Key points from Rick Rigsby’s speech

  • Combine knowledge and wisdom to make an impact.
  • Just because he left school doesn’t mean education stopped.
  • He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could, all the days of his life.
  • Boys, I won’t have a problem if you aim high and miss. But I’m going to have real issues if you aim low and hit.
  • If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you are right.
  • Son, you’d rather be an hour early than a minute late.
  • You are what you repeatedly do, therefore excellence ought to be a habit, not an act.
  • Son, make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.
  • Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.
  • Pride is the burden of a foolish person.
  • You want to make an impact? Find your broom.
  • Son, you are going to do a job, do it right.
  • Good enough isn’t good enough if it can be better. And better isn’t good enough if it can be best.
  • Wisdom will come to you in the unlikeliest of sources, a lot of time through failure. When you hit rock bottom remember this: while you’re struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow.
  • Son, just stand. You keep standing, no matter how rough the sea, keep standing.
  • No matter what you don’t give up.
  • “How you livin”?
  • That cook will tell you this: that you would not judge, that you would show up early, that you’d be kind, that you’d make sure that your servant’s towel is huge and used, that if you are going to do something you do it the right way, that is never wrong to do the right thing, that how you do anything is how you do everything.
  • In that way you will grow your influence to make an impact. In that way you will honor all those who have gone before you, who have invested in you.
  • Look in those unlikeliest places for wisdom.
  • Enhance your life every day by seeking that wisdom and asking yourself every night “How am I living?”