Note: This was read at the 2006 Columbus High School graduation.

I am sure many of you are thinking about your futures today. You probably all have the same basic question in mind: “How can I become a success?”
My question for you today is this: “What is success?” This is a critical question to ask. It is also extremely important for your future that you have a good answer. Think about this for a moment. “What is success?” Do you have an answer in your mind? Now let’s see how closely your definition matches mine.

Let me start with a story to show what I think success really is. One day a man went to an ocean beach. There he saw thousands of starfish had been stranded on shore when the tide went out. As he looked more closely at the scene he saw a young boy. The lad was taking one starfish at a time and hurling it back into the ocean.

The man couldn’t resist coming down to the area to straighten this foolish boy out, “Why are you wasting your time throwing all those starfish back into the water? Don’t you know you can never make a difference with all these starfish? There are just too many to save them all.”

In answer to the man’s question, the boy picked up another starfish and hurled it as far as he could out into the water. He then turned to the man and said, “No, I cannot make a difference for all those starfish, but I sure did make a difference for that one.”

Within this young man’s response lies the key to success. Success is leaving the world a better place because we were in it. The question we need to ask ourselves is how can each one of us make the world a better place? Perhaps we will find the cure for cancer, be the first person to walk on Mars, or invent a carburetor that gets 100 miles to the galloon. But each of us in our own sphere of influence can make this world a better place by helping other people. Often this happens one person at a time like the boy did with the starfish.
How can we do this? How can we make a difference so the world is a better place when we leave it, than it was before we were born?

There are a couple of keys to being a world-changer. One is to develop fully the God-given talents each of you have. No matter what those talents are do the most with them. This will likely cause you to receive additional education and training to help you learn how to utilize them more fully. Never let your talents lie dormant. Work diligently to make the most of these treasures that each one of you has.

Secondly, use those gifts to help other people. If you only use your abilities for selfish gain, the world will not be a better place because you are in it. It is only as you develop your talents and use them to help others that you will make this world a better place for your generation and the generations that will come after you.

There is one more secret I will share with you today that took me many years to learn. When you have developed your abilities and are using them for others, you will find true satisfaction and happiness in this life. Unless you do this, you will never find fulfillment.

In closing, I want to tell all of you that I am extremely excited and hopeful about the gifts and talents each of you possesses. If you use them to the fullest, there is nothing you cannot accomplish. Go forward from here confident in the knowledge that the world will be a better place because you are in it using your inner treasures to help others -- one person at a time.

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