Rutgers Faculty of Arts and Sciences Commencement Keynote Address

I would like to thank everyone for the honor to speak here today. When I was first asked to speak, I initially hesitated to accept. Actually, I was a little frightened by it. I thought, “What could I possibly say to these graduates who are looking for some sage advice as they graduate from college and enter the real world?” It seemed like an awesome responsibility.

I talked to my wife and some close friends and they felt that it was indeed my responsibility to come and talk about some of the things that have made the accomplishments in my life possible. And then it simply struck me that the subject I needed to talk about was personal responsibility. Actually, YOUR personal responsibility and the impact it will have on shaping and defining your life.

Personal responsibility will play a role in almost every aspect of your life – how you perceive your friends, and more importantly how they will perceive you, in your search for a spouse, your actions as a parent, your career and your standing in the community. In short, your entire future.

It may initially seem difficult to define exactly what personal responsibility is but somehow, we inherently understand it. For example, do you want to hang out with irresponsible friends? I doubt it. How about marrying an irresponsible spouse? I hope not, and I assure you that your parents hope not as well. Do you want to go to an irresponsible doctor? Do you want an irresponsible lawyer to defend you? Do you want to hire irresponsible contractors or work with irresponsible colleagues? Or worst of all, deal with irresponsible politicians?

You start to get the picture. Irresponsibility, the simple lack of responsibility, is not something we appreciate in the people we deal with in our daily lives. And they will not appreciate it in you.

So what are the basic innate qualities necessary to develop personal responsibility? It starts with honesty and integrity. Think about the examples I just gave and replace irresponsibility with honesty and integrity. It changes the relationships dramatically. These are strong words that instill both confidence and trust.

Honesty is defined as the quality or characteristic of being fair, truthful, and sincere. Again, these are qualities that instill confidence and trust. And incredibly, it is the easier path in life. It takes no effort or pain to speak the truth. There is nothing unusual to remember - you know inherently what the truth is. On the other hand, lies quickly become difficult to remember and start to compound on themselves, like interest on a loan, until they become difficult to keep straight and separate from the truth. It is not always easy telling the truth, but it will never hurt you like a lie will.

Integrity is the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. These are qualities critical to your personal and professional growth. And these qualities will continue to build the confidence and trust from your colleagues. Remember that life should be 90% about who you are, and 10% about what you do.  We all go to work, and try to accomplish great things, but it’s about how we carry ourselves, our personal integrity, that really makes us who we are. That’s how we all hope to be remembered.

Honesty and integrity are unique properties – they cannot be given to you but must be generated from within. I wish I could stand up here, and as you get your diploma, give you a button that says “Honest and Professional” and “poof” you have it. You just wear the button and everyone will know. But that is not the case, you have to earn it, so let’s just start here today – it seems perfectly apropos given the occasion.

Honesty and integrity are fragile qualities that have to be nurtured and carefully protected throughout you entire life. The only one who can destroy these qualities is you and they can easily be destroyed by way of words or actions. Words and actions are the mechanisms by which we display our honesty and integrity to the rest of the world. But clearly understand that words have meaning and actions have consequences. One wrong word or wrong action and these qualities vanish. Many a relationship, marriage, job and career have been destroyed by a wrong word or action.

So it is important to say what you mean and mean what you say. I’m sure you have heard that saying before. It is another way of saying that words have meaning and actions have consequences – both positive and negative. So take a moment to think about what you are going to say or do before you actually speak or act. Make sure your brain is in gear before your mouth speaks and make sure you carefully consider your actions before you implement them.

Honesty and integrity and the confidence and trust they engender will impact all aspects of your life. Today you are graduating from college, but more importantly, you are graduating into real life. You came here to learn some of the tools that you will need, but understand that how you apply those tools will be equally important to your success. You are entering a world of intense competition and how far you go and how well you succeed depends on how well you can differentiate yourself from the next person.

Some of you will be going on to graduate studies while others plan to enter the work force. Understand that regardless of your degree, you don’t know where life will take you or where your career path will end. Many accomplished career professionals have had multiple careers before they found the job that made them happiest. So entering the job market should be a learning process in itself, to help decide on the career you really want. But remember, it’s more than a job. It is also the opportunity to display your character and personal responsibility.

It will be that character and responsibility that is revealed in your written or oral recommendations that will get you the job. Expertise will play only a minor role since most jobs require considerable on the job training. Employers are looking for responsible people with character.

And don’t be too picky about the particular job because you will learn something from every job you do and those skills will compound to help you advance in your career. Let me give you an example in my own career. I came here to study for a degree in Biology at a time not too dissimilar from today – high unemployment rates and limited job opportunities.

I took a job at McDonald’s and started out washing the floors and dishes and stacking incoming supplies. But I did it well. I worked hard to make sure it was the best I could do. I mastered every food station in the place as well as the front counter, interacting with customers. Within two years, I knew how to operate that place so well and had sufficiently gained the confidence and trust of the management and crew that I became assistant manager. I even received training at Hamburger U on quality control, inventory, and personnel management. I gained a wealth of experience.

I left that job to go to graduate school in Biochemistry and it was my good fortune to develop a technology that formed the basis of a company called Enzon. I became the CEO right out of school and guess what? All the skills I learned at McDonald’s were applicable at the company. And Enzon eventually became the first commercial biotechnology success in the State of New Jersey.

So my advice is to get a job, any job, and apply the personal responsibility and character that will define you in your profession.

As you continue to grow, honesty, integrity, confidence and trust begin to morph into admiration and respect. This is the hallmark of a true leader. Leadership cannot simply be appointed, but it is earned from those that wish to be lead. This will be true in your job, the military or in public service. True leadership requires that people follow willingly and enthusiastically. And it then becomes your responsibility to lead by both example and deed.

I have spoken about the importance of responsibility in your personal and professional life. I want to touch on one other very important area and that is civic responsibility.

We are very fortunate to live in one of the greatest countries on Earth. One in which our rights as human beings are clearly defined. These rights and the rules that govern all laws that we create are embodied in two documents – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Both are written in plain English for the all to understand. I have them both here in this pocket book pamphlet and remarkably, the length of both combined is only 35 pages. It might take 15 minutes to read them both. These documents are so critical to our future, yet I wonder how many of us have actually read them. And that is critically important because if you don’t know your rights you don’t have any.

I mention this because you are the future of this nation and you will decide how this nation is governed. You cannot take this lightly or leave it to someone else because whatever the outcome, you will be bound by it. It is your responsibility to those you love and even to your unborn children to know these rights and defend them or they will be lost.

The Declaration lists certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Understand that these rights are not given to you, they are yours – you were born with them, but it is your responsibility to protect and keep them.  The Declaration goes on to say “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”.

It is you who empower government, not the other way around. You are the masters of government and decide how it will run and what it will do. But, if you abrogate your responsibility and fail to watch over government, it will quickly usurp this power and you will become the slaves of government. You have the choice to be treated as free citizens with unalienable rights, or indentured subjects of an all-powerful government.

Don’t take this lightly as it is not so farfetched. I am an immigrant to this country. I was born in Germany and am witness to the Holocaust that caused the deaths of 50 million people, all because governments became the master and the people its slaves. My entire extended family, dozens were killed in that Holocaust, my mother’s children were shot in front of her, and I was the only male child left to carry on the family name. Unfortunately, government enslavement of its people and genocide continues to this day throughout the world.

Article X of the Constitution states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution….are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. Again, clearly defining that it is the people who have the power, not the government.

So I urge you to accept your civic responsibility with a passion. Know your rights, get involved, understand the issues, debate them with an open mind and vote for your future. Get involved in your schools and your community and let your voices be heard. Some may get involved in politics, which is the highest calling of civic responsibility, as long as you bring honesty and integrity with you.

My conclusion, then, is personal responsibility will positively impact every aspect of your life for the better. I challenge you to embrace it with commitment and passion, for it will allow you to be all that you can be. I say this not only to you, but also to my son who is in the audience and who will graduate tomorrow from Rutgers–New Brunswick. I am grateful for the unique opportunity to give a commencement address to my own child!

I want to leave you with one final thought, an old saying actually. That goes like this “a smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others."  I hope I have imparted some of the wisdom that has been given to me by my father, my mentors, family and friends. And I hope it will help you leapfrog over the many mistakes we tend to make in life and as a consequence become a better and more productive individual.

Bless you in all that you do and God bless the United States of America. Thank you.