Thank you, Howard. Dr. Rathburn, staff and faculty, distinguished members of the Board, to family and guests, and, most of all, to the graduates, I would like to express my thanks for the invitation to be here today. It is an honor and a privilege.

I want to congratulate you graduates, on a wonderful accomplishment. Thanks to your learning experience at Savannah Tech, you are better prepared for what lies ahead. You have dreams and ambitions, and you have the technical skills to make them come true. You have friends and family here today, congratulating you on your accomplishments and standing beside you with pride. It is an exciting moment in your lives.

This is an important time for you. You will now take the skills you have been learning and put them to use. It will be up to you how well you do, and whether you choose to be just another worker or a real star.

As you go forward, I would like to give you my perspective on what it takes to be a star, to turn an average life into a truly exciting and successful adventure.

I began my career, perhaps like some of you, with no financial advantages. I was born in 1931, during the Great Depression, and my family was poor, but we kids didn’t know that. Our parents instilled in us the attitude that hard work, honesty, and dedication were their own rewards. With the right attitude, we would not only succeed, but we would find happiness in what we were doing. My parents taught us that the right attitude would make you a star. And, for me, the importance of attitude was borne out throughout my career. As I rose through the ranks at UPS, I saw attitude make the difference between those who soared and those who just got by.

It wasn’t always easy to maintain the right attitude. I began as a delivery truck driver for UPS at $ 1.75 an hour. Once I moved into management, the company asked me to move several times, to take on new challenges. At times, it would have been easy to say, no, I don’t want to shake up my life right now, I’ll just stay where I am. But that wasn’t the way I was raised. My parents taught me to face my challenges with a positive attitude and to tackle them head-on.

I’d like to challenge you today to look at your own attitude. You will find in your careers that sometimes the only thing you can control is your attitude. You can’t always control the hours you have to work, who your boss is, or what you are asked to do. But you can control your attitude. You can decide every morning to have a good attitude. And, I would suggest that, to be a star, you MUST make that decision and live by it.

What does that mean? To me, there are five vital elements of attitude: perseverance, loyalty, integrity, work ethic, and accountability. Throughout my career, these are the values that have worked for me and for all those I have known who have found true success and happiness. These are the five points on a star that really make it sparkle.

Let me emphasize that monetary success and happiness do not always go together. You can make a lot of money and still be miserable. Or, you can be a truly happy individual and not have a lot of money in your pocket. It’s all in your attitude. My parents were examples of what it means to have a great attitude. My dad never made much money. He sold seed corn and fruit trees to the local farmers during the Depression, and died when I was just in high school. My mother took in laundry and did house work. I had all kinds of odd jobs, starting from the age of 8. But we were a happy family. We worked hard. We were loyal to each other and to our employers. We approached life with integrity. We were accountable for our own actions. My parents had the right attitude, and they instilled it in us.

What do these values, perseverance, loyalty, integrity, work ethic, and accountability, really mean? Let’s take them one by one.

Perseverance means that you keep trying, no matter how bad it gets. You go to work when you don’t feel like it. You tackle difficult jobs. You never give up. You see a job through to the end. You believe that success and accomplishment require hard work, and you put your all into accomplishing your goals, even when the going gets tough.

Loyalty means that you support your employer with your trust and all of your energy. You don’t go out after work and bad-mouth your boss. You don’t leave a job just because everything isn’t just the way you would like it to be. You realize that you are earning your living from this job or this company, and that it deserves your best efforts. You stand up for your boss and your company, all the while trying to make the company even better. It also means that, when you are the boss, you try to help your employees, to train them, to support them, and to groom them to take over your job when you are promoted. It means that you take pride in your job, your fellow workers, and your company.

Integrity means that your word is your bond. When you shake someone’s hand on a deal, there is no doubt that you will uphold your end of the bargain. When you work on someone’s car or keep their books or run their computers, you are respecting their property and doing your very best to make it better. You aren’t in the job to see what you can skim off the top or to find shortcuts. You are doing the best job you can. Integrity inspires the trust of those who know you and who work with you.

Work Ethic is something that I think is lacking in many workers today, and it is something that can really set you apart from others. A good work ethic is demonstrated by showing up on time and staying on the job all of the hours you are expected to be there, plus some. It is demonstrated by volunteering for extra work, and carrying through on it. It is demonstrated by finishing a job on time, even if that means you get home late every night for a week or a month. Simply, it means putting in a day’s work for a day’s pay.

And, finally, accountability. This one can be tough, but it will earn you the respect of all who know you. Accountability means taking responsibility for your own actions and your own mistakes. If you make a mistake on the job, don’t try to blame someone else, or the computer program, or the weather, or your dog. Just say, yes, it was my mistake, and I will do what it takes to fix it. Standing up and taking the blame when it is your fault is the best way to put an issue behind you.

I suspect that you have realized as I’ve described these five parts of attitude that they apply to more than just your job. They apply to life. If you have perseverance, loyalty, integrity, a good work ethic, and accountability in all of your dealings with others – your family, your friends, and people you encounter in your daily routine, you will find that these carry over to your job, and vice versa. People will recognize that you have something special that shines through and sets you apart.

I was asked to be here today because I worked my way up from very humble beginnings. I was asked to let you in on my secrets of success. They really aren’t secrets. I was able to accomplish what I did by exercising these elements of attitude that I have described to you today. No matter what kind of career you pursue, perseverance, loyalty, integrity, a good work ethic, and accountability will make you a star. They will get you where you want to be because they will make you more valuable employees and respected human beings. Perhaps even more important, you will be able to look in the mirror and be proud of that person looking back at you. You will be able to say, “I did my best. I didn’t cut corners, I worked hard, I did it with integrity, and I stood up like an adult and took the blame when I deserved it.” That, more than any financial success you might enjoy, will make you a truly happy and proud individual. It will make you a star. The happiest people do not necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes their way! I wish all the best for each and every one of you. Congratulations.