President Faust, Board of Overseers,
faculty, alumni, friends, proud parents, members of the ad board, and
graduates of the greatest university in the world.
I’m honored to be with you today because, let’s face it, you
accomplished something I never could. If I get through this speech,
it’ll be the first time I actually finish something at Harvard. Class of
2017, congratulations!
I’m an unlikely speaker, not just because I dropped out, but because
we’re technically in the same generation. We walked this yard less than a
decade apart, studied the same ideas and slept through the same Ec10
lectures. We may have taken different paths to get here, especially if
you came all the way from the Quad, but today I want to share what I’ve
learned about our generation and the world we’re building together.
But first, the last couple of days have brought back a lot of good memories.
How many of you remember exactly what you were doing when you got
that email telling you that you got into Harvard? I was playing
Civilization and I ran downstairs, got my dad, and for some reason, his
reaction was to video me opening the email. That could have been a
really sad video. I swear getting into Harvard is still the thing my
parents are most proud of me for.
What about your first lecture at Harvard? Mine was Computer Science
121 with the incredible Harry Lewis. I was late so I threw on a t-shirt
and didn’t realize until afterwards it was inside out and backwards with
my tag sticking out the front. I couldn’t figure out why no one would
talk to me — except one guy, KX Jin, he just went with it. We ended up
doing our problem sets together, and now he runs a big part of Facebook.
And that, Class of 2017, is why you should be nice to people.
But my best memory from Harvard was meeting Priscilla. I had just
launched this prank website Facemash, and the ad board wanted to “see
me”. Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out. My parents came to
help me pack. My friends threw me a going away party. As luck would have
it, Priscilla was at that party with her friend. We met in line for the
bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all
time romantic lines, I said: “I’m going to get kicked out in three days,
so we need to go on a date quickly.”
Actually, any of you graduating can use that line.
I didn’t end up getting kicked out — I did that to myself. Priscilla
and I started dating. And, you know, that movie made it seem like
Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasn’t. But without
Facemash I wouldn’t have met Priscilla, and she’s the most important
person in my life, so you could say it was the most important thing I
built in my time here.
We’ve all started lifelong friendships here, and some of us even
families. That’s why I’m so grateful to this place. Thanks, Harvard.
Today I want to talk about purpose. But I’m not here to give you the
standard commencement about finding your purpose. We’re millennials.
We’ll try to do that instinctively. Instead, I’m here to tell you
finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is
creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
One of my favorite stories is when John F Kennedy visited the NASA
space center, he saw a janitor carrying a broom and he walked over and
asked what he was doing. The janitor responded: “Mr. President, I’m
helping put a man on the moon”.
Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than
ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to
work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.
You’re graduating at a time when this is especially important. When
our parents graduated, purpose reliably came from your job, your church,
your community. But today, technology and automation are eliminating
many jobs. Membership in communities is declining. Many people feel
disconnected and depressed, and are trying to fill a void.
As I’ve traveled around, I’ve sat with children in juvenile detention
and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out
differently if they just had something to do, an after school program or
somewhere to go. I’ve met factory workers who know their old jobs
aren’t coming back and are trying to find their place.
To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational challenge —
to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose.
I remember the night I launched Facebook from my little dorm in
Kirkland House. I went to Noch’s with my friend KX. I remember telling
him I was excited to connect the Harvard community, but one day someone
would connect the whole world.
The thing is, it never even occurred to me that someone might be us.
We were just college kids. We didn’t know anything about that. There
were all these big technology companies with resources. I just assumed
one of them would do it. But this idea was so clear to us — that all
people want to connect. So we just kept moving forward, day by day.
I know a lot of you will have your own stories just like this. A
change in the world that seems so clear you’re sure someone else will do
it. But they won’t. You will.
But it’s not enough to have purpose yourself. You have to create a sense of purpose for others.
I found that out the hard way. You see, my hope was never to build a
company, but to make an impact. And as all these people started joining
us, I just assumed that’s what they cared about too, so I never
explained what I hoped we’d build.
A couple years in, some big companies wanted to buy us. I didn’t want
to sell. I wanted to see if we could connect more people. We were
building the first News Feed, and I thought if we could just launch
this, it could change how we learn about the world.
Nearly everyone else wanted to sell. Without a sense of higher
purpose, this was the startup dream come true. It tore our company
apart. After one tense argument, an advisor told me if I didn’t agree to
sell, I would regret the decision for the rest of my life.
Relationships were so frayed that within a year or so every single
person on the management team was gone.
That was my hardest time leading Facebook. I believed in what we were
doing, but I felt alone. And worse, it was my fault. I wondered if I
was just wrong, an imposter, a 22 year-old kid who had no idea how the
world worked.
Now, years later, I understand that *is* how things work with no
sense of higher purpose. It’s up to us to create it so we can all keep
moving forward together.
Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where
everyone has a sense of purpose: by taking on big meaningful projects
together, by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue
purpose, and by building community across the world.
First, let’s take on big meaningful projects.
Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs
replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. But we have
the potential to do so much more together.
Every generation has its defining works. More than 300,000 people
worked to put a man on the moon – including that janitor. Millions of
volunteers immunized children around the world against polio. Millions
of more people built the Hoover dam and other great projects.
These projects didn’t just provide purpose for the people doing those
jobs, they gave our whole country a sense of pride that we could do
great things.
Now it’s our turn to do great things. I know, you’re probably
thinking: I don’t know how to build a dam, or get a million people
involved in anything.
But let me tell you a secret: no one does when they begin. Ideas
don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them.
You just have to get started.
If I had to understand everything about connecting people before I began, I never would have started Facebook.
Movies and pop culture get this all wrong. The idea of a single
eureka moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate since we
haven’t had ours. It prevents people with seeds of good ideas from
getting started. Oh, you know what else movies get wrong about
innovation? No one writes math formulas on glass. That’s not a thing.
It’s good to be idealistic. But be prepared to be misunderstood.
Anyone working on a big vision will get called crazy, even if you end up
right. Anyone working on a complex problem will get blamed for not
fully understanding the challenge, even though it’s impossible to know
everything upfront. Anyone taking initiative will get criticized for
moving too fast, because there’s always someone who wants to slow you
down.
In our society, we often don’t do big things because we’re so afraid
of making mistakes that we ignore all the things wrong today if we do
nothing. The reality is, anything we do will have issues in the future.
But that can’t keep us from starting.
So what are we waiting for? It’s time for our generation-defining
public works. How about stopping climate change before we destroy the
planet and getting millions of people involved manufacturing and
installing solar panels? How about curing all diseases and asking
volunteers to track their health data and share their genomes? Today we
spend 50x more treating people who are sick than we spend finding cures
so people don’t get sick in the first place. That makes no sense. We can
fix this. How about modernizing democracy so everyone can vote online,
and personalizing education so everyone can learn?
These achievements are within our reach. Let’s do them all in a way
that gives everyone in our society a role. Let’s do big things, not only
to create progress, but to create purpose.
So taking on big meaningful projects is the first thing we can do to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
The second is redefining equality to give everyone the freedom they need to pursue purpose.
Many of our parents had stable jobs throughout their careers. Now
we’re all entrepreneurial, whether we’re starting projects or finding or
role. And that’s great. Our culture of entrepreneurship is how we
create so much progress.
Now, an entrepreneurial culture thrives when it’s easy to try lots of
new ideas. Facebook wasn’t the first thing I built. I also built games,
chat systems, study tools and music players. I’m not alone. JK Rowling
got rejected 12 times before publishing Harry Potter. Even Beyonce had
to make hundreds of songs to get Halo. The greatest successes come from
having the freedom to fail.
But today, we have a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone.
When you don’t have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a
historic enterprise, we all lose. Right now our society is way
over-indexed on rewarding success and we don’t do nearly enough to make
it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.
Let’s face it. There is something wrong with our system when I can
leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of
students can’t afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a
business.
Look, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, and I don’t know a single person
who gave up on starting a business because they might not make enough
money. But I know lots of people who haven’t pursued dreams because they
didn’t have a cushion to fall back on if they failed.
We all know we don’t succeed just by having a good idea or working
hard. We succeed by being lucky too. If I had to support my family
growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn’t know I’d be fine
if Facebook didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be standing here today. If we’re
honest, we all know how much luck we’ve had.
Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous
generations fought for the vote and civil rights. They had the New Deal
and Great Society. Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for
our generation.
We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic
metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful.
We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a
cushion to try new things. We’re going to change jobs many times, so we
need affordable childcare to get to work and healthcare that aren’t tied
to one company. We’re all going to make mistakes, so we need a society
that focuses less on locking us up or stigmatizing us. And as technology
keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education
throughout our lives.
And yes, giving everyone the freedom to pursue purpose isn’t free.
People like me should pay for it. Many of you will do well and you
should too.
That’s why Priscilla and I started the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and
committed our wealth to promoting equal opportunity. These are the
values of our generation. It was never a question of if we were going to
do this. The only question was when.
Millennials are already one of the most charitable generations in
history. In one year, three of four US millennials made a donation and
seven out of ten raised money for charity.
But it’s not just about money. You can also give time. I promise you,
if you take an hour or two a week — that’s all it takes to give someone
a hand, to help them reach their potential.
Maybe you think that’s too much time. I used to. When Priscilla
graduated from Harvard she became a teacher, and before she’d do
education work with me, she told me I needed to teach a class. I
complained: “Well, I’m kind of busy. I’m running this company.” But she
insisted, so I taught a middle school program on entrepreneurship at the
local Boys and Girls Club.
I taught them lessons on product development and marketing, and they
taught me what it’s like feeling targeted for your race and having a
family member in prison. I shared stories from my time in school, and
they shared their hope of one day going to college too. For five years
now, I’ve been having dinner with those kids every month. One of them
threw me and Priscilla our first baby shower. And next year they’re
going to college. Every one of them. First in their families.
We can all make time to give someone a hand. Let’s give everyone the
freedom to pursue their purpose — not only because it’s the right thing
to do, but because when more people can turn their dreams into something
great, we’re all better for it.
Purpose doesn’t only come from work. The third way we can create a
sense of purpose for everyone is by building community. And when our
generation says “everyone”, we mean everyone in the world.
Quick show of hands: how many of you are from another country? Now,
how many of you are friends with one of these folks? Now we’re talking.
We have grown up connected.
In a survey asking millennials around the world what defines our
identity, the most popular answer wasn’t nationality, religion or
ethnicity, it was “citizen of the world”. That’s a big deal.
Every generation expands the circle of people we consider “one of us”. For us, it now encompasses the entire world.
We understand the great arc of human history bends towards people
coming together in ever greater numbers — from tribes to cities to
nations — to achieve things we couldn’t on our own.
We get that our greatest opportunities are now global — we can be the
generation that ends poverty, that ends disease. We get that our
greatest challenges need global responses too — no country can fight
climate change alone or prevent pandemics. Progress now requires coming
together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community.
But we live in an unstable time. There are people left behind by
globalization across the world. It’s hard to care about people in other
places if we don’t feel good about our lives here at home. There’s
pressure to turn inwards.
This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom, openness and
global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism
and nationalism. Forces for the flow of knowledge, trade and immigration
against those who would slow them down. This is not a battle of
nations, it’s a battle of ideas. There are people in every country for
global connection and good people against it.
This isn’t going to be decided at the UN either. It’s going to happen
at the local level, when enough of us feel a sense of purpose and
stability in our own lives that we can open up and start caring about
everyone. The best way to do that is to start building local communities
right now.
We all get meaning from our communities. Whether our communities are
houses or sports teams, churches or music groups, they give us that
sense we are part of something bigger, that we are not alone; they give
us the strength to expand our horizons.
That’s why it’s so striking that for decades, membership in all kinds
of groups has declined as much as one-quarter. That’s a lot of people
who now need to find purpose somewhere else.
But I know we can rebuild our communities and start new ones because many of you already are.
I met Agnes Igoye, who’s graduating today. Where are you, Agnes? She
spent her childhood navigating conflict zones in Uganda, and now she
trains thousands of law enforcement officers to keep communities safe.
I met Kayla Oakley and Niha Jain, graduating today, too. Stand up.
Kayla and Niha started a non-profit that connects people suffering from
illnesses with people in their communities willing to help.
I met David Razu Aznar, graduating from the Kennedy School today.
David, stand up. He’s a former city councilor who successfully led the
battle to make Mexico City the first Latin American city to pass
marriage equality — even before San Francisco.
This is my story too. A student in a dorm room, connecting one
community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we connect the
whole world.
Change starts local. Even global changes start small — with people
like us. In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more,
whether we achieve our biggest opportunities, comes down to this — your
ability to build communities and create a world where every single
person has a sense of purpose.
Class of 2017, you are graduating into a world that needs purpose. It’s up to you to create it.
Now, you may be thinking: can I really do this?
Remember when I told you about that class I taught at the Boys and
Girls Club? One day after class I was talking to them about college, and
one of my top students raised his hand and said he wasn’t sure he could
go because he’s undocumented. He didn’t know if they’d let him in.
Last year I took him out to breakfast for his birthday. I wanted to
get him a present, so I asked him and he started talking about students
he saw struggling and said “You know, I’d really just like a book on
social justice.”
I was blown away. Here’s a young guy who has every reason to be
cynical. He didn’t know if the country he calls home — the only one he’s
known — would deny him his dream of going to college. But he wasn’t
feeling sorry for himself. He wasn’t even thinking of himself. He has a
greater sense of purpose, and he’s going to bring people along with him.
It says something about our current situation that I can’t even say
his name because I don’t want to put him at risk. But if a high school
senior who doesn’t know what the future holds can do his part to move
the world forward, then we owe it to the world to do our part too.
Before you walk out those gates one last time, as we sit in front of
Memorial Church, I am reminded of a prayer, Mi Shebeirach, that I say
whenever I face a challenge, that I sing to my daughter thinking about
her future when I tuck her into bed. It goes:
“May the source of strength, who blessed the ones before us, help us *find the courage* to make our lives a blessing.”
I hope you find the courage to make your life a blessing.
Congratulations, Class of ’17! Good luck out there.
(Source: Havard/Youtube/EJ-CAFE.COM)
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