 eastern monday morning. Joined the discussion. Cspan, newsmakers is next with senator Patrick Leahy of vermont. Then john kelly testifies before congress on the president s 2018 budget request. At 8 00, our conversation with counterterrorism and Intelligence Officer malcolm nance on q a. Cspans guest on newsmakers is senator Patrick Leahy