More from Robert Krulwich

In every career, your job is to make and tell stories. You will build a body of work, but you will also build a body of affection—the people you've helped and who've helped you back.

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Robert Krulwich

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Commencement 2011, 2011

26:58

Video starts at 26:58 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

Near the end of his address, Krulwich offered a beautiful redefinition of what a career in journalism—or any creative field—truly produces. Beyond the stories you write and the work you publish, Krulwich argued, the most enduring thing you build is a network of mutual care and support. This idea grew out of his central metaphor of Troy: the graduates were newbies on the beach, looking up at the fortress of established journalism, wondering how to get in. Krulwich suggested that the Trojan horse of their generation wasn't a trick or a credential—it was the community they were already building. Your talent, backed by a legion of friends in low places, he said, would be their strength. It was a deeply humane vision of professional life, where success is measured not just in bylines but in the relationships forged along the way.

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