For the 2011 graduates, I have collected a few items and ideas that you might find interesting and even useful as you make your way in the world by going to college, joining the military or getting a job.
First of all, don’t get too tensed up over being the leaders of tomorrow. There are several generations ahead of you who will try to make it difficult to make any big decisions until you are ready. Don’t mortgage the family fortunes to go to college.
Find a cost-effective way to get whatever college education you want. Seriously consider a community college for the first two years as it will save you a fortune and you can get a perfectly good education in one.
Don’t get married just because everyone else is doing it or you can’t think of anything else to do. Get married because you really want to.
Your education will really begin when you leave college. Depending on where you go to school, you may have to spend a lot of time unlearning what you have been taught at great expense that isn’t true. Experience is a great thing to acquire because it will enable you to recognize the same mistake each time you make it.
Despite what you may have heard, hard work and persistence still give the best chance of success. Learn that there are at least two sides to every argument and if you don’t get in the habit of looking at all sides of an argument you are setting yourself up for a lot of mistakes.
Consistent saving and investing is still the main route to financial independence. Failure to do so is the surest path to constant financial misery. Returning to education, listen to Yogi Berra when he says that you can hear a lot by listening and see a lot by watching. What Yogi didn’t say is that it really helps to listen to and watch the right people.
This is a good place to quote my old friend Crosby Few who said,” Don’t believe more than 10% of what you hear and less than half of what you see.”
In other words, learn to be skeptical about what you see hear or read. Succeeding and living well is by far the best revenge on your enemies.
I realize that many of you will have to learn these things the hard way over many years; but at least I tried to speed up the process.
Pete Mallory NSBHS ‘53
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