Melinda French Gates 2024 Stanford University Commencement Speech
Summary
TLDRIn her Stanford University commencement speech, philanthropist Melinda French Gates shares her journey and insights on navigating life's transitions. She emphasizes the importance of radical open-heartedness, finding one's 'small wave' for perspective, and building a 'web of deserved trust'. Melinda encourages graduates to embrace uncertainty, adapt their plans, and contribute to a society based on mutual trust and support.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Melinda French Gates is a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls, with a focus on empowering them and advancing equality.
- 🏆 As co-chair of the Gates Foundation, Melinda has played a pivotal role in shaping the organization's strategies and overall direction, aiming for a world where everyone has a chance to lead a healthy and productive life.
- 💪 In 2015, Melinda founded Pivotal, an organization that works to accelerate progress by bridging philanthropy, venture capital, policy, and advocacy, with a goal to increase women's economic and political participation.
- 📚 She is the author of the bestseller 'The Moment of Lift,' sharing her journey as an advocate for women and girls and introducing inspiring women she has met.
- 🔍 Melinda's approach to philanthropy is data-driven and prioritizes flexibility, seeking out new ideas and perspectives to drive change.
- 🤝 She co-founded the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, inviting the wealthiest to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
- 💰 Melinda recently committed to giving $1 billion over the next two years to support people and organizations working for women and families globally, including in the United States.
- 🎓 She emphasized the importance of optimism and conviction in making things better, stating that no matter how bad suffering is, there is always hope if we don't lose sight of our goals.
- 🌊 Melinda shared a story about two waves to illustrate the idea of transitions, suggesting that we are not just transient waves but the enduring water, capable of taking on new forms.
- 🤝 She advised graduates to enter transitions with radical open-heartedness, embracing uncertainty and being willing to let new experiences shape their future.
- 🕸️ The concept of a 'web of deserved trust' was highlighted, encouraging the building of strong, reliable relationships that form the foundation of a progressive society.
Q & A
Who is the keynote speaker introduced in the script?
-The keynote speaker is Melinda French Gates, a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls.
What is Melinda Gates' primary focus in her philanthropic work?
-Melinda Gates focuses on fighting poverty and advancing equality, particularly for those with the highest barriers to equality, and empowering women and girls.
What is the Gates Foundation's mission?
-The Gates Foundation is dedicated to creating a world where every person has the chance to lead a healthy and productive life.
What is the role of Pivotal, the organization Melinda Gates founded in 2015?
-Pivotal works to accelerate progress by bridging philanthropy, venture capital, policy, and advocacy, with an aim to increase women's economic and political participation.
What is the title of Melinda Gates' bestselling book, and what does it cover?
-The book is titled 'The Moment of Lift,' where Melinda shares her journey to becoming an advocate for women and girls and introduces inspiring women she has met.
What is the purpose of the Giving Pledge, co-founded by Melinda Gates, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett?
-The Giving Pledge is an invitation for the wealthiest individuals to publicly commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.
How does Melinda Gates describe her approach to philanthropy?
-Melinda Gates' approach to philanthropy is data-driven and prioritizes flexibility over ideology, with an emphasis on seeking out new ideas and perspectives.
What significant commitment did Melinda Gates announce regarding her philanthropic work?
-Melinda Gates announced a commitment of $1 billion over the next two years to support people and organizations working on behalf of women and families globally.
What is the story Melinda Gates shared about the two waves, and what is its message?
-The story of the two waves illustrates the idea that during transitions, one can either rush through or embrace the change with open-heartedness. The small wave teaches the big wave that they are not just waves but water, symbolizing the ability to adapt and transform.
What advice does Melinda Gates offer to the graduates regarding transitions in life?
-Melinda Gates advises graduates to approach transitions with radical open-heartedness, to find their 'small wave' for perspective, and to build a web of deserved trust.
What is the significance of the phrase 'seamless web of deserved trust' mentioned by Melinda Gates?
-The phrase 'seamless web of deserved trust' represents the ideal of a society where people are reliable and trust each other correctly, creating a strong and reciprocal bond.
Outlines
🌟 Introduction of Melinda French Gates
The speaker introduces Melinda French Gates, a renowned philanthropist, businesswoman, and advocate for women and girls. Highlighting her role as a co-chair of the Gates Foundation, the speaker emphasizes Melinda's dedication to fighting poverty and advancing equality, particularly for those facing the highest barriers. The introduction also mentions Pivotal, an organization founded by Melinda to accelerate progress in women's economic and political participation, and her work as a bestselling author and publisher with Moment of Lift Books. The speaker concludes by acknowledging Melinda's commitment to philanthropy and her optimistic approach to creating a better world.
🎓 Commencement Address and Life Transitions
Melinda French Gates addresses the graduating class of Stanford University, acknowledging the challenges they faced during their studies, such as the pandemic and global conflicts. She reflects on the concept of transitions, using the metaphor of two waves in the ocean to illustrate the idea of maintaining one's core identity during significant life changes. Melinda shares personal experiences, including her career at Microsoft, her philanthropic work, and her recent major life transitions. She offers three lessons based on her experiences: embracing uncertainty, finding a 'small wave' perspective, and building a web of deserved trust. The commencement speech is a call to action for the graduates to step into their future with open hearts and a commitment to social progress.
🌱 Embracing Uncertainty and Finding Direction
In this paragraph, Melinda discusses the importance of embracing uncertainty during life transitions. She shares her own journey into philanthropy, where she initially focused on vaccine access but was redirected by the women she met to focus on contraceptives and women's autonomy. This shift in focus led her to her life's work. Melinda encourages the graduates to be open to change and to allow new experiences to shape their understanding of their purpose. She emphasizes the value of being open to new possibilities and not being confined to a single path or career.
🤝 The Power of Supportive Relationships
Melinda highlights the significance of having a 'small wave' in one's life—a person who provides a fresh perspective and helps navigate through transitions. She recounts her early career at Microsoft, where a colleague named Charlotte helped her see a path forward despite the challenging corporate culture. Melinda encourages the graduates to recognize the value of such relationships and to be both a 'small wave' for others and open to receiving support. She concludes by emphasizing the importance of building a society based on a 'seamless web of deserved trust,' where people rely on and support one another.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Philanthropist
💡Advocacy
💡Pivotal
💡Wage Gap
💡Caregivers
💡Philanthropy
💡Commencement Speech
💡Transition
💡Optimism
💡Web of Deserved Trust
Highlights
Introduction of Melinda French Gates as a philanthropist, businesswoman, and global advocate for women and girls.
Melinda's commitment to fighting poverty and advancing equality, particularly for those facing the highest barriers.
Her role as co-chair of the Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations.
The establishment of Pivotal, an organization focused on increasing women's economic and political participation.
Melinda's authorship of the best-selling book 'The Moment of Lift' and her journey as an advocate for women and girls.
Creation of the Moment of Lift Books imprint, dedicated to publishing non-fiction by visionaries working for equality.
Co-founding the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, encouraging the wealthy to commit to philanthropy.
Melinda's data-driven approach to philanthropy, prioritizing flexibility and seeking new ideas and perspectives.
Her recent commitment of $1 billion over two years to support people and organizations working for women and families globally.
Melinda's 2014 commencement speech at Stanford, emphasizing optimism and the conviction to make things better.
The significance of Stanford University to Melinda's family, including her father's education and her children's degrees.
Acknowledgment of the class of 2024's accomplishments and adaptability during challenging times, including the pandemic.
The importance of transitions in personal and professional life, and the value of radical open-heartedness during these periods.
Advice to graduates to embrace uncertainty and allow for plans to change, learning from new experiences and directions.
The concept of finding your 'small wave' – a person who provides perspective and helps navigate transitions.
The idea of building a 'web of deserved trust' as a foundation for societal progress and individual relationships.
Encouragement for graduates to step forward into the future with courage, confidence, and a commitment to community.
Transcripts
and now it's my honor to introduce
today's keynote speaker philanthropist
businesswoman Global advocate for women
and girls and Stanford parent Melinda
French
gates for more than two decades Melinda
has committed her time and her energy to
fighting poverty and advancing equality
with a focus on the People For Whom the
barriers to equality are the highest
she's worked tirelessly to empower women
and girls and transform the health and
prosperity of families communities and
societies one of the largest
philanthropic organizations in the world
the Gates Foundation is dedicated to a
world in which every person has the
chance to lead a healthy and productive
life as co-chair Melinda helped shape
the foundation strategies and set the
organization's overall
direction in 2015 Melinda founded
pivotal an organization that works to
accelerate the pace of progress by
Bridging the worlds of philanthropy
Venture Capital policy and
advocacy pivotal seeks to increase
women's economic and political
participation through efforts such as
closing the wage Gap supporting better
policies and solutions for caregivers
and helping women build their politic
itical power Melinda is also the
bestselling author of the moment of LT
in which she shares her journey to
becoming an advocate for women and girls
and introduces readers to inspiring
women she has
met in 2023 she created the publishing
imprint moment of lift books dedicated
to publishing original non-fiction by
Visionaries working for a more equal
World Melinda also co-founded the giving
pledge alongside Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett
The Pledge serves as an invitation to
the wealthiest people to publicly commit
to giving the majority of their wealth
to
philanthropy Melinda's own approach to
philanthropy is datadriven and
prioritizes flexibility over ideology
she makes a point of seeking out new
ideas and
perspectives as she enters a new chapter
in her philanthropy Melinda recently
announced that she's committing $1
billion over the next two years to
people and organizations working on
behalf of women and families around the
world including here in the United
States in her 2014 commencement speech
here Melinda said quote optimism for me
Isn't a passive expectation that things
will get better it's a conviction that
we can make things better that whatever
suffering we see no matter how bad it is
we can help people if we don't lose hope
and we don't look
away Melinda Gates is a wonderful
example of a person who has used her
talents and her platform to make things
better to advance Equity opportunity and
social progress around the world so
please join me in welcoming Melinda
French
[Applause]
Gates thank you president saler and good
morning class of
2024 it is such an honor to be here with
you and your families on this truly
happy occasion today is the day you
graduate from Stanford University and
that is an amazing
accomplishment Stanford has always held
a special place in my family's heart my
dad Ray French received a scholarship to
study mechanical engineer ing here in
1960 and while he worked on his master's
degree my mother Elaine French supported
them with her job at a bottled water
company and on nights and weekends she
was my dad's lab assistant there's an
old photo I love of my mom pregnant with
my sister standing next to the wind
tunnel in the engineering lab with a
clipboard and a
stopwatch today my mom and dad are back
on campus for a very special occasion to
watch their granddaughter Phoebe
graduate from the University that
changed my Dad's
life and Phoebe's not the only one to
follow in his footsteps my older
daughter Jen and my son-in-law Niel
earned degrees here too so happy
Father's Day Dad and to all the dads
here and Mom thanks for making this
story
possible I know there are many many many
other parents grandparents and loved
ones who are here and as proud to be
here as my family and I are graduates
you have given us a lot to celebrate and
also a lot to admire you arrived on this
campus already accomplished an ambitious
young people and during your time here
you've also proven how adaptable you are
and what powerful Advocates you are for
the causes you believe
in Stanford is a demanding University
and your time here was made even more
challenging by what was happening in the
world all around you from a once- in a
century pandemic that changed the way
you lived and learned to mult multiple
Wars that I know this campus is feeling
very very
deeply there is no question you are
graduating into a different world than
the one you matriculated into but you
are also leaving this campus prepared to
be the leaders that we all need and
today marks an important milstone in
that Journey shortly after I sit down
you will be invited to rise if you are
able you will hear that call as a
Stanford
student you will answer that call as a
Stanford
Graduate and with that a major
transition in your life will
begin I've been thinking a lot lately
about
transitions the spiritual leader R Doss
had a wonderful teaching about two waves
traveling through the ocean one big and
one small and as the waves get closer to
the land the big wave sees what's about
to happen they see all the waves ahead
of them are just crashing onto the shore
and devastated the big wave says to the
small wave he warns them the end is near
and the small wave just smil and says
don't worry we'll be fine you don't
understand the big wave insists we're
done for and the smaller wave is just
totally calm and says no we're not and I
can explain why in just six
words you're not a wave you're
water I love that
story it Capt is what it's like to
experience an enormous transition
without losing the core of who you are I
turned 60 this year and you don't get to
be my age without navigating all kinds
of
transitions some you embraced and some
you never
expected some you hoped for and some you
fought as hard as you could for me those
included starting my career at Microsoft
s losing one of my very best friends to
cancer falling in love having
children starting my work on behalf of
women and girls and ending a marriage
and Partnership of almost 30 years and
very recently making a major career
shift in each case there was a moment
that I felt like that big wave terrified
that life as I knew it was about to be
over but I always made it to the next
day and so will you and I've learned
that the next day is when the real work
begins because what we do the next day
is what makes us who we are so in
addition to honoring all of your
accomplishments today I also want to
offer you something to think about when
you wake up
tomorrow three lessons I've learned from
my own experience with
transitions the first piece of advice is
to enter these moments with radical
open-heartedness most of the time we
walk around through life in the thicket
of our everyday routine but during a
transition we step out of our familiar
surroundings into a big wide open space
where everything is new and there are
two ways to encounter these spaces you
can keep your head down and focus on the
finding the shortest distance possible
from one familiar thing to the next or
you can find the courage to linger in
that lional space and see what it has to
tell
you that to me is practicing
open-heartedness I have to admit as a
young person I managed transitions in
the first way I had a list of goals I
wanted to accomplish and as soon as I
checked one off the list I raced across
the clearing to the next one because
frankly it was a lot less scary that way
but as I've gotten older I've learned
the value of embracing
uncertainty I'll give you one example of
what this has looked like in my life
when I entered philanthropy more than 25
years ago it was completely unfamiliar
Terrain I didn't have any experience in
global health or development yet so I
had a lot to learn and I knew I'd need
to pay attention now initially we
thought the foundation's work was going
to focus on vaccine access but when I
started traveling around the world to
see the work in action the women I met
kep changing the subject they'd say what
about the shots I used to get they'd ask
me and they were talking about
contraceptives so I sto stopped and I
listened to what they had to say and
soon I was talking about contraceptives
on almost all my trips and continuing
those conversations back home with my
team and those conversations led to
others I learned how much Society
benefits when women are able to make
their own
decisions control their own resources
and direct their own futures
and I began to focus my efforts there
instead I think back now to those early
trips with such gratitude because the
women I met took me in a New Direction
and they led me to my life's
work now you are Stanford students so I
imagine most of you are graduating today
with big plans for your eles higher
degrees to earn causes to advance
companies to start Industries to
disrupt those big bold plans are
wonderful and the world needs
you but my advice is to leave some room
for those plans to
change resist the idea that anything
you've done here at Stanford has already
locked you into one path or any one kind
of career
be excited about the fact that you will
encounter possibilities you haven't even
imagined and be willing to let what you
learn shift your thinking about what
you're here on this Earth to do remember
that once the wave learns to call Itself
by a different name once it realizes
it's not just a wave but it is water it
becomes free to take on new forms arms
and the same is true for
you that brings me to my second piece of
advice and it's quite short find your
small wave in the story about the waves
the smaller wave is the hero because it
helps the big wave see things another
way in fact the small wave isn't small
at all it has the perspective on the big
wave that the big wave doesn't have on
itself graduates no matter who you are
or where you are in life a small wave is
an incredibly valuable thing to have
different people will play that role for
you at different times in life in the
early days of my career that person was
a colleague named Charlotte from the
moment I got to Microsoft I absolutely
love the work we were doing but as time
went on I realized I didn't love the
culture it was Brash and aggressive and
that wasn't me I was the only woman in
my hiring class of NBAs and I felt a lot
of pressure to emulate the men around me
eventually I reached a point when I
thought maybe I would leave the company
and like the big wave I thought things
were coming to an end for me but
Charlotte helped me see things
differently she was a little older and
had a little bit more experience and
she'd already figured out how to
navigate the culture there there without
losing her own identity having Charlotte
in my life made it possible for me to
imagine a future at Microsoft
also so graduates I promise you that
here in this Stadium today there is
someone who is going to play that small
wave role for you someone who can help
you imagine yourself as the person you
want to become come and just as
important there is someone here who
needs you to serve that role for them in
return and that leads me to my final
piece of advice
today build a web of deserved
trust that beautiful phrase comes from
the legendary businessman Charlie Munger
who changed this campus's landscape with
the incredible student housing his
generosity made
possible Charlie famously said that the
highest form which civilization can
reach is a seamless web of deserved
trust totally reliable people correctly
trusting each
other a web of deserved
trust what a thing to Aspire
to as a society we aren't always set up
to feel responsibility for the person
who's next to us or the person who's on
the other side of a divide or a debate
especially not right now but we need
each other no matter who you are there
will be moments in your journey when you
need to be carried or when someone else
will need you to carry
them when my good friend John died at
age 37 I was one of a small group of
people who tried to carry his wife Emmy
to the other side of her
grief three years ago when my marriage
ended she was one of the people who
carried me to the other side of
mine that bond between us is incredibly
profound but of course what Charlie was
talking about was much bigger than that
a whole society based on that kind of
relationship a bond so strong and
reciprocal but multiplied millions and
billions of times
over during your time here as a student
you've born witness to many painful
reminders of how the world is still
falling short of that Vision but you
have also demonstrated just how ready
you are to be the force for Progress the
world
needs yes you are graduating into a
broken world but it is community that
rebuilds things you've already started
building that Community here and
together is how you'll make the broken
things whole
again but first you need to graduate and
in a few minutes when you and your
classmates are invited to rise I hope
you will hear in that invitation a call
to action I hope you'll think of
everyone who helped you reach this
Milestone today and vow to pay forward
the Investments they made in
you most of all I hope you will step
forward into the future with a radical
open-heartedness emboldened by the
wisdom and perspective of the smaller
wiser waves that travel with you
committed to expanding the Seamless Web
of deserved trust you have already begun
to weave around you and when you wake up
tomorrow no longer the person you are
today and not yet the person you will
become next I hope you will draw Courage
and confidence knowing that you
graduates are water the force that
shapes the shore
what a powerful force you are thank you
[Applause]
関連動画をさらに表示
Học tiếng Anh qua bài phát biểu của Taylor Swif | Tự học IELTS Speaking | ELSA Speak
OTAK, PERUT, dan DOMPET, harus terisi, Indikator KESEJAHTERAAN SOSIAL, generasi Z.
How to lead with radical candor | Kim Scott | TEDxPortland
NYU's 2022 Commencement Speaker Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift gives NYU commencement speech after accepting honorary degree
"Profound" INSPIRATIONAL & Motivational 2024 Graduation Speech - Mike Thakur
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)