Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, challenged the common commencement advice to 'dream big' by drawing a sharp distinction between dreaming and envisioning. Dreaming is passive and unconscious; creating a vision requires determination and a plan. He illustrated this with his own story: in 1981, he sent 40 letters to the NFL office in New York City looking for a job. Forty rejections came back. But he kept writing, until one day a weary league executive invited him to 'stop by when you're in the neighborhood.' Goodell immediately told him he was in the neighborhood — then drove all night from Pittsburgh to New York for what was supposed to be a three-month internship. Twenty-five years later, he was appointed NFL Commissioner.