The West Wing actor returned to his hometown of Madison to deliver the commencement address, opening with a self-deprecating comparison to Concordia College, which got President George W. Bush that same year. 'Why couldn't you get a more significant speaker?' he asked, before noting that at least he wrote his own speech, unlike Bush. He then shared six principles from acting that applied to life, and the first was the most important: fall in love with the process, not the title. Life was too challenging for external rewards to sustain us, he argued. The joy had to be in the journey itself.