May 25, 2017
I love this place. Thank you all for coming out in the rain, the pouring rain. Was it going to make this worse for you?
President Faust, Board of Overseers, faculty, friends, alumni, proud parents, members of the ad board, and graduates of the greatest university in the world,
I’m honored to be with you today because, let’s face it, you accomplished something I never could. If I get through this speech today, it’ll be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard. Class of 2017, congratulations!
Now, I’m an unlikely speaker today, not just because I dropped out, but because we’re technically in the same generation. We walked this yard less than a decade apart, we studied the same ideas and slept through the same Ec10 lectures. We may have taken different roads to get here, especially if you came all the way from the Quad, but today I want to share what I’ve learned about our generation and the world we’re all building together.
But first, the last couple of days have brought back a lot of good memories.
How many of you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you got that email telling you that you got into Harvard? I was playing…I was playing the video game Civilization and I ran downstairs, and got my dad, and for some reason, his first reaction was to video me opening the email. That could have been a really, really sad video. But I swear getting into Harvard is the thing my parents are most proud of me for. My mom is nodding. You know what I’m talking about of. Look, guys, it’s tough to be this, silver suits get you out there.
How many of you remember your first lecture here at Harvard? Mine was Computer Science 121 with the incredible Harry Lewis. Harry? I was running late for class so I threw on a T-shirt and I didn’t realize until afterwards I put on the inside out and backwards with my tag sticking out the front. I couldn’t figure out why no one in class would talk to me – except for this one guy, KX Jin, he just went with it. We started doing our problem sets together, and now he runs a big part of Facebook. And that, Class of 2017, is why you should be nice to people.
But my best memory from Harvard is meeting Priscilla. I had just launched this prank website Facemash, and the ad board wanted to “see me”. Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out. My parents drove up here to help me pack my stuff. My friends threw me a going-away party. Who does that? As luck would have it, Priscilla was at that party with her friends. And we met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all-time most romantic lines, I turned to her and said: “I’m getting kicked out in three days, so we need to go on a date quickly.”
Actually, any of you graduating today can use that line. “I’m getting kicked out today, we need to go on a date fast.”
I didn’t end up getting kicked out – I did that to myself. Priscilla and I started dating. And, you know, that movie made it seem like Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasn’t. But without Facemash, I would never have met Priscilla, and Priscilla is the most important person in my life, so you could still say it was the most important thing I built in my time here.
We’ve all started lifelong friendships here, and some of us even families. That’s why I’m so grateful to this place. Thanks, Harvard.
Today, I want to talk about purpose. But I’m not here to give you the standard commencement about finding your purpose. We’re millennials. We’ll try to do that instinctively. Instead, I’m here to tell you that finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
One of my favorite stories is when John F. K. went to go visit the NASA space center, and he saw a janitor holding a broom and he asked him what he was doing. The janitor replied: “Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon”.
Purpose is that feeling that you are part of something bigger than yourself, that you are needed, and that you have something better ahead to work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.
And you’re graduating at a time when this is especially important. When our parents graduated, that sense of purpose reliably came from your job, your church, your community. But today, technology and automation are eliminating many jobs. Membership in a lot of communities has been declining. And a lot of people are feeling disconnected and depressed, and are trying to fill a void in their lives.
As I’ve traveled around, I’ve sat with children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me maybe their lives would have turned out differently if they just had something to do, an after-school program or somewhere to go. I’ve met factory workers who know their old jobs aren’t coming back and are just trying to find their path ahead.
For our society to keep moving forward, we have a generational challenge – to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose.
I remember that night I launched Facebook from my little dorm in Kirkland House. I went to Noch’s with my friend KX. And I remember telling him clearly that I was excited to help connect the whole Harvard community, but one day, someone would connect the whole world.