Director and the CEO of Startup Weekend, Marc Nager is dedicated to empowering passionate people to build vibrant startup communities and ecosystems that foster innovation and creativity around the world.
marc@startupweekend.org
@MarcNager
*here is the commencement speech I gave tonight at Chapman University’s Business School Graduation for both their Graduates and Undergraduates. Please forgive me, as the grammar isn’t correct, as it is typed as a speech, not an essay (I’ll update it as soon as I can). I got a lot of great feedback about it, and thought it would be great to share. It was an incredible opportunity and Chapman is a great school with great leaders that truly get the whole “startup” thing.
Here’s a link to the Video of the speech if you wish
INTRO
Thank you, this is an amazing honor. You know, I had to ask myself why they picked me. I’d like to think it is a tribute to a fundamental truth I’ve learned: that it is far less important to be an expert at something, than it is to learn quickly, work hard, and don’t quit.
So, really, why me? I think it’s because I can hopefully give you a valuable and tangible perspective… I’d ask how many of you want to go travel after graduation, but I already know that the answer is almost every single one of you. I did too, and it turns out, I found a way to travel the globe and get paid doing it, to do something I’m passionate about, and it just so happens that what I stumbled into has been pretty disruptive and will greatly influence the way we approach entrepreneurial education around the world in the coming years.
Anyways, Today is about you. It is a day to celebrate… I congratulate you all, as this is hopefully your last lecture for a long while. Today is a milestone in your lives. One that will quickly fade but will always be referenced when asked “what’s your story?” — For me, the story goes: “I grew up in Mammoth Lakes, CA and I graduated from Chapman University with a degree in International Business, and now I’m standing here today at age 25, running a global company.” You see, Chapman is a fundamental part of your story now, one you can be very proud of, and today really is the beginning of a journey. Nothing is ever going to be the same, the bills are only going to get bigger and the challenges more difficult… but it is also a journey of unprecedented opportunities.
Truly, our generation is not so lucky – Unemployment over 10%. Underemployment 20%. National debt, $14 Trillion and growing, Bailouts, housing crisis’, health care costs, social security… Neither republicans or democrats can address these gargantuan issues, nonetheless agree on something. We must never forget that in our great nation, it is business, not government who creates all economic Growth.
Just to maintain what we have built and achieved in this country, our economy needs to grow. To accommodate increases in population. To make good on our promises to seniors, and to pay off the debt older generations have settled on our shoulders, we need to grow. There is no other way. and the only way to grow is to create—create new products, new services, new technologies, new business models, new companies, new jobs, and new wealth.
I’m here today to hopefully lend some advice for your journey to ensure it is an enjoyable and fulfilling one. One in which you can discover your passions and your interests. A journey that both challenges you and creates opportunities you never knew existed. The destiny I hope and foresee for you all is that of Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a unique phenomenon, that at it’s core proves that following your inner passions fundamentally unleashes the true human potential. It results in more creativity, more innovation, and ultimately a more fulfilling life.
BODY
As 20th Century thought saw, job creation came from big business, big labor, and big government. This is certainly a paradigm that has been flipped. In the United States, new firms are indisputably the most effective source of new jobs and growth. Kauffman Foundation researchers have shown that since 1980, ALL net job creation has come from firms less than five years old. New firms add an average of 3 million jobs in their first year, while older companies lose 1 million jobs annually. This very simple fact highlights why fostering a new generation of entrepreneurs is so important.
Now, I’m not saying that you are all Entrepreneurs or that you all will ever even become Entrepreneurs. No, I’m no politician, and I’m not saying it’s easy, BUT you have an amazing leg up on the rest of the world. You live in a country whose foundation, and very fabric, whose culture instills the unprecedented opportunity to even have the choice of pursuing what you are passionate about. It’s no coincidence that every single country I travel too, the most ambitious people and teams have one goal, to come to the US and have the same opportunity you have. You are graduating from one of the best Universities out there, You are more prepared, and more capable of becoming not just any entrepreneurs, but extremely successful ones because of the incredible advantage you have been given.
IT is this incredible advantage that makes me have very high expectations of you all. It is this almost unfair advantage that inherently bestows upon you a responsibility. A responsibility to take risks, to be innovative, and to ACT upon the ideas you WILL come up with, not just talk about them. There is a big difference between those who talk about doing things and people that actually do them.
Everyone has ideas, but most people never do anything about them… Someday you to WILL approach that preverbal cliff with an idea to do something different, something innovative, and it is my challenge to you, that you’ll take that leap. You’ll know that you’ve been given not only a parachute, but the best education, and the best toolkit to not just survive, but excel.
It was just a short 5 years ago I was sitting where you are right now. I can remember, after I graduated, I spent months trying figure out what I was wanted to do. I spent months applying to random job positions off of Craigslist, Monster.com… you name it. I went to dozens of interviews for everything from a Medical Drug Rep to Commercial Real Estate Agent to Selling Life Insurance…. meanwhile, I was making nearly $80/hour delivering futons out of the back of my truck. You guys know that bean bag & futon place on Katella? Yeah, that was it. I loved it! Anyways, I couldn’t figure out where my actual career path was heading, but I knew one thing, NONE of the options were anything I was passionate about. SO in much frustration… I picked u and moved to an ideallic town in the Swiss Alps and worked as a bar tender for a while… After I broke my leg skiing, I moved back to SoCal and ended up settling for a job where it took me about 6 more months to figure out that I still wasn’t satisfied… An opportunity presented itself in Seattle, so I moved. I loved it for a few years… until the company went under. While collecting unemployment and in the throws of starting my own company, I quickly ran into what I’m doing now… a true passion.
You see, The only thing I did right in the year or so after I graduated was something I can only now infer. It was the fact that I didn’t settle. I didn’t just take a job that was going to take me in some random direction. I was on to something that was very important. The notion that you don’t have to do something you are not passionate about… Having ambition for what you do and being around others in the same mindset truly unleashes the human potential for learning, growing, and building new things… This is what we’ve tapped into with my company, Startup Weekend.
Briefly, about Startup Weekend since you area all probably wondering: We are a non-profit based out of Seattle that helps entrepreneurs learn how to take ideas and turn them into reality, and how to truly take the first steps of launching a new firm. This year we’ll host over 220 events in 160 cities worldwide. To date, over 30k participants have gone through our programs and have created more than 3,500 new ventures, of which, almost 1/3 are still active, and over 10% go on to receive some substantial level of support or are self sufficient. (a number that rivals traditional Venture Capital success rates). What we really do though is not rocket science. We help gather communities together and empower them to essentially help themselves by merely talking openly about what they are passionate about. We encourage them to talk about the solutions they have to real world problems and find others who are passionate about the same thing… and the best part about it, is that it doesn’t matter where you are. San Francisco, LA, Oman, Moscow, or Kuala Lumpur… It’s become much more than just a fun weekend event. It’s even become a model for promoting peace & collaboration – in Tel-Aviv, we bused 20 Palestinians across the boarder where together with the local Israelis they launched new ventures. Our organizers in Tunisia, Algeria, and Cairo are the same individuals leading the revolutions, and Startup Weekend has been part of their entrepreneurial revolution… It’s all about helping people discover and do what they are passionate about. It has been referred to as subversive economic reconstruction on a global scale, and in my opinion, it highlights the most important opportunity and responsibility our generation faces.
So, obviously this matters for all of us sitting in the room today, but what can you actually leave this arena today and start doing? Let me share what might be a more helpful perspective that can hopefully highlight a few things I’ve learned… What Entrepreneurship isn’t.
Entrepreneurship isn’t writing a business plan, it isn’t hiring a lawyer to protect you IP, it isn’t about raising money from venture capitalists, it’s not about sitting in a cubicle from 9am-5pm every day, and Entrepreneurship is certainly not something you can learn by reading a text book or sitting in a classroom… Entrepreneurship is an idea, an art, something you do, something you choose to practice…. The best part about it is that we are a new generation that can start a company with a laptop and an internet connection from anywhere in the world. The so called rules for starting a venture are drastically different from even 3 years ago! You can practice this fine art from anywhere you please… One thing I’m certain of about our generation: WE, DO MORE, FASTER.
So quickly, 3 quick things I would give you advice on today:
#1 – Be prepared to fail. It’s ok. The average Entrepreneur fails 7 times in their lives. Good ideas are an evolution, a process… They are truly an art. Ideas are a dime a dozen, a commodity in today’s world. You can take the best ideas and give it to the wrong people and just watch if fail, but I can give the best people a terrible idea and watch if flourish. I’ve seen this time and time again in cities around the world, and it’s always about the people. Ideas will come and go, but the people around you will not. SO when you think you have your big idea or any idea, just as they did in Agoras of ancient Greece, start talking to people about it, start validating your assumptions, and most of all find other people who you work with well and complement your weaknesses so that it’s easier to get up and learn from your mistakes when you do fail.
#2 – Surround yourself with great people. Be intentional about having those around you who are passionate about what they are doing, who challenge you to be a better person… Surround yourself with people you consider to be smarter, more creative, and more successful than you… The very nature of our education systems segregate “creatives” from “business” from “film” people. Research shows, most successful business idea do not come from business majors at all, bur rather creatives. I promise you that you will watch this unfold. The people who do this best, will come out on top.
#3 – You are your own business, and you must build your brand. Leaving here today, getting a job won’t be the hard thing. The hard thing will be finding something you enjoy waking up to every morning. The more you invest in figuring out and projecting your personal brand, the more likely you will be to find something you love. Think of getting a job as an investment. Not only are you investing in your future by taking a job with a company, but they are investing in you and your brand. Never before in history has a graduating class been so connected to the rest of the world. You can bet that your Facebook profile or your blog is a more valid than a resume to tell the story of you and your brand, whether you like it or not. So, as your own business, and your own brand, remember, YOU can control the investments.
NOW In Conclusion, I’ve now said the term “Entrepreneurship” at least a dozen times… It’s a term that I throw caution to though. As, yes, it has been almost played out and overused in the last few years, and yes my speech is a bit hypocritical to this point, but I hope you see why I think it is not just important, but vital to our continued growth as a nation, and why, sitting here today, specifically graduating from Chapman University, you have been given a head start and a leg up in this global race…
You are all truly lucky. I am lucky. Despite not getting A’s in all of the class from Professors like Dr. Booth, Mr. Adler, Nyer, and Dr. Adibi, they have given you a lot more than just tests, assignments, homework, and headaches… they have given you a unique and powerful lens through which to view the world. A perspective to be critical and insightful about the world around you. And know with that under your belt, the global race is on. About 18 million other graduating seniors worldwide embark on their journeys this year too, and Odds would say that most will not become actual entrepreneurs. Odds would say that you will have a 50/50 chance of divorce, 7-10 different jobs, a 41% chance of having some form of cancer… and the dismal list goes on, go google it… BUT, You know what statistic scares me the most? Walking out of this room, you statistically only have about a 35% of actually being genuinely satisfied with your job at any given time in your life… That means 65% of you statistically will be un-happy from the hours of 9-5… Now that’s scary! BUT becoming a statistic is completely avoidable! Again, this is the advantage you have today leaving Chapman University that you should be grateful for. The advantage of being better prepared and better positioned in this world to beat the odds. If you take away one thing from me today, just remember that you don’t always have to do the things that are the most comfortable, you don’t have to become a doctor or a lawyer to be considered successful. No, it’s not always easy, but remember, you have a choice. A choice to do something you are passionate about.
My hope is that you all get to taste of what being an entrepreneur feels like because I know once you do, you’ll become completely un-employable. Your only option then will to become a leader. An innovator. You’ll push the limits of the conventional. You will solve real problems, create real value. Not only will the odds go up like a million percent that you will be doing something you love, but you’ll be doing something of world changing consequence… Take a moment right now and appreciate the brevity of the task you have ahead and the potential impact it will have—to you, your future families, your community, your nation, and the world. You are a global citizen, and you have the ability to drive the single largest factor advancing human welfare around the world. You leave here today with a great job ahead of you, and I’m confident that some day soon, you will not just take a job, but create a job doing something you love…
I have to pay my tribute to George Argyros who made this possible for every single one of us: He said: “We need to be able to inspire people to dare to dream, and to be able to take advantage of the ability to think big and reach high.” That’s where where you all are now. So dream big. Reach high….
And who would have thought that the first step can be as simple as finding and doing something you are passionate about?
Thank you
**A big thank you to Carl Schramm, Eric Koester, Nicole Provensal, Donal Booth, and Bo Fishback, as I included lines that were inspired by each of you!
Kyle Kesterson says: I just woke up from a nap and half-eye read this on my phone, and this speech totally kicked me in the face!
All I could think was ‘HOW IN THE HELL AM I SLEEPING WHEN THERE IS A WORLD GOING ON OUT THERE!” … If I hadn’t already taken the leap with Giant Thinkwell, I would be all over starting my journey right now!
Great speech Marc, you were born for this. 
Congratulations Mark,
A very inspiring speech. After working for a couple of engineering firms, the federal government, and municipal governments I found my passion and started my own engineering business. I was fortunate to have your grandfather, Neil Evans, as a partner and knew his grandson, would do something very worthwhile in life.
Dan Van Dorpe
