Good evening distinguished faculty and staff, delighted parents, delirious graduates, dedicated friends and family. I am humbled before you with such an important honor in addressing you all.

It is such a privilege to be standing before you in my sincerest effort to inspire, insight, intrigue and ignite you all as you burst through the doors leading to the rest of your life. I am sorry to say, there are No safety nets, no cozy cushy jobs awaiting you, it is a war zone out there, and it’s not fair!

But they say pain is only relative to the person suffering it. Your parents had their challenges, like their parents before them, and their parents before them, in fact challenge is what built this great nation of ours. Yes, these are tough times, tougher than I have ever know, you did not create this, and neither did I, but here we all are, now how do we survive it together?

Nobody is telling you don’t be afraid, heck be sacred as hell, but use that fear to drive yourself to greatness. Think about it, if everyone where to tell you how easy it is out there would you really be that motivated to find the depth of your true ambition. I really loved the sick sensation I had in the pit of my stomach before I went into an important job interview, or audition for a big director. Sometimes it would even make me vomit, but I always look well down the road, past the nausea, to the moment when I walked out of their office with the sensation of satisfaction knowing I had given it my all, and tried my very best. I knew there would be a reward of a pleasurable endorphin rush to my brain greater than all that pain. It is with this courage today that I attack each business day, in all that I do.

An art teacher of mine in grade school declared to the class that, “there is no such word in the English language as can’t”…. the words ‘I can’t’ just doesn’t exist. If I had listened to my English professor who told me I should consider another profession other than writing, I would never have become a published author, or to the casting agent who told my manager that I would make a pretty wife someday, HA…yet I went on to enjoy a successful acting career despite him, (Oh and I have still yet to marry) or if I had listened to the cruel words of a jealous teenage girlfriend who said she did not want me hanging around her and her rich friends anymore. And my response to her was, I know exactly where I came from, not sure where I am going in life yet, but one thing for sure is, you won’t be there when I get there.

And here I am, standing in front of all of you tonight, with a story not so different from all of yours. Everyday is a challenge, everyday I wake up and I say to myself what can I do different today, how can I push just a little harder, jump a little higher, do a little better. It takes Imagination, determination, and dedication. The day I opened my own business 15 years ago I made a little joke to myself, and I said, the only problem with owning your own business is you just can’t quit on yourself! And that is my through-line everyday. It is as important to me as it is to every single one of my dedicated employees.

Never quit on yourself, never say I can’t, it’s just too hard, or all the good jobs are already taken. Carve your own path; create your own legacy, no matter how big or small. Find that purpose outside yourself greater than yourself. I believe true success is born of passion. I believe the secret to success is as simple as your singular inner voice. What drives you to get your toes out of bed every morning? If you could choose to do anything you love to do all day for the rest of your life, what would that be? Ask yourself this question, and then go and figure out if you can make a living at it.

Never build sides to your personal box, leave yourself open to metamorphosis, and do not limit yourself to the directive of your education. Use that as a platform, a firm foundation to build your empire. So many people have come up to me over the years and said, “Oh I was going to write that book,” my book, and I said, but you didn’t, I did. Everything I have done along the way has lead me to this, to the place where only I could write that particular book, with my voice, a voice that is forever changing, but always with something important to say.

As a young model, then actress I never sat around waiting for the phone to ring with my agent telling me I booked a job, or not. I created my own work, wrote my own plays and produced them, created my own advertising campaigns, carved out my own path. Just the thought of waiting for someone else to do it for me was so frightening, and just like back then; today I don’t wait for a client to walk through the doors of my boutique, no way, the world if far to competitive. So I am the first one to pack up a 16-foot cube truck and drive it myself, all the way across country to present a fashion and trunk show.

So go ahead and dream your dream, chase that cloud, tilt that windmill and climb your mountain to success.

In closing I will leave you with a few words that I attach to every email I send out to my friends and colleagues:

Life is not about the amount of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.
Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
Love Like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.
Sing like nobody’s listening. Work like you don’t need the money.
Give like you’ve never been taken. Laugh from the bottom of your belly.
Live like it’s heaven on earth. Smile you are one of the fortunate ones.
And may you be a treasure in the lives of the ones most closest to you.

Copyright Elizabeth Mason, 2009

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