Perseverance

I was not someone who should have the life I have now, and yet I do. I was sitting in the chair you are literally sitting in right now and I just whispered, 'Why not me?' And I kept whispering it for seventeen years.

Real success requires step after step after step after step. It requires choice after choice.

Take a step that will lead you toward the realization of your dream, and then take another, and another, and another.

Persist. Be patient. Be well.

It's hard to fail 10 times in a row.

I was born in Iran. At the age of six, my family was forced to flee because of the Iranian Revolution. Today I stand in front of you giving the commencement speech at one of the top universities in America. I am the American dream.

My fear of failure never approached in magnitude my fear of what if. What if I never tried at all?

Trust your gut, keep throwing darts at the dartboard. Don't listen to the critics and you will figure it out.

While doing new things is difficult, it is far from impossible.

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.

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.

Remember always what Nelson Mandela said: 'All the hardest jobs seem impossible until they are done.'