Thursday, January 9, 2014

Neil Gaiman Commencement Speech


This is Neil Gaiman. Author, journalist, screenplay writer, producer.. and the list goes on and on. He gave one of the best commencement speeches that I've heard at the University of the Arts. He encourages the graduating class to, "make glorious and fantastic mistakes", "it means you're out there doing something."

One of my favourite quotes from this speech:

"Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be – an author, primarily of fiction, making good books, making good comics and supporting myself through my words – was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal.
And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain."

I'm also a big fan of the 'fake it till you make it' idea as Gaiman highlights in his closing statement:

"So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI

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