Steve Blank, the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and creator of the Customer Development methodology, delivered the commencement address at Philadelphia University in 2011. His speech was built around four stories from his own extraordinary journey — from college dropout to Air Force electronics technician to serial startup founder to Stanford professor. This quote came from his second story, about volunteering for a deployment to Thailand during the Vietnam War when every other airman refused. By showing up, being curious, and volunteering to help repair broken equipment after hours, Blank went from hauling boxes on the runway to managing 15 technicians at age 20. He explicitly rejected the 'lucky breaks' theory, arguing instead that what looks like luck is really the compound interest of consistently showing up and being curious.