In a deliberate inversion of conventional commencement wisdom, Keenan told graduates not to follow the usual advice of 'don't be afraid to fail.' Instead, he argued, the fear of failure is a powerful motivator that keeps you sharp. He described staying up for sixty hours straight to write his first nationally significant speech, and parking his car last in the White House lot for weeks before every State of the Union Address. But he drew a crucial distinction: fear of failure should propel you to take bigger swings, not retreat into timidity. The halls of power, he said, are full of people who let fear make them play it safe — and those people accomplish nothing worth remembering.