Mark S. Lewis, a professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas, delivered one of the most unusually structured commencement speeches ever given — built around three true stories that converged on a single insight about the nature of success. The first story was about the Great Blondin, the tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls and then asked a man in the crowd to 'get into the wheelbarrow.' The second was about 'the bet' — a wager Lewis and two childhood friends had made in 1962 to reconvene thirty-eight years later and determine who had been most successful. After thirty-eight years of recalculating — through riches and bankruptcy, marriages and divorces, triumphs and tragedies — Lewis and his surviving friend discovered that their definition of success had completely changed. It was no longer about fame, money, or happiness as measured by a board game. It was about this simple, profound truth: the person you're with most in life is yourself, and if you don't like yourself, you're 'always with somebody you don't like.'