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Shake the room Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like the MarTech podcast today, we'll be sharing a special episode. That is part of a series that we've created of the greatest graduation speeches of all time. There have been some fantastic commencement talks over the past few decades, and we've collected the best of the best for you to enjoy. As soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors

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Fire Nation, are you finally ready

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To publish a book the right way Kevin Anderson and associates can help for a limited time, they're offering Fire Nation a free 90 minute consultation to discuss writing and publishing your book. And just six months visit KAWriting.com/fire. To schedule your free 90 minute consultation today. That's KAWriting.com/fire.

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Fire Nation. It's time to

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Stop trading time for money and start reaching more clients and making a bigger impact. And you can do just that with online courses. Try Thinkific for free today at Thinkific.com/EOF. That's Thinkific.com/EOF. Welcome to the commencement speech of Jon B. Fisher, who is an entrepreneur. And this is at the university of San Francisco back in 2018. Thank you very much. My father's commencement speaker was the great Martin Luther king. My father was 20 years old and didn't show up for that talk. So thank you for showing up.

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Thank you, Dean Davis, President Fitzgerald, my friend, Dr. Mark Canis, and the rest of the distinguished faculty and invited guests, the families, and especially the parents, especially the parents who labored to get here financially, medically, emotionally. And can I get an amen for the university of San Francisco graduates? I'm honored. You graduates was spend such a special moment of your lives with me. Of course, you didn't really have a choice. I was president Fitzgerald's decision, a decision made by a man who has lived, studied, and worked all over the world, including Germany, France, Switzerland, and Mexico, China in Kenya, and who decided I was the one for you to listen to before getting your diplomas.

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Really? This is a question, some of those parents who labor to get here, maybe asking themselves, I mean, come on, there are three other Jon Fisher's to choose from in the bay area alone. And all of them are billionaires. If it's any constellation. I don't think president Fitzgerald was simply inspired and his choice, some of you graduates attended my lectures at USF. I haunted this university for the last decade, banging my fist on chalkboards and desk pleading with you guys. As you started your projects, your companies, your careers to marry the right person. The most traditionally successful people I know were divorced and they told me sacrificing their families worth it. Hold your children up high as your greatest inventions because they are.

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I invented something many of you use every day and it doesn't compare to any day with a happy, healthy child. Don't step on anyone's neck to advance your cause. Never Sue anyone, and try not to get sued. You will sleep better at night. I have never been a party to a lawsuit in my technology career and amen to that. My wife and I don't put work before our daughter or each other. The engineers in my company was similar families. And I have been together for most of our professional lives. We don't waste time commuting to offices to look over our shoulders because we trust each other. We don't have the holiday party. We don't have each other over for dinner. We get it done.

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And then we see our families. We're like a less good looking legal, married with children's version of ocean's 11. We build good companies that great companies buy and take around the world. As our path of least resistance contributing to the world. Building small companies takes a lot less capital and therefore a lot less risk and therefore less of a personal toll. And this works in other industries. Financially. My companies look a lot like Seth Rogan's movies, a strict budget. It acceptably size audience, although much smaller than blockbuster. He seems like a pretty happy guy too. I accepted president Fitzgerald's invitation because I think you can hear the siren call in your lies without it leading you to crashing against the rocks.

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And I think that's worth sharing, not everything in Silicon Valley or any industry or life for that matter needs to be portrayed as home runs or strikeouts success or failure. It's just what you hear so often because it's what sells newspapers. You can have an idea that doesn't yield a better way to do your job or give rise to a new company, but changes your life. What's that worth. I agreed to join my primary school board that changed my life. I learned about parenting and education and philanthropy and what motivates people. Maybe you'll have an idea, but attacking global warming or hatred or poverty or truth and news reporting, and maybe you'll pursue none of those things, except you'll speak from your heart about them to inspire the person you're going to marry.

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I had an idea to give this speech exactly seven years ago to the day I sat in this church, right there, it was December 14th, 2012. That was the day all those children were lost in the Sandy hook shooting. I wondered what someone standing up here would say to us that day. And then I wonder what I would say to you that day. I thought in an increasingly unrecognizable world, my life trajectory should be recognizable to you. You can do it. You can do what I've done. That is you can be happy in your career and family. And if you want the world to know your name and you're willing to risk it all to get there, I applaud you really. And I wish you every success. Just remember my name as your backup plan and Fire Nation, more value bombs up.

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Her online courses took her business to a new international level and they pretty much run themselves. Not only that, she started making thousands of new revenue every month hitting her financial targets and freeing up time to work more on her business. More than 50,000 entrepreneurs have already used Thinkific to build revenue and educate their students worldwide. Try Thinkific for free today at Thinkific.com/EOF. That's Thinkific.com/EOF Fire Nation. Do you realize the value being a published author brings to your business? As one of myself, I can honestly say a lot. So if you've ever considered writing a book, but feel like you don't have the time writing ability or idea to make it a success, then I've got great news for you.

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If you're ready to establish yourself as the authority in your area of expertise, Kevin is currently offering you Fire Nation, a free 90 minute publishing consultation call visit KAWriting.com/fire to schedule your free consultation today available for a very limited time. That's KAWriting.com/fire. I do hope you returned to St. Ignatius once in a while, as I have, I always walked out of this church on a hill feeling better, even on that Sandy hook day, feeling at the center of things, Salesforce built the greatest skyscraper in the land. Just two miles from here for a reason, my father taught physics at both San Francisco state and Stanford, and often it was easier to get the great physicists of the century to speak in San Francisco.

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About 80% of you are graduating today, do not call San Francisco your home city, but more of you will stay a major wealth manager in San Francisco called me last month, specifically to ask for a USF graduate, to be as chief of staff, a sensitive position for somebody he could really trust. I forwarded to president Fitzgerald, Dean Davis and Dr. Canis, all of whom responded enthusiastically in minutes to try to help you. Dr. Canis later mentioned you should not all take your first position out there quite so seriously as there'll be many opportunities returning again today, I know the opportunity to speak to you in this place in time may be the apex at age 46 for a variety of reasons, including both sets of parents are still relatively happy and healthy to be a part of this.

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My family is here today. My mother-in-law is here. Who believes all of this career, family inspiration. All of it is due to grand design. My mother believes this is all due to chance. I think at somewhere in the middle, by the way, this was also the exact opening of my wedding vows. I continued promising my wife, that I would meet her in the middle of our disagreements, whether or not they were about our mothers. And while I think having a loving family creates a memorable moments that may result in chemical changes in the brain to make us more creative. I think we should also follow Jack Warner's advice to Einstein's paraphrasing. You have your theory of relativity and I have mine.

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Don't hire a relative. I have a house on a hill. That's built into a cliff into the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but did not fall Matthew 7 24, a man to that, I see these guys eulogizing their fathers from time to time on CNN. And it's so tough. And my own father is right here and he is not, was a great father. He's a really good guy. You know, I aspire to that. I aspire to that first before anything else. And my mother is great. She literally stood in front of me to protect me from the world at times. And my wife, I couldn't have imagined winding up with such a loving and patient, good person in my life that she got from her mother.

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And it's with such humility that I witnessed. All of this passed down to our little girl. Maybe you'll see her at the reception. She shies. I took the only path to see you along the Thai barium Boulevard, where some of the most well-meaning and resourceful people in town can't seem to change daily driving habits to fix the traffic problem. So it is in most towns. How do we sacrifice a lot to save the planet? If we can't even sacrifice a little, the union of concerned scientists just forecasted that nearly 4,400 homes in Marin county will be underwater in less than 30 years because of sea level rise. So we'll have to do something. My generation, yours. We will have to do something for now.

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I keep searching for ideas like taking our daughter to school on an electric tandem bike. We count the idling cars we pass and traffic. It's something we named our daughter after Emerson who wrote, do not go where the path may lead go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Your degrees today. Your work to come are the means to leave a trail. Your family is another. I will look for you in this church in the years to come as you build and find your happiness. Thank you USF in go dawns,

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Fire Nation. Are you finally ready

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To publish a book the right way Kevin Anderson and associates can help for a limited time, they're offering Fire Nation a free 90 minute consultation to discuss writing and publishing your book in just six months. Visit KAWriting.com/fire to schedule your free 90 minute consultation today. That's KAWriting.com/fire Fire Nation is time to stop trading time for money and start reaching more clients and making a bigger impact. And you can do just that with online courses, try Thinkific for free today at Thinkific.com/EOF. That's Thinkific.com/EOF.