Douglas Smith, a UN environmental diplomat, EPA senior compliance investigator, and adventure travel pioneer, delivered a commencement address at DeVry University that drew on both his professional accomplishments and his colorful family history. His central message was that obstacles are never the real barrier — the real barrier is always internal. Smith illustrated this through the story of his grandmother, Mable Mae, who was born in 1895 and lived to nearly 106. When her husband was called away on a government contract, she was left alone with four children to finish building their cabin and survive a Canadian winter. She cut 14 cords of wood, split and installed roof shingles, and once casually mentioned shooting a grizzly bear that burst into her kitchen. The distinction between external obstacles and internal barriers — confidence and will — was the philosophical core of the speech. Smith himself was a self-described 'dyslexic dreamer who occasionally shoots off his big mouth,' yet he had built an eco-tourism company, worked as the EPA's Senior Compliance Investigator for 30 years, and helped nations develop environmental policies for the UN and World Bank.