Long

The real world doesn't reward rule followers the way the educational world does and the real world is not always merit-based. The institutions and organizations we yield to and trust in to support our success, whether they be employers or government, are flawed.

You are the only one who can create the life you want and you may have to break some rules to do that. You are the only one who can create a system that's going to work for you and that needs to start right now.

When big decisions pop up, get quiet, real quiet and listen. Turn off your phone, turn off your computer and listen to your true heart. Hear the thing that makes you feel sick with excitement and scares you because you know you will learn — and do that thing.

Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it looks less like a plan for the future and more like an alibi for the present.

At this moment in your life you know fewer limits, fewer taboos and fewer fears than you will ever in the future. So do not squander your ignorance.

The real danger is all that smoke that's been blown up your graduation gowns about how freaking smart you are. Well, you are that smart, but don't believe the hype.

Today is not the day you switch from receive to transmit. Once you do that, your education is over. And your education should never be over.

Our greatness has never, ever come from sitting back and feeling entitled to what we have. It's never come from folks who climb the ladder of success, or who happen to be born near the top and then pull that ladder up after themselves. No, our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters — two beautiful, black young women — head off to school, waving goodbye to their father, the President of the United States.

They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped. They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.

In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about. That's not keeping it real, or telling it like it is. That's just not knowing what you're talking about.

Gear yourself for the long haul. Success, however small, however incomplete, success is still success. Better is good. It may not be perfect, it may not be great, but it's good. That's how progress happens.