Fail Fearlessly - Commencement Keynote

University of Maine leadership, faculty, staff - - - family, friends and two thousand and nineteen Graduate School Graduates. Thank you for giving me the honor to speak on this special day.

Family and Friends, we come here today to celebrate a truly special group of people. You see, to be awarded an advanced degree requires that the candidate formally or informally make an ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION to the world’s knowledge. 

Graduates. You are our new generation of explorers and disruptors. You are the our new pilgrims, pioneers and adventurers. You have shown the courage to push the boundaries of knowledge. Family and friends let us recognize their courage, drive and curiosity during their time here at THE University of Maine.  

Applause

While I’m at it, I’d also like to thank the University of Maine for giving me the chance for a do-over. 

Let me explain. You see there’s a bit of déjà vu at work here. Eleven years ago, I was here on campus addressing a similarly attired group of graduates at an event very much like this.   

At that time I urged those graduates – to declare independence from baby boomer conformity. I encouraged them to think for themselves and to not “sell out” their values as many from my generation, the Baby Boomer generation, had done with our values from the 1960’s and 70’s.

Over the past few months, I’ve reflected on that message and realized I was wrong. I was wrong – and I’m here to day to correct my mistake.

 So here it is. Instead of simply encouraging you to think for yourself, my challenge to you today is to go forth from these hallowed halls and FAIL FEARLESSLY.  

You heard me.  FAIL FEARLESSLY. 

I understand that this falls under the heading of easier said than done because you’ve probably been taught all your life that it’s not how you play the game, it’s whether you win or lose.

But the truth is – and take it from this aging baby boomer – when you embrace failure you achieve great things. In fact, it’s ONLY by failing, failing again and failing over and over that it is possible to make genuinely great things happen.

It is only by learning to love failure that you can achieve great things.

Failing starts with a willingness to step outside of your comfort zone, it involves embracing change and exploring uncharted territory - no matter how uncomfortable it may seem.  

And to be clear - just saying you’re “ok with failure” is not what I’m talking about. You need to embrace failure - seek it out - savor in the joy of learning from it.  In my life I’ve found that whenever someone says they’re ok with failing - it’s a sure sign that they are not. 

For just a moment - I’d like to address the parents of today’s graduates. As parents you have done your job.  Over the years you have helped nurture and protect your child.  And you have done it well. You should feel very proud of their achievement that we celebrate today.  You’ve done your job so well - that now it is time to let go - and to set them free to win, lose, fail, dust themselves off and try again.  

Graduates - It is now your right and responsibility to FAIL FEARLESSLY.  It is now time for you to enter the real world and apply your education to making a meaningful difference in this world. Your family and the U Maine faculty have given you the tools to fail, they have also give you the tools to recover. 

It’s as basic as the scientific method that you embraced during your academic journey.

It’s as fundamental as Dr. Deming’s Theory Of Knowledge - PLAN, DO, STUDY, ACT.

It is how we learn how to do anything, from riding a bike to swimming, from learning to walk to learning how to run. It’s how the Wright brothers figured out how to defy the law of gravity and Edison lit up the darkness.  We try, we fail, we learn, we try again. And we figure it out. At this ping

2019 graduates, you have BEEN GIVEN A SPECIAL GIFT - A SPECIAL GIFT of A GRADUATE EDUCATION. 

Now is NOT the time to become academically “retired in place.”  

Now is NOT the time to become prudent, proper and puckered.

Now IS THE TIME to use your degree - as your license to fail.  

Yes - Your degree - is your LICENSE TO FAIL. You see with your graduate degree no one can ever call you stupid, 

Now is the time to take the curiosity and enthusiasm of youth forward into the real world.  

Now IS THE TIME to become an expert at failing fearlessly.  

I challenge you today to use your academic success - as a platform for teaching the naysayers and mental scaredy cats of this world how to use failure as the foundation for greatness.

To paraphrase Dr. Deming - how could they know, how could they know, how could they know the value of failing if they’ve never traveled the journey that you my friends have traveled in your journey to this day. As my friend Sheldon Scott says, embracing failure is the ONLY option if you really want to SUCCEED!

On campus you have lived in a community committed to learning. As you go forth into the real world - that will not always be the case. To help you I offer you these three simple lessons:

NUMBER ONE - EMBRACE THE CRAZY - They don’t give patents or Nobel Pres to people who color inside the lines.  If your idea is an obvious leap - by those skilled in the art - your application is rejected. Patents and Nobel Prizes are only awarded to the crazy ones. One of our fellow U Maine grads and perennial best-selling author, Stephen King, a guy who knows something about fear, believes that within each of us is a healthy craziness. King wrote, “I think we're all basically mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better.”

NUMBER TWO - THINK BIG - focus your efforts on projects that have the potential to make a meaningful difference in the world. To paraphrase the famous line from an early Apple commercial - Some call us the crazy ones - and we’re ok with that.  Be bold, be brave - focus on ideas that can make the world - of your community, state, country or the world a meaningfully better place.

NUMBER THREE - Fail FAST & Fail CHEAP - As we teach in Innovation Engineering - the issue is not failing - the real issue is the cost in terms of time, energy and money. Use your creative abilities to find ways to do quick, cost-effective experiments.  A Fortune Fifty executive once said to me he had difficulty even saying “fail fast fail cheap.”  He wanted to know if he could tweak it to instead say, :”Learn fast, learn cheap.” I told him no…. IF YOU CAN”T EVEN SAY THE WORD FAIL…then you have serious psychological issues that are beyond my expertise.

What’s that? Easy for me to say? Well, just so you know I’m not preaching without practicing, My Brain Brew Custom Whisk(e)y team, working with Dr. James Beupre here at the University of Maine, set out to invent a way to accelerate the aging of whiskey. Because well why not? I mean whiskey + wood is a very slow chemical reaction - why not simply accelerate it?

In one crazed week we failed 72 times in 7 days. We made horrible, awful, terrible, no-good whiskey. Some of it so bad we gave them a category all their own. We called them Spitters -- as in the only thing you could do during a tasting was to spit them out. I shudder even now to think of them. 

But with each failure, we got smarter. On the seventh day, we connected the dots – with experiment numbers 13, 40 and 72. EUREKA! — we had done it -- we had discovered how to shift the space/time continuum when it comes to whiskey aging. Instead of the traditional 12 to 18 years of barrel aging - we could develop the same or better smoothness in 40 minutes.  

From those failures emerged Noble Oak bourbon. It’s gone on to win double gold medals in top competitions. And with the support of the Macallan Whiskey team it will soon be in all 50 states, Asia and Europe.  

I’ll admit that making world class whiskey quickly is not… definitely not… as meaningful to the world as a cure for cancer.  But it does, in it’s own way enable a little joy in the world. It makes it possible to craft new tastes from new woods. And, it democratizes whiskey making it possible for everyone to be able to afford the pleasure of luxury whiskey smoothness.

Note If we had been Prudent, proper and puckered and after 10, 20, 40 or 60 failures had quit - we would have been DEAD. You see failure is not death. Failure is simply the opportunity to try a fresh idea.

The Brain Brew Crew had the energy to fail fearlessly. So do you - I know that because you had to do it to fulfill the requirements for the degree you are receiving today. 

So use it - don’t waste it…. As Ben Franklin wrote, “Up sluggard and waste not life - In the grave will be sleeping enough.” Deep inside all of us is a magical curiosity. A curiosity that fuels our courage to fail, learn and fail again.

In closing, in recognition of your courage - and in memory of my family’s other graduates of this world class university - my grandmother, mother, father, brother, sister, son, nephew and my niece Jill Twist, who graduates tomorrow - I thought it was appropriate to paraphrase the world’s greatest College song - the Maine Stein Song -

Fill the steins to dear old Maine

Drink to all the happy hours

Drink to the careless days

Drink to your failures - Drink to your Successes 

Drink to our hopes and dreams for you making a meaningful difference in this world. 

Congratulation Class of 2019 - Be Bold - Be Brave - Bravo!