Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, and our new graduates ...

It is always a privilege for me, as it is for the faculty, to participate in a commencement celebration because this is the culmination of our efforts as well as yours. It is as much our joy to see you here today as it is for you and your families to have arrived at this point after four, five... or even six long years.

You have achieved a worthy goal by working a little harder, persevering a little longer, sacrificing a little more to accomplish something that didn't come easy. And you have done it, in part, because you’ve had the support of your families and friends. In large measure, it is because of their love and care for you, and their pride in you, that you've been able to accomplish this milestone today.

Don’t take that support for granted, because the support of others is a vital ingredient to individual success.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the breath-taking pace of change in economics, politics, culture, technology, and even the spiritual foundations of people throughout the world. I want to talk about these changes because they are the defining theme of the world that you will inherit and inhabit.

Let me start with some figures that may surprise you.

In 1302 the Sorbonne Library in Paris contained a total of 900 to 1,000 volumes – the total accumulation of all knowledge in the western world at the time. Today, 2,000 new books are published every day. Seven hundred new books in a single profession every week.

With Internet sources growing exponentially every day, the availability of information isn’t growing, it’s exploding. Members of Congress each received 200 million pieces of mail last year, up from 15 million in 1970. On a typical day there are 1,800 reporters generating stories from the White House alone. At the current pace, more new information is being generated in an hour than you can expect to take in during the rest of your lives.

The change is phenomenal. Of the 100 largest U.S. companies in 1917, only 15 exist today. Besides six oil companies, there are two automakers, and these seven others: AT&T, Citicorp, Dupont, General Electric, Kodak, Procter and Gamble, and Sears. The other 85 companies went bankrupt, were liquidated, were acquired by another company, or were left behind.

Things are changing fast. Jobs are changing as fast as technology. In 1970, 7 million Americans were self-employed; in 1997 the number had grown to 10.5 million, and this year it’s expected to be 12 million. Twenty-six percent of all workers in the United States have been in their current jobs less than a year, according to a recent study.

And here is some good news — 92 percent of job seekers who had been laid off found jobs of equal or better salary last year. How did they do it? They changed. With savvy and self-confidence, they mastered new technologies, learned financing and marketing, and sold themselves.

John Page, the World Bank’s chief Middle East economist, says the difference between the global economy of the 1950s and today is the difference between two trains. The old economy was like the train that ran between Heliopolis — a suburb of Cairo, Egypt — and downtown Cairo.

That train stopped at every station, and if you missed one, you could always hop on a bike and catch up at the next station. If you couldn’t afford a ticket you could ride on the roof.

The global economy today is like the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo. If you miss it, it’s gone — goodbye — you can’t catch up. Economically, politically and culturally the changes are integrating us into one world. In Dade County Florida there are 123 nationalities represented in the public school system. Thirty-thousand people from Bangladesh live in the Bronx, and more Jamaicans live in London than in Jamaica.

Technologically, computer scientists are making ever-faster machines that speed-up the pace of life and further disconnect us from the natural rhythms of our bodies and the cycles of day and night, summer and winter.

Spiritually, change has brought about a new vocabulary: "stressed," "paranoid," "burned out," and "identity crisis" are relatively modern concerns in our lives.

We are also experiencing a psychic epidemic at a time when Christianity and other religions seem to be losing their influence in both Western and Eastern cultures. The president of World Trends Research, William Van Dusen Wishard, calls it a diminishing of a collective religious sense that historically provided the individual and society with defined values and offered answers to the ultimate questions of existence.

Change is now part of our social fabric, and if you and I are to survive, let alone succeed, we must be able to change — jobs, attitude, outlook, skills, location, viewpoints, practically every aspect of our lives. Those who succeed will be those who can take the lead and adapt to the change easily and quickly.

When you mention the word "leadership" most people think of Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, or Charles de Gaulle. But that’s leadership with a capital "L." Leadership with a small "l" is the ability of every individual to think clearly, arrive at logical conclusions, and act sensibly and decisively on those conclusions.

James Loften, the NFL Hall of Fame former receiver for the Buffalo Bills, said he had five tricks for success: the first trick was to work harder than anyone else; the second trick, to always hustle; the third, to study and know what you’re doing. The fourth trick was always to be prepared; and the fifth, never to give up.

It is no surprise that three of Loften’s so-called tricks involve hard work, study and preparation. That’s what makes a leader facing any change. No tricks — just effort.

Let me tell you one final story about a junior high school in Southern California that bought a new computer system. The school was chosen because its students scored in the lowest statewide percentiles in every category. Incredibly, in just one semester, some of those students learned more than in the previous 5 years.

The most touching story was about a kid named Raymond who had every problem in the book – a dysfunctional home, acute shyness, bad eyesight and zero academic performance. But in one semester with the computer, Raymond caught up seven years in math.

The local TV station interviewed him and asked why he had blossomed so magnificently.

"Well," Raymond said, "The kids all call me a "retard," but the computer calls me Raymond."

Be a leader. Be prepared to change. The winners, like Raymond, will be.