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Mark Zuckerberg Harvard Commencement Speech 2017 FACEBOOK CEO'S FULL SPEECH | ABC News | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Mark Zuckerberg Harvard Commencement Speech 2017 FACEBOOK CEO'S FULL SPEECH
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for countless numbers of our alumni and
others around the world to enjoy the
fasal manner in which they are able to
create meaningful connections that
result in lifelong
relationships thank you
sir for staying on the mission of making
the world a more open place in this time
when elements of free societies and
culture cultes are making concerted
insularity thank you also for
collaborating with your life partner and
fellow alumna the brilliant and talented
Chan a member of the great Harvard
College class of
2007 to create the Chan Zuckerberg
initiative and sign the giving pledge
that will provide substantially all of
your vast resources to very important
initiatives in the fields of Technology
life sciences and education and as well
as the promotion of equality for the
benefit of the politically and
and I would be remiss on this special
occasion if I did not say thank you for
using your T-shirt wardrobe to
demonstrate to the world that male
sartorial Elegance doesn't always
links most
importantly thank you for being with us
today on our special day
ladies and gentlemen it is my high honor
to introduce Dr Mark [Applause]
[Applause]
place thank you all for coming out in
the rain the pouring rain we're going to
make this worth it for
you president fa Board of overseers
overseers
Faculty friends
board and graduates of the greatest
I am honored to be here with you today
because let's face it you accomplished
something I never
could if I get through this speech today
it'll be the first time I actually
finish something here at
congratulations now I'm an unlikely
speaker today not just because I dropped
out but because we're technically in the same
same
generation we walked this yard less than
a decade apart we studied the same ideas
and slept through the same Act 10
lectures we may have taken different
roads to get here especially if you came
all the way from the
quad but today I want to share what I've
learned about our generation and the
world we're all building
together but first these last couple has
brought back a lot of good
memories how many of you remember
exactly where you were and what you were
doing when you got that email telling
you you got into [Applause]
[Applause]
Harvard I was playing I was playing the
video game
civilization and I ran downstairs and
got my dad and for some reason his first
reaction was to video me opening the
email that could have been a really
really sad
video but I swear getting into Harvard
is the thing my parents are most proud
of me
for my mom is
nodding you all know what I'm talking
about look guys it's tough to beat this
you'll see when you get out
there how many of you remember your
Harvard mine was computer science 121
Harry I was running late for class so I
threw on a T-shirt and I didn't realize
until afterwards that I put it on inside
out and backwards and my tag was
sticking out the
front I couldn't figure out why no one
in class would talk to
me except for this one guy KX Jin he
just went with it we started doing our
problem sets together and now he runs a
big part of Facebook
and that class of 2017 is why you should
be nice to [Laughter]
[Laughter] [Applause]
[Applause]
people but my best memory from Harvard
Priscilla I had just launched this prank
website face [Applause]
[Applause]
Smash and the ad board wanted to see me
everyone thought I was going to get
kicked out my parents drove up here to
help me pack my stuff my friends threw
me a going away party who does
that as luck would have it Priscilla was
at that party with her friends and we
met in line for the bathroom in the foo
Bell Tower and in what must be one of
the all-time most romantic lines I
turned her and said I'm getting kicked
out in 3 days so we need to go on a date quickly
actually any of you graduating today can
use that line I'm getting kicked out
fast I didn't end up getting kicked out
I did that to
myself Priscilla and I started dating
and you know that movie made it seem
like face Mash was so important to
starting Facebook it
wasn't but without face smash I never
would have met Priscilla
and Priscilla is the most important
person in my life so you could still say
it was the most important thing I built
here we have all started lifelong
friendships here and some of us even
families that's why I'm so grateful to
today I want to talk about
purpose but I'm not here to give you the
standard commencement about finding your
purpose we're
Millennials we try to do that
instinctively instead I'm here to tell
you that finding your purpose isn't
enough the challenge for our generation
is to create a world where everyone has
a sense of
purpose one of my favorite
stories is when JFK went to go visit the
NASA Space Center and he saw a janitor
holding a broom and he asked him what he
was doing and the janitor replied Mr
President I'm helping put a man on the
moon purpose is that feeling that you
are a part of something bigger than
yourself that you are needed and that
you have something better ahead to work
for purpose is what creates true
happiness and you are graduating at a
time when this is especially
important when our parents graduated
that sense of purpose reliably came from
your job your church your community but
today technology and automation are
eliminating many jobs membership in a
lot of communities has been declining
and a lot of people are feeling
disconnected anded depressed and are
trying to fill a void in their lives as
I've traveled around I've sat with
children in juvenile detention and
opioid addicts who have told me that
maybe their lives would have turned out
differently if they just had something
to do an after school program or
somewhere to
go I've met Factory workers who know
their old jobs aren't coming back and
are just trying to find their path
ahead for our society to keep moving
forward we have a generational challenge
to not only create new jobs but Create A
purpose I remember that night I launched
Facebook from that little dorm in Kirkland
house I went to noes with my friend
KX and I remember telling him clearly
that I was excited to help connect the
Harvard Community but one day someone
would connect the whole
world the thing is
it never even occurred to me that that
someone might be us we were just college
kids we didn't know anything about that
there were all these great big
technology companies with all these
resources and I just assumed one of them
would do it but this idea was so clear
to us that all people want to connect so
we just kept working on it day after day after
after
day and I know that a lot of you are
going to have your own stories just like
this a change in the world that seems so
clear that you are sure someone else is
going to do it but they're not you
will but it's not enough to have that
purpose yourself you also have to create
a sense of purpose for others and I
found that out the hard way you see my
Hope was never to build a company I
wanted to have an impact and as all
these people started joining us I just
assume that that's what they wanted to
do too so I never took the time to
explain what it was that I hoped we'd
build a couple years in some big
companies wanted to buy us I didn't want
to sell I wanted to see if we could
connect more people and we were building
the first version of Newsfeed at the
time and I thought if we could just
launch this it could change how we all
learn about the
world nearly everyone else wanted to
sell without a sense of higher purpose
this was their startup dream come true
and it tore our company
apart after one particularly tense
argument one of my close advisers told
me if I didn't agree to sell the company
right now I would regret that decision
for the rest of my
life relationships were so Frid that
within a year or so every single person
gone that was my hardest time leading
Facebook I believed in what we were
doing but I felt alone and worse it was my
my
fault I wondered if I was just wrong an
impostor a a 22-year-old kid who had no
idea how things actually
worked now years later I understand that
is how things work when there's no sense
of higher purpose so it's up to all of
us to create it so we can all keep
moving forward
together and today I want to talk about
three ways that we can create a world
where everyone has a sense of purpose by
taking on big meaningful projects
together by redefining equality so
everyone has the freedom to pursue their
purpose and by building Community all
across the
world so first let's take on big meaningful
meaningful
projects our generation is going to have
to deal with tens of millions of jobs
replaced by automation like self-driving
cars and trucks but we have the
potential to do so much more than
that every generation has its defining
Works more than 300,000 people work to
put that man on the moon including that
janitor millions of volunteers immunize
children around the world against polio
and millions of more people built the
Hoover Dam and other great
projects and now it's our generation's
turn to do great
things now I know maybe you're thinking
I don't know how to build a dam I don't
know how to get a million people
involved in
anything well let me tell you a
secret no one does when they
begin ideas don't come out fully formed
they only become clear as you work on
them you just have to get
started if I had to know everything
about connecting people before I got
started I never would have built
Facebook movies and pop culture just get
this all wrong the idea of a single
Eureka moment is a dangerous lie it
makes us feel inadequate because we feel
like we haven't had ours yet and it
prevents people with seeds of good ideas
from ever getting started in the first
place oh and you know what else movies
get wrong about
innovation no one writes math formulas
on glass
it's really good to be
idealistic but be prepared to be
misunderstood anyone working on a big
vision is going to get called crazy even
if you end up right anyone taking on a
complex problem is going to get blamed
for not fully understanding it even
though it's impossible to know
everything up front anyone taking
initiative will always get criticized
for moving too fast because there's
always someone who want wants to slow you
you
down in our society we often don't take
on big things because we're so afraid of
making mistakes that we ignore all the
things wrong today if we do
nothing the reality is anything we do
today is going to have some issues in
the future but that can't stop us from getting
getting
started so what are we waiting for it is
time for our generation defining great
works how about stopping climate change
before we destroy the planet and getting
millions of people involved
involved
manufacturing and installing solar
panels how about curing all diseases and
getting people involved by asking
volunteers to share their Health Data
track their health data and share their
genomes you know
today our society spends more than 50
times as much treating people who are
sick as we invest in finding cures so
people don't get sick in the first place
it makes no
sense we can fix this how about
modernizing democracy so everyone can vote
online and how about personalizing
education so everyone can
learn these achievements are all within
our reach let's do them all in a way
that gives everyone in our society a
role let's do big things not just to
purpose so taking on big meaningful
projects together is the first thing we
can do to create a world where everyone
has this a sense of purpose the second
is redefining our idea of equality so
everyone has the freedom to pursue their
purpose now many of our parents had
stable jobs throughout their careers but
in our generation we're all a little
entrepreneurial whether we're starting
our own projects or finding our role in
another one and you know that's great
because our culture of Entrepreneurship
is how we create so much
progress an entrepreneurial culture
thrives when it is easy to try lots of new
new
ideas Facebook wasn't the first thing I
built I also built chat systems and
games study tools andic music players
and I'm not alone JK Rowling got
rejected 12 times before she finally
wrote and published Harry Potter even
Beyonce had to make hundreds of songs to get
Halo the greatest successes come from
fail now
today we have a level of wealth inequality
inequality
that hurts
everyone when you can't when you don't
have the
freedom to take your idea and turn it
into a historic
Enterprise we all
lose and right now today our society is
way over indexed on rewarding people
when they're successful and we don't do
nearly enough to make sure that everyone
can take lots of different
shots now let's face it there is
something wrong with our system when I
can leave here and make billions of
dollars in 10 years while millions of
students can't even afford to pay off
business look I know a lot of
entrepreneurs and I don't know a single
person who gave up on starting a
business because they were worried they
might not make enough
money but I know too many people who
haven't had the chance to pursue their
dreams because they didn't have a
failed we all know you don't get
successful just by having a good idea or
working hard you get Successful by being lucky
lucky
too if I had to support my family
growing up instead of having the time to
learn how to code if I didn't know that
I was going to be fine if Facebook
didn't work out then I wouldn't be
standing up up here
today and if we're honest we all know
how much luck we've had to get to this
point in our
lives every generation expands its
definition of
equality previous generations fought for
the vote and civil rights they had the
New Deal and great
society and now it's time for our
generation to define a new social contract
we should have a society that measures
progress not just by economic metrics
like GDP but by how many of us have a
role we find
meaningful we should explore ideas like
Universal basic income to make sure that
ideas we're all going to change jobs and
roles many times so we need affordable
child care to get to work and Healthcare
that's not tied to just one [Music]
employer and we're all going to make
mistakes so we need a society that's
less focused on locking us up and
stigmatizing us when we
do and as our technology keeps on
evolving we need a society that is more
focused on providing continuous
lives and yes giving everyone the free
freedom to pursue purpose isn't going to be
be
free people like me should pay for it
and a lot of you are going to do really
too that is why Priscilla and I started
the Chan Zuckerberg initiative and
committed our wealth to promoting equal opportunity
these are the values of our whole
generation it was never a question of if
we were going to do this the only
question was
when Millennials are already one of the
most charitable Generations in
history in just one year more than three
in four us Millennials donated to
charity and more than seven in 10 raised
money for another
one but it's not just about giving
money you can also give time
and I promise you if you just take an
hour or two a week that's all it takes
to give someone a hand and help them
Reach their
potential now maybe you're thinking
that's a lot of time I'm not sure if I
have that much
time I used to think
that you know when Priscilla graduated
from Harvard she became a teacher and
before she'd do education work with me
she told me that I needed to get my own
experience teaching a
class at first I complained
said you know I'm kind of busy I'm
running this
company but she
insisted so I taught an after school
program at the local Boys and Girls Club on
entrepreneurship I taught those kids
lessons on product development and
marketing and they taught me what it was
like growing up feeling targeted for
your race and what it's like having a
I shared stories of my time in
school and they shared their hope that
one day they would get to go to college
too for five
years I've had dinner with those
students every
month one of them even threw Priscilla
and me our first baby
college every one of them
first generation and their
families we can all make time to give
someone a hand let's give everyone the
freedom to pursue purpose not just
because it's the right thing to do but
because when more people can turn their
dreams into something great we are all
it purpose doesn't only come from work
the third way we can create a sense of
purpose for everyone is by building
community and in our generation when we
say purpose for everyone we mean
everyone in the
world now quick show of hands how many
country all right now keep your hands up
how many of you are friends with one of these
these
folks now we're talking
we have we have grown up
connected in a recent survey of
Millennials around the world asking what
most defines our identity the most
popular answer wasn't nationality
ethnicity or religion it was citizen of the
the
world that's a big
deal every generation expands the circle
of people we consider one of us and in
our generation that now includes the whole
whole
world we understand that the great Arc
of human history bends towards people
coming together in ever greater numbers
from tribes to cities to Nations to
achieve things that we could not on our
own we get that our greatest
opportunities are now global we can be
the generation that ends poverty that ends
ends
disease and we get that our greatest
challenges need Global responses too no
country can fight climate change alone
or prevent
pandemics progress now requires coming
together not just as cities or nations
but also as a global
Community but we live in an unstable
time there are people left behind by
globalization across the whole world and
it's tough to care about people in other
places when we don't first feel good
about our lives here at home
there's pressure to turn
inwards this is the struggle of our time
the forces of Freedom openness and
Global Community against the forces of
authoritarianism isolationism and
nationalism forces for the flow of
knowledge trade and immigration against
those who would slow them
down this is not a battle of
Nations it is a battle of ideas
there are people in every country for
more Global Connection and there are
good people against
it and this isn't going to be decided at
the UN
either it's going to happen at the local
level when enough of us feel a sense of
purpose and stability in our own lives
that we can start to open up and care
about everyone else
too and the best way to do that is to
now we all get a lot of meaning from our
communities who hears from Elliot
house how about
lol I know you guys found Community
because you literally live right on top
of each other and Ma [Music]
[Music]
there whether our communities or houses
or sports teams churches or AC capella
groups they give us that sense that we
are a part of something bigger that we
are not
alone they give us the strength to
expand our
Horizons and that's why it's so striking
that over the past few decades
membership in all kinds of communities
has declined by as much as one quarter
that's a lot of people who now need to
find a sense of purpose somewhere
else but I know that we can rebuild
these communities and start new ones
are I met Agnes
SEO who's graduating today Agnes where are
you Agnes spent her childhood naviga in
Conflict zones with human trafficking in
Uganda and now she's trained thousands
of law enforcement officials to keep communities
safe I met Kayla Oakley and Niha Jane
we're graduating today too Stand Up
Guys Kayla Niha started a
nonprofit that connects people suffering
from chronic illnesses with people in
their communities who were willing to help
out and I met David razu aznar who's
graduating from the Kennedy school today
up David is a former city councelor who
fought to make Mexico City the first
Latin American city to pass marriage
and this is my story
too a student in a dorm connecting one
community at a time and keeping at it
until one day we can connect the whole
world change starts
local even Global change starts small
with people like us
in our generation the struggle of
whether we connect more whether we
achieve our greatest opportunities comes
down to this your ability to build
communities and create a world where
purpose class of
2017 you are graduating into a world
that needs purpose and it's up to you to create
create
it now maybe you're asking
this well remember when I told you about
that class I taught at the Boys and Girls
Girls
Club one day after class I was talking
to my students about going to college
and one of my top students raised his
hand and said that he wasn't sure he
could go to college because he's
undocumented he wasn't sure if they'd take
take
him last year I took him out to
breakfast for his
birthday and I wanted to get him a gift
so I asked him what he wanted and he
just started talking about struggles
that he saw other students in his class
facing and finally said you know I'd
really just like a book on social justice
justice
I was blown
away here is a young guy who has every
reason to be
cynical he wasn't sure if the country he
calls home the only one he's known was
going to deny him his dream of going to
college but he wasn't feeling sorry for
himself he wasn't even thinking of
himself he has a greater sense of
purpose and he's going to bring people
him it says something about our
situation today that I can't even say
his name because I don't want to put him at
risk but if a high school senior who
doesn't know what the future holds for
him can do his part to move the world
forward then we owe it to the world to
so before you walk out those Gates one last
last
time and as we sit here in front of
I'm reminded of a prayer
prayer
M that I say whenever I face a big
challenge that I sing to my daughter
thinking of her future when I tuck her
in at
night and it
goes May the source of
strength who's blessed the ones before
us help us find the courage to make our
lives a blessing
I hope you find the courage to make your
life a blessing congratulations class of
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