Sheila C. Johnson, co-founder of BET and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, speaks during the morning 2016 Winter Graduation ceremony at the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Ron Aira.
(Remarks as prepared for delivery)
Thank you, President Cabrera… Provost Wu… faculty… staff… and the Board of Trustees.
Welcome to all the family members and friends.
And to the Class of 2016: Congratulations!
Today, you are graduating from a school that started out in just one building… and has grown to become Virginia’s largest public research university, and one of our nation’s top schools.
And looking out at all of you is truly a glorious sight.
You are a rainbow of color, a virtual encyclopedia of nationalities…
And many of you are the very first people in your families to graduate from college.
There’s something beautiful, isn’t there, about redefining limits?
I know a little bit about that.
It started in childhood. I began playing violin when I was five. And, growing up in the Midwest, I didn’t have a lot of black classical musicians to emulate. But my parents instilled in me a belief that I could do anything I set my mind to. So I practiced, day and night. My violin became my constant companion.
And I earned a music scholarship to the University of Illinois. This was the height of the 1960s, at a time when there were only 300 hundred African-American students on a campus of 30,000.
In addition to being one of just a handful of black students, much less black violinists, I also became the first African-American woman cheerleader.
And I was thrilled. But the music school wasn’t so happy about my achievement. They didn’t think a serious musician should also be a cheerleader, and they tried to revoke my scholarship.
Fortunately, one of my professors said that was wrong. He told me to stand up for myself. And with his support, I persuaded the Dean. I kept the bow in my hand—and in my hair!
These are just a few of the ways I found myself breaking barriers.
But I’ll admit, not all my adventures in college ended up so well.
One time, for example, an African-American woman was elected to the homecoming court. The tradition was that the cheerleaders would go to the sororities and break the news by candlelight. Well, the woman was so excited to learn the news that she threw her arms around me in a hug. And the candle I was holding set her hair on fire. And both of us started screaming.
We made front page news, but not the way that either of us would have wanted.
So, I don’t want you to take me literally when I urge you to be a trailblazer!
But I hope you’ll keep exceeding expectations. I hope you’ll keep pushing through boundaries. I hope you’ll reach higher… explore farther… and achieve more than even you yourself can imagine.
And with that in mind, as you embark on that journey, I want to offer a “packing list”—a few key things you should carry as you leave Mason for the big, wide world beyond.
These aren’t the kinds of things that you can pack up in boxes with tape.
These are the kind of character traits you carry with you at your core… the traits that will help you to build a future whose only limits are the limits of your dreams.
Hard Work
The first one is simple. To reach your fullest potential, you need a willingness to work hard.
And that’s true whether you’re talking about your career or your personal life. You’ve got to show up. You’ve got to put in the time. You’ve got to listen and question and learn.
But you won’t get ahead just by punching the clock, just by doing what’s been asked. You get ahead by constantly asking yourself: How can I improve my performance? How can I go above and beyond? What can I do to help those around me?
You also get ahead by having the humility to work your way up.
Prem Devadas, my president at Salamander Hotels and Resorts, began his career as a bellman. Now, he’s running a multimillion dollar portfolio of hotels.
So don’t waste your energy wondering how to achieve overnight success.
It’s the time you invest in perfecting your craft that pays dividends many times over.
And I’ll tell you, as an employer, I meet a lot of talented young people. The ones who impress me most aren’t always the ones with the biggest ideas. They’re the ones with the biggest desire.
So be the kind of person who’ll do what it takes to bring big ideas to life.
There are no shortcuts… but I promise, you’ll find that hard work brings results… and rewards.
Resilience
The second quality to hold in your heart is a spirit of resilience. You’ll need it for when you hit stumbles and setbacks—as everybody does.
There will be times things go wrong. When plans and dreams fall through. When someone you care about lets you down. When the world just won’t cooperate.
For example, while I was building my flagship resort in Middleburg, the global economy tanked. We had to put construction on ice and delay the opening more than a year.
And when I was producing the movie The Butler, we really had to struggle to find the funding. No one believed that a movie about an African-American family could be a commercial success.
And then there was the time I was drawing the draft lottery card for my WNBA team, the Mystics. I drew the lowest card in the league. One journalist wrote that there have been funerals more upbeat than the room where Mystics representatives gathered after that!
But life is long. When one door closes, another often opens.
So as you set forth on your own adventure, make sure to pack your spirit of perseverance.
If you hit a roadblock, find a detour. The important thing is to keep going.
Remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “We acquire the strength we have overcome.”
And if all seems lost, remember that your commencement speaker once accidentally set someone’s hair on fire.
No matter how bad things may seem in the moment, chances are they’ll be okay in the end.
Courage
Number three on the packing list is courage.
Courage doesn’t mean fearlessness. Courage means that you push forward, even when you’re afraid.
And I know that’s challenging.
There was a time when fear constrained my life. I doubted my own ability. I listened to critics. I worried a lot about failure.
I was afraid to move forward… until I realized: It’s good to be afraid.
If you’re never afraid, it means you’re never really testing your own limits.
There will always be people who are all too eager to tell you why you shouldn’t try. They’ll claim you’re too young… or too old… or too inexperienced… or too “different”… to succeed.
Use your courage to put those voices on mute and give yourself a pep talk instead. I like what Richard Branson says. His mantra is “Screw it, just do it!”
And what I’ve found is that embracing fear can be incredibly liberating. Give yourself permission to fall flat on your face. What really matters is that you give yourself a shot.
The more I’ve taken this approach to life, the more opportunities I see.
In early 2013, for example, as we were finalizing construction on the Middleburg resort, the actor and director Robert Redford came for a visit.
And as we were touring the beautiful surroundings, he said: “Sheila, this is a perfect place for a film festival!”
Now, when Robert Redford starts talking about film festivals, you’d be crazy not to listen.
But launching a film festival in Middleburg, Virginia seemed a little crazy too.
The resort wasn’t finished. We had no sponsors. Or movies.
In fact, Middleburg doesn’t even have a movie theater!
And in an earlier time, my fear of failure would have kept me from taking the risk.
But instead, I said, “Yes!!” We pulled it off, in less than 6 months’ time.
And today, people like to say the road to the Oscars goes through Middleburg. We’re created something really special and unique that benefits the whole community.
So, the moral of this story is—always listen to Robert Redford.
And, more important, DON’T listen to the voices that try to undermine your self-confidence.
Trust your power. Trust your heart. Summon the courage to go out on a limb. As T.S. Eliot once wrote, “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
An Open Mind
The next thing I urge you to carry is an open mind, and a commitment to diversity.
That’s something I know is deeply valued on this campus, from the administration on down.
Mason is a school that prides itself on inclusion and accessibility. A school that measures its greatness by how many students it accepts, rather than by how many it turns away.
Think, for a moment, about how this philosophy affected your time here. Did having the benefit of varied perspectives enrich your class discussions? Did having a friend who comes from a different background help you better understand a complex issue?
My guess is it did.
Because studies show that diversity enables progress—that it makes people more creative… teams more innovative… even companies more profitable.
I think many of us would agree it also makes life more interesting and textured.
And yet, too often we see people pulling apart instead of pulling together. Focusing on what makes us different instead of all the things we have in common. Closing their eyes to unfamiliar experiences; their ears to uncomfortable truths. To the point where some people are losing their grasp on what is fact and what is fiction; where everyone retreats to their own version of what’s real, and locks the door behind them.
Your generation is the most racially diverse in history. The best educated. And highly independent.
We need you to keep pushing us to be less polarized and more open-minded.
And playing that role will require you to draw on the other traits I’ve described. It takes hard work, resilience, and courage to stand up for what is right.
In my case, I’m passionate about standing up for women’s equality and empowerment. I’ve seen for myself the barriers that too many women still encounter—including in business, where if you look at the top 1,500 companies in America, you’ll find more CEOs named John than you’ll find women at all.
That’s why I’ve co-launched an investment firm called WE Capital. We’re funding diverse companies that are led by women or have women on their management team.
This isn’t philanthropy. It’s a business strategy. The numbers show these companies will deliver. Going from having no women leaders to a team that is 30 percent female is associated with a 15 percent increase in net revenue.
So I encourage you to be champions of diversity, open-mindedness and mutual respect. It’s so important… not just for your own development and success… but for society’s.
Conclusion: The Patriots
There’s one last thing to carry with you.
Remember that you are a Patriot.
And I know that has meant a lot of things over the course of this country’s history.
But today, my definition is something like this: Being a Patriot is remembering that you are here because of the sacrifices of so many before you, from George Mason himself to your parents… and then finding ways to pay it forward, so that progress is widely shared.
Each of you has meaningful things to contribute to make our communities better—whether it’s time or skills or simply the ability to face discomfort in order to stand for what’s right.
You can help redefine the limits of possibility… for our communities… for this country… and for the world.
And I can’t wait for you to begin!
Congratulations, Class of 2016!