Risk Adds Value to the Valuable

Thank YOU

I’d like to thank my classmates for a wonderful High school experience. I’d like to thank my teachers for sticking with us along the way. Most of all I’d like to thank my parents. 

By the way, I am going to talk about how lucky I am to have them. My parents have driven me to 472 practices 138 games and about 20 trips to the hospital. I hear my parents tell me how proud they are and how great of a young man I have become. I attribute all my success in life to them. This is because they have shown me the way. They did this by taking risks. Something most of you might not know is that early in my life our family struggled with money. Growing up we had moved countless times going to seven different schools. These risks that my parents have made have taught me that nothing in life is worth it unless you take risks. Nothing. There’s simply no fire to be found being small and settling for a life that’s less than the one you are capable of living. 

Every part of life has risks. It is a risk to sleep in late or wake up on a sleepy Tuesday to hear Mr. young talk about Shakespeare. To be or not to be, so tired after a night of membean and poetry. People will tell you “make sure you have something to fall back on.” make sure you have something to fall back on. This doesn’t fit with me. Not cool with it. Because if I am going to fall, I don’t want to fall on anything. I want to be able to see what I am going to hit. Without the consistent risk in the choices you make, you will never give yourself the opportunity to finish on top. So classmates, do what you feel passionate about and take chances. Do not be afraid to fail. My parents were never afraid to fail. Starting a business from scratch helped change thousands of people’s lives for the better. Never afraid to fail. Never afraid to fail BIG. To Dream BIG. But classmates we must remember that dreams without goals are just dreams. 

The late Kobe Bryant has missed 14,481 shots in his career. But we don’t remember the missed shots. You remember the championships and the buzzer-beaters and the dunks and the 33,643 points. Fail forward. Every failed shot is one step closer to the end goal. You must take risks. We will all fail at some point in our life. Accept it. It is embarrassing. In life, there will be things you are not good at. You will fail at something. It is what you do with this failure that makes or breaks you. You can go home take a warm shower and understand “this just isn’t for me” or you and get up, dust off, recalibrate, reload, and get back to work. 

I can count on one hand how many times my teammates and I have lost a game. But it would be a lie to you all that after every loss we didn’t come backfiring. My teammates and coaches can promise you that no one has as many missed shots as I have. Failing. But there’s the old saying “if you hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later you are going to get a haircut.” 

Looking at you all I know we all have the talent and the teachings to succeed. But we will only WIN if we have the guts to FAIL. To achieve something you never had we must do something we never did. I am so glad to be with you people today. Being humble is a great quality to have but today, when someone tells you congratulations, tells you how great you are, tells you how well you are doing. It is ok to feel yourself and have a pep in your step, “you’re right Mr. Young we are awesome.” We are the best. Thank you.

“Rocky – Philadelphia Museum of Art” by SDWelch1031 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.