From a December 18, 2004 Fall Commencement Address at the Florida Institute of Technology University delivered by (then) FEMA under secretary Michael D. Brown.
Yes, I believe that each of you has the world at your beckoning call, but I also believe that you should take advantage of the “scenic route” when the opportunity arises. In fact, there may be times when the “scenic route” is what we are faced with. We are human and life offers us lots of fruits. There is an old saying that goes something like this ‘…if life deals you lemons, then you should make lemonade…’ Well, today I am going to chat about those ingredients.
A word of advice: don't take the scenic route when on your way to managing the worst natural disaster in 100 years.
I’ll bet many of you are saying, “…I am getting my degree in chemical engineering or chemistry or space science or aviation or psychology…I’ve interned at NASA and I have a job at the Jet Propulsion Lab…Who is Michael Brown to tell me about the scenic route in life…just who is this guy who works hard leading the nation’s premier emergency response agency in assisting victims across the world?”
I bet these students are wondering the very same thing right now.
Just as natural disasters occur in our communities, so too do they occur in our personal lives. Very few graduation speakers will say this in their speeches -You should expect to make mistakes.
You should expect to fall down.
You should even expect to fail at a few things.
If everything in life were perfect, then you would never have been an infant, a toddler, a little kid, a teenager and now an adult.
If everything in life was perfect, you would have been born an adult, wearing a business suit, holding a briefcase and heading for work every day, contributing to the financial fabric of this nation, commonly referred to as paying taxes.
But everything in life is not perfect, so expect to make those mistakes, expect to fall down every now and then, and expect to occasionally fail at something. There will always be someone along the way who is willing to help pick you up.
I wonder if there will be someone willing to pick Brown up this time? They'd never fire Rummy for mismanaging Iraq and they went as far to pin medals on Tenet for his "slam dunk" intelligence, but they'll be hard-pressed to keep a former nobody like Brown around after this screw-up.
Posted by Doug at September 8, 2005 06:46 PM