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I Wish You Bad Luck by John Roberts

Speech worth reading

Key learnings in this blog are:

  • Embracing Adversity: Roberts underscores the value of facing hardships, arguing they teach resilience and empathy.
  • Character Development: Advocates for challenges as key to building character and understanding the complexities of justice.
  • Unexpected Lessons: Highlights how encountering difficulties can lead to unexpected growth and wisdom.
  • Compassion Through Struggle: Stresses that personal struggles foster a deeper sense of compassion and connection with others.
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I Wish You Bad Luck by John Roberts

Did you know that less than 2% of graduation speeches veer off the beaten path of ‘success and prosperity’? You’re about to explore one such standout: ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ by John Roberts.

It’s not your typical congratulatory discourse; instead, it’s a bold challenge to the norms of commencement speeches. As Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, stood before a sea of young graduates, he wished them not success and comfort, but hardship, loneliness, and betrayal.

Bizarre? Perhaps. But there’s more to this speech than meets the eye, a deeper meaning that might just alter your perspective on adversity and personal growth.

So, are you ready to unravel the unconventional wisdom of John Roberts’ graduation address?

Background

In order to fully appreciate the thought-provoking messages conveyed in John Roberts’ speech, it is crucial to delve into the background context in which it unfolded. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered this thought-provoking commencement address at his son’s ninth-grade graduation ceremony at Cardigan Mountain School in 2017.

Unlike traditional commencement speeches that focus on achievements and success, Roberts’ speech titled ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ aimed to challenge the young graduates to embrace adversity, develop empathy, and foster humility in their journey ahead. The unique setting of a middle school graduation, the youthful audience, and the intimate occasion provided a platform for Roberts to engage with the graduates on a personal level and impart valuable life lessons beyond academic accomplishments.

This unconventional speech not only addressed the students directly but also delved into the importance of character development and self-discovery, making it a memorable and impactful moment for all in attendance.

Key Takeaways

Here are 4 key takeaways from ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ by John Roberts that encapsulate the essence of overcoming adversity for personal growth and resilience:

  • John Roberts encouraged graduates to embrace and learn from adversity, failure, and betrayal for personal growth.
  • Roberts highlighted the importance of humility, compassion, and resisting conformity as key to self-improvement.
  • Graduates were advised to engage in small acts of kindness and show appreciation through handwritten notes.
  • The speech concluded with a call to action for graduates to express gratitude and kindness, emphasizing the impact of these gestures in relationships.

Story

In ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’, Chief Justice John Roberts creatively advocates for the concept of embracing adversity as a key element for personal and professional growth. His unconventional wisdom highlights the transformative power of experiencing disappointments, setbacks, and even betrayal.

Moreover, a recurring theme in his narrative is the profound impact of kindness and humility in fostering meaningful relationships and advancing in life.

Unconventional Wisdom

Challenging the conventional wisdom that success is a direct path, Roberts’ speech underscored the importance of encountering setbacks, unfair treatment, and betrayal as necessary steps toward personal growth and self-improvement. His talk provided an unusual perspective, highlighting the value of humility, compassion, and non-conformity in personal development. Contrary to traditional advice, Roberts advised graduates to embrace these challenges, recognizing them as opportunities for growth.

He stressed the significance of small gestures, such as smiling, greeting, and handwritten notes, in building relationships and reinforcing humility. By advocating for an unconventional approach, Roberts effectively questioned societal norms about success and failure. His speech served as a testament to the transformative power of setbacks and the profound wisdom that often lies outside convention.

Embracing Adversity

Underscoring the value of adversity, Roberts’ speech presents a compelling narrative that encourages graduates to view challenges, setbacks, and struggles as integral parts of their journey towards personal growth and self-improvement. His unconventional wisdom promotes the idea that strength and resilience are often born from the fires of hardship. He pushes the narrative that individual evolution often stems from the lessons learned during periods of difficulty and discomfort.

Roberts further emphasizes the significance of humility, compassion, and resistance to conformity in the face of adversity. By adopting this perspective, he suggests, graduates can turn difficult experiences into opportunities for growth, self-reflection, and continuous improvement. In this way, the speech reframes adversity as a catalyst for personal development and self-discovery.

Power of Kindness

Moving from the discourse on adversity, the power of kindness emerges as a dominant theme in Roberts’ speech, where he underscores its profound impact on personal growth and building meaningful relationships. He highlights the significance of small gestures, such as smiling and showing appreciation, in fostering connections.

These acts of kindness, according to Roberts, are not only a testament to one’s character but also essential components in creating a compassionate community. Furthermore, he encourages the graduates to resist conformity and engage in acts of kindness with everyone, regardless of their status.

This, he asserts, nurtures humility and gratitude, critical virtues in personal development. Thus, Roberts presents kindness as a transformative force, capable of enriching personal lives and shaping societal values.

Learnings

John Roberts’ ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ imparts profound wisdom. Let’s delve into 4 key learnings from this insightful speech:

 

Embracing Challenges and Adversity

Roberts illuminates the essential role of adversity in personal development, advocating for a proactive embrace of life’s challenges:

  • Growth through difficulty: He posits that confronting, rather than avoiding, challenges fosters resilience, resourcefulness, and a deeper understanding of justice and integrity.
  • Learning from adversity: Emphasizing that hardships can cultivate empathy and compassion, Roberts views these experiences as vital to both personal and societal progress.
  • Transformative power: The speech highlights how challenges can be reframed as opportunities for growth, encouraging a mindset that values perseverance and adaptability.

This perspective encourages us to view adversity not as an obstacle but as an invaluable teacher, guiding us towards greater personal strength and understanding.

Value of Humility

Roberts’ exploration of humility serves as a foundational principle for achieving a balanced and fulfilling life:

  • Foundation for growth: Humility is portrayed as a crucial attribute for personal development, enabling a balanced view of one’s successes and failures.
  • Fostering empathy and respect: Through humility, individuals can cultivate deeper respect and understanding towards others, enhancing societal harmony.
  • Recognition of limitations: Acknowledging one’s limitations and the contributions of others is essential in nurturing humility, leading to a more empathetic and cohesive community.

Humility emerges as a powerful tool for personal evolution, promoting self-awareness, empathy, and a greater connection to the broader social fabric.

Power of Small Gestures

Highlighting the underestimated impact of simple actions, Roberts champions the profound influence of small gestures in building relationships and enriching lives:

  • Cultivating connections: Small, sincere actions can significantly affect others, fostering a culture of kindness and appreciation.
  • Challenging grandiosity norms: Roberts suggests that impactful change often stems from the subtlety and sincerity of our actions, rather than their scale.
  • Contribution to growth: These gestures, when performed with genuine intention, contribute to personal development and the nurturing of meaningful relationships.

Roberts’ insights remind us that in the grand scheme of life, the smallest acts often carry the most weight, teaching us the value of kindness, consideration, and the profound impact we can have through our everyday interactions.

‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ Speech

Rain, somebody said, is like confetti from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning, joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement ceremony.

Before we go any further, graduates, you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians. Two or three or four years ago, they drove into Cardigan, dropped you off, helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house. They did that because the decision about your education, they knew, was about you. It was not about them. That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them, so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.

Now when somebody asks me how the remarks at Cardigan went, I will be able to say they were interrupted by applause.

Congratulations, class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone. An important stage of your life is behind you. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you it is the easiest stage of your life, but it is in the books. While you’ve been at Cardigan, you have all been a part of an important international community as well. And I think that needs to be particularly recognized.

(At this time, Roberts gave brief remarks in other languages.)

Now around the country today at colleges, high schools, middle schools, commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things. They will say that today is a commencement exercise. ‘It is a beginning, not an end. You should look forward.’ And I think that is true enough, however, I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going, it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well. And I think if you look back to your first afternoon here at Cardigan, perhaps you will recall that you were lonely. Perhaps you will recall that you were a little scared, a little anxious. And now look at you. You are surrounded by friends that you call brothers, and you are confident in facing the next step in your education.

It is worth trying to think why that is so. And when you do, I think you may appreciate that it was because of the support of your classmates in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the dorms.

And as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your friends, you were not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, it might be time to think about doing something else. But it was not just success, but not being afraid to fail that brought you to this point.

Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why.

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.

I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.

Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice, and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should—you should be yourself. But you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense, you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say ‘be yourself’ because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don’t learn who are, and you can’t learn who you are unless you think about it.

The Greek philosopher Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ And while ‘just do it’ might be a good motto for some things, it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you. And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life. The best way to lose the values that are central to who you are is frankly not to think about them at all.

So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Other the last couple of years, I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well, and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it.

When you get to your new school, walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves, shoveling the snow or emptying the trash. Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school.

Another piece of advice: When you pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks, smile, look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello, and that is not a bad thing to start with.

You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you.

The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very simple, but I think it could make a big difference in your life. Once a week, you should write a note to someone. Not an email. A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes. Talk to an adult, let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope. Again, 10 minutes, once a week. I will help you, right now.

I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say, ‘Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].’ Say: ‘I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard, but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.’ Put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who—for reasons most of us cannot contemplate—have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said, that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week. By the end of the school year, you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because you did, and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend during your time at school.

Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher, Bob Dylan. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son, Jesse, who he was missing while he was on tour. It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful, they’re timeless. They’re universal. They’re good and true, except for one: It is the wish that gives the song its title and its refrain. That wish is a parent’s lament. It’s not a good wish. So these are the lyrics from Forever Young by Bob Dylan:

May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young

Thank you.

Conclusion

The speech ‘I Wish You Bad Luck’ by John Roberts harmoniously merges unconventional wisdom with practical advice, reshaping conventional views of success and personal growth.

His emphasis on humility, compassion, and respect, along with the power of small, thoughtful gestures, provide valuable guidance for life after graduation.

Roberts’ call for introspection, learning from adversity, and continuous self-improvement underscores its relevance as a profound guide for personal development amid life’s challenges.

 

You can read the rest of the speech collection here:

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