Eric Carle, the beloved children's book author of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar,' delivered a charmingly brief and humble commencement address at Bates College in 2007, where he received an honorary degree. He opened by acknowledging what might disqualify him from dispensing advice — he was a poor student who dropped out of high school at 16. Yet what qualified him, he said, was his unwavering confidence from the age of four or five that he would draw pictures when he grew up. While encouraging graduates to follow their inner voice, Carle was refreshingly honest about the role of fortune. He described himself as a 'lucky late bloomer' — it was a chance encounter with Bill Martin Jr., who saw one of his illustrations in an advertisement, that led to 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear.' His own first book came at 39, and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' emerged from absent-mindedly punching holes in paper with a hole puncher at age 40.