Steven Spielberg Commencement Speech in Harvard University

Harvard University graduation, students, parents, family, faculty and friends anticipated the big speech by the famous film director, produce and screenwriter, Steven Spielberg. As he kicked off his commencement speech, he began with his Universal Studios dream job he was offered his sophomore year telling his parents, “if my movie career do not go well, I will re-enroll in school.” Later on Steven returned to college, not for his parents or an education, but for his children because as a father of seven, he preached on how important a college degree was to his children, and wanted to lead by example by walking the walk.

Steven talked about his journey, life and how when he left college at the age of 18, he knew exactly that he wanted to do. Speaking to the graduating class, Steven shared that they had to decide what to do next in life. In the movie industry it is called character-defining moments like in the last Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie where the character Rey realized the force is with her or the Indiana Jones movie where the character chose mission over fear by jumping over a pile of snakes.

The first 25 years of one’s life, we are trained to listen to the wisdom and information our parents, professors, and employers voices tell us. Even these voices of authority do make sense, they are not quite how you see the world, and we tend to just go along with the ideas for a while. We all have an internal voice and an intuition.

Steven wanted the students to understand that their intuition is different from their conscience. They both work hand in hand, but the conscience shouts: “here’s what you should do, but your intuition whispers, here’s what you could do.” He encouraged them to listen to the voice that tells them what they could do. He encouraged the class to “find their own sense of mission and do not turn away from what is painful: examine it and challenge it.” His job was to create two hour movies (world), but their job is to create a world that lasts forever by being future innovators, motivators, leaders, and caretakers.

Some of his movies are based on real-life events because he the past is filled with the greatest stores ever told. The movie The Color Purple opened his eyes to real experiences that he never could have ever imagined because it was filled with deep pain and deep truths that made him realize that people needed to experience the truth of the movie.