Billionaires' Tips For New Grads: Advice From Jobs, Oprah, Zuckerberg And More

I recently published a post 10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You that took the viewpoint of telling new graduates how it is, without the sugar on top.  It was a bit of a darker look at the world facing those with newly minted degrees.

To give a more uplifting commencement speech, Forbes collected tips from a group Billionaires that have recently given commencement addresses.

Below are a few of my favorites, full article here

Steve Jobs: Live Each Day As If It Was Your Last

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, some day you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. ~Stanford University, 2005

JK Rowling: Failure Can Be the Foundation Of Success

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. ~Harvard University, 2008 (Note: No longer a billionaire)

Carl Icahn: Think For Yourself

When you go out there, you can be one of two types of guys. You can be a guy that thinks for himself, and I think the world and our corporations are now waiting for that. There are CEOs that really do think for themselves, that are innovative, that go against the trend… You should try to stand against the trend, even though it might cost you your job, cost your promotion. But in the end, think for yourself, be innovative. If you have ideas, go slam the table, don’t worry about it, because that’s what this company needs. ~Drexel University School of Business, 2008

Jeff Bezos: Gifts Are Easy, Choices Are Hard

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. ~Princeton University, 2010