Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Angela's Ashes,' delivered a characteristically irreverent and deeply personal commencement address at Syracuse University in 2007. In his closing moments, he shared advice he had given to a young woman in San Francisco who was about to become a teacher and asked if he had any wisdom to offer. McCourt's answer was blunt and unvarnished, delivered with the directness that had made his memoirs so beloved. After thirty years of teaching in New York City high schools and a second career as a celebrated author, he had distilled life's complexity down to a single imperative. The line struck with particular force coming from a man who had spent decades in a profession he loved but that paid poorly, and who didn't publish his first book until age sixty-six.