7 valuable life lessons from successful people.

Some of the world’s most successful people are often asked to speak at commencement ceremonies. It’s a chance for the speakers to reflect on their careers and offer up life lessons learned during their professional journeys.

Here are 7 lessons from some high profile speeches:

J.K. ROWLING: EMBRACE THE BENEFITS OF FAILURE

In Rowling’s speech at Harvard in 2008, she noted many of the graduates were “not very well acquainted with failure.”

She then explained how she had “failed on an epic scale” —everything from her marriage to jobs.  And she emphasized how her perceived failures became valuable in helping her realize she had strong will and more discipline than she realized.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

OPRAH WINFREY: HAVE A ROADMAP 

Oprah has delivered many commencement speeches over the years.  

At Spelman College in 2012, she noted how important it is to have some kind of vision for your life — even if you don’t quite know the plan.

“You have to have a direction in which you choose to go. I never was the kind of woman who liked to get in a car and just go for a ride. I had a boyfriend that would say, ‘Let’s just go for a ride.’ I want to know where are we going. Do we have a destination? Is there a plan? Are we just riding? What I’ve learned is that’s a great metaphor for life. You want to be in the driver’s seat of your own life, because if you’re not, life will drive you.”

ELON MUSK:  HARD WORK PAYS OFF

During a commencement speech at USC in 2014, Musk addressed one of the realities of entrepreneur life: it’s a grind.

“When we started our first company, we rented a small office and slept on the couch. We showered at the YMCA. We had one computer — so the website was up during the day and I was coding at night.”

“Work hard, like, every waking hour. If you do the simple math, say that someone else is working 50 hours and you’re working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of the year as the other company.”

JERRY YANG: EMBRACE THE JOURNEY

It’s rare to hear from Yang, which makes his speech to the University of Hawaii’s graduating class in 2009 even more meaningful.

He shares a story from his days as a graduate student.  Yang and his Yahoo co-founder David Filo were supposed to be researching how to design faster computer chips.  Instead, they spent hours cataloging web links as part of their “little” passion project.

His message to students was to be open to serendipity.

“If you find something that feels right but doesn't seem to fit into your vision of master plan, take a chance, and commit to it by working hard. You shouldn't be afraid to let passion get behind the wheel -- you might really love where you end up. To quote Robert Lewis Stephenson, Sit loosely in the saddle of life."

JIM CARREY: THE SAFE PATH IS NOT ALWAYS SAFE

During his speech at Maharishi University in 2014, Carrey noted many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. 

“My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

JEFF BEZOS: IT’S OK TO WALK AWAY

Bezos’ journey from Wall Street to Seattle has been well documented.  But it’s a valuable story to share, as he did with Princeton’s graduating class in 2010. 

He addressed the fear some have of leaving a good job to pursue something new, because of the associated risks.

“I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people and I had a brilliant boss I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I was going to start a company selling books on the internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion and I’m proud of that choice.”

STEVE JOBS: LIVE EACH DAY TO THE FULLEST

I’m sure you were waiting for this one, which has become one of the most cited commencement speeches.  Jobs’ candid comments at Stanford in 2005 came a year after he was first diagnosed with cancer.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”