Chris Mattews
-Journalist
If you want to play a game, go to where it’s played and find a way to get in. Things happen when you get in the game.
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Ask! There should be a course at Fordham, chutzpah: the guts to ask.
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That’s my first advice to you: do something wild and good and crazy while you still have a chance. Listen to this one minute—this is about life. Today’s Rule One: Get Yourself In The Game!
Ever watch a little kid standing alone courtside while the big kids play basketball? When a ball goes out of bounds, he runs for it and passes it back in. And as time goes on, when an older kid has to get home for dinner, somebody yells, “Hey punk, wanna play?”
That’s the heart of it there: If you want to play a game, go to where it’s played and find a way to get in.
Things happen when you get in the game:
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“If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate you are bound to wake up somebody,” said Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
You might have noticed by now that some people aren’t going to like the cut of your job. But those who do will change your life. They will open doors for you. So if nine people when you’re out looking for a job say “No” to you, then ask ten.
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There’s a false assumption out there that talent will surely be recognized. Just get good at something and the world will beat a path to your door.
Don’t believe it. The world is not checking in with us to see what skills we’ve picked up, what idea we’ve concocted, what dreams we carry in our hearts.
When a job opens, whether it’s in the chorus line or on the assembly line, it goes to the person standing there. It goes to the eager beaver the boss sees when he looks up from his work: the pint-sized kid standing at the basketball court on the playground waiting for one of the older boys to head home. “Hey, kid, wanna play?”
Read the full commencement address »
Fordham University
New York, NY
May 20, 2006
Sent in by: admin
Posted on: 09.12.2007