5th Grade Graduation Speech at P.S. 329 in Brooklyn, New York

Thank you Miss Dawson, teachers, and parents for giving me the opportunity to address your bright children today. If you don't mind, I would like to turn the podium to address them.

There were two students from the same neighborhood who went to the same elementary school, P.S. 329, also known as Surfside School in Brooklyn, New York.

One student's name was Alex. Alex was a straight A student. He excelled in every subject. Alex did exactly what he was told to do. He goes home to do his homework after school. Alex only dreams at night.

The other student's name was Francis. Francis was a crooked F student—they say it is impossible to get all Fs and be straight. Francis didn't like any subject AT SCHOOL though she liked learning and as a result she was often caught daydreaming. She was really passionate about art and would get in trouble for doodling on her desk. After school she would walk the streets looking for murals and graffiti. Her homework incomplete.

Who would you rather be? Alexis or Francis?

Fast-forward a few years to high school. Finally...electives. Francis gets to take an art class and her passion for learning starts to show. She gets her first A. Alex the A student is taking biology for the first time and he is struggling. He is afraid to ask for help because he has never had to ask for it before. He associates asking for help with being dumb instead of courageous, so he continues to fail and gets his first F.

Francis can't wait to show her parents her report card. No murals today. When she shows it to them with a big smile on her face, all they see are the Fs. Her parents immediately withdraw her from her art class and instead she is given a study hall period to bring up her Fs.

Alex's parents know when his report cards come so they ask about it even though he tries to hide it. Despite 5 As in his other classes, all they see is the F. He is taken out of P.E. and given the same study hall period that Francis has so that he can focus on bringing up his F.

Who would you rather be? Alexis or Francis?

You see...in the long run, Francis and Alex end up in the exact same place. Alex was a hard worker. That's would got him straight As. But despite his good grades, Alex's true intelligence was never challenged. For the most part, school was a walk in the park for him, but he needed someone to push him to run or better yet fly. It's not until you push someone to their limits that they realize that they are limitless.

Despite getting crooked Fs, Francis is extremely smart. It's just that her creative energy was never channeled. She was lead to believe that her creativity isn't valuable when in fact, creativity and innovation is what keeps our economy alive...it's what keeps her alive.

In reality, Alex doesn't like school just as much as Francis doesn't like school—he could fake the funk but she couldn't. Where Francis has a leg up on Alex is that she knows what she was passionate about...what makes her tick...what she loves to do at an early age. Everyone is encouraging Alex to be a teacher, doctor, lawyer, or accounting because he's "smart", but nobody is encouraging Francis to be an artist.

Why not?



Graduates! Our parents grew up in a world where being well-rounded was the thing to be. Be a well-rounded student and be a well-rounded citizen. But the world has changed. Whereas our parents were only competing against the person sitting next to them in their classroom, you are competing against everyone your age across the entire world from India to China and Europe. This leveling of the playing field is called globalization, which is a hard concept to understand if you have yet to travel outside of New York or the United States. In today's world, a 4.0 isn't even enough on its own. And passion isn't enough on its own either. Success requires hard work AND passion.

In addition to globalization, the internet has changed the way we live and learn. In our parents' day...you know B.C...before cable, it was possible to be an expert at multiple things. But today, information is expanding so rapidly that it's hard to stay ahead on more than one or two subjects and since everyone has access to same information at the same time, nobody has an advantage. It used to be that if you had an Encyclopedia Britannica set at home, you were ahead of your peers, but now with the internet and Wikipedia, the playing field is flat...and packed.

Whether you happen to love a school subject or a subject NOT taught at school, the way to win in the 21st century is be your best. They say that to become the best in the world at something...to be an expert...you should consider the 10,000 hour rule. The 10,000 hour rule suggest that you need to practice whatever it is that you want to be great at for 10,000 hours before achieving expertise. 10,000 hours equals 20 hours per week 50 weeks per year for 10 years. That's equivalent to studying one subject from kindergarten to today every day, so you better start now...now as in this summer...at least 3 hours per day 7 days per week.

Speaking of 10 years...10 years from now Francis and Alex will be graduating from college. They will be 22 years old. Imagine who 12 year-old Francis could become if she could bring up her other grades just enough to get her parents support of her art so that should could CHANNEL her passion into her art during and after school and begin chipping away at her 10,000 hours. Imagine who 12-year-old Alex could become if he could combine his academic excellence with a passion that CHALLENGED him.

In elementary school, A stands for ahead or excellent, but in on the global playing field an A here could stand for average elsewhere. Sometimes when we try to be great at everything...the jack-of-all-trades...we master none. Alex understands hard work, but imagine if he focused his energy on something he genuinely loved to do so he could experience his inner excellence.

In elementary school, F stands for failure, but in life it can mean fearless. Fear of failure is the #1 inhibitor of dreams. They say if you haven't failed, then you aren't dreaming big enough.
Francis understands failure well—she's been doing it all of her life. And she also understands her passions. Imagine if she could pursue her passions fearlessly.

We each have a little bit of Alex and Francis inside of us....parents and teachers included. To succeed in life we need Alex's work ethic and self-discipline and we also need Francis creativity and passion. Greatness is inside of each of you like the tree inside every seed. If you've ever looked at a package of seeds, it never just says SEEDS. They are always named by the tree they are destined to become. Before me, I see more than just 5th graders...more than just a bunch of seeds—I see an amazing amazon forest of unlimited potential and endless possibilities.

Follow your passions and seek excellence at anything you do and I guarantee that you'll keep growing up.

Congratulations to the college class of 2020!

As creative as they are, many artist still think in boxes...the page, the canvas, and the CD case. It is becoming harder and harder for artist to make a living doing what they love and the myth of the starving artists is becoming more real...if we only embrace old business models.

Today, consumers of art (music, books, paintings, poetry, sculptures, etc) are more interested in the actual creation process than they are the creation itself. Therefore the CD has become a promotional tool rather than a product and the real value is in performances.

For instance despite a dying industry and only having the 50th best selling CD in the country, Madonna earned more than any artist ever has because of her amazing tour which made up a bulk of her $242M last year. It's all about experience creation through shows, courses, and other events.

Secondly, sell direct. There is no reason Amazon should manage your relationship with you customer. 1 million CDs sold with 1 million email address through your website is better than 3 million CDs sold and no email address. It's about building long-term relationships with fans and customers.

Lastly, artist need to re-purpose their art. Many artist have a whole bunch of great work on their hard drives that they aren't sharing with the world. One day that hard drive is going to crash and then what. Musicians need to be thinking about scores for movie, elevator music, commercials, etc in addition to selling CDs. If we don't share what we've created, then the creative energy will stop flowing through us. The very song, beat, writing, painting we hate may be the one the world is waiting for.

Today I spoke to a group of about 40 undergrads at the University of Michigan on the topic of Purpose + Passions + Profession: How to align your life, work, & goals. The event was sponsored by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Women's Initiative. Feel free to watch the speech at the link below and see pictures here.

Get out a notepad and pen and
Watch Now!

Saturday, June 16, 2007
Memorial Auditorium

First and foremost, I want to thank Spirit for giving me this message to share with you tonight. Secondly, I would like to thank the Black Graduation committee for giving me the opportunity to address you. It is an honor to be before my community. The title of my speech is “The Spirit of Potluck”.

Life is a three-course meal. We must always remember to feed the mind, body, and soul. The developmental stages of life often lead us to only focus on one source of nourishment at a time. As children we only worried about physical nourishment, as students we tend to focus on mental nourishment, and as we age our focus shifts to the Spirit. As graduates, we are all entering a vulnerable stage of life where physical nourishment is assumed, learning typically slows down, and spirituality tends to declines. I am here today to remind you that at each stage of our lives, we need a balance of all three.

The first course of tonight’s meal are the physical foods; they include fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats. I’m sure that this weekend has been a time of feasting and celebration with family and friends for all of us. Whether your plate consisted of traditional Southern cuisine; Jerk Chicken, Rice, Beans, and plantains; ogbono soup with yams, or tibs and injera, all of the traditions of the African Diaspora revolve around food. Soul food, as we call it in the African American community, isn’t something that you buy; soul food is something that we co-create together as we take foods in their rawest form and put love and energy into them to make a meal. Like our ancestors, we must seek to restore an intimate relationship with Mother Nature and the land that abundantly gives us these gifts, for no matter how many college graduates sit before us today, a community can never be totally free when it lacks the basic knowledge of how to feed itself.

Our second course consists of our mental food; it comes in the form of wisdom and knowledge, the byproducts of elders, experience, and education. For the past few years, our minds have been ignited by this stove called higher education. In the same way that food is prepared, school has served as one way of mentally preparing us for service to the world. Similar to how the degree of temperature affects the state of food during preparation, our degrees have the power to affect how the world receives us. We must each ask ourselves, when my life is fully digested by my children and community and all that remains of me is dirt, what lessons do I want them to harvest from the seeds of truth that I planted and cultivated with my life? Culture is the remnant of the lessons learned by all those who came before us; it is an iterative process that shapes us while we simultaneously shape it. Thus, if life has taught you something valuable, let the way you live your life serve as an example of how deeply you believe what you claim to believe. Integrating truth into our daily lives is the best way to transmit wisdom from generation to generation.

Spirituality is not only the third course of tonight’s meal, but it is the main course. Our spiritual food comes in the form of prayer, ritual, song, and worship. It is no secret that African people are among the most spiritually-rooted people in the world. Our community is multi-faith; we play significant roles in the Christian, Muslim, Rastafarian, and Religious Scientist communities. Regardless of what you believe, I pose this challenge to you. Ask yourselves, if I achieve all of my financial goals in life, what will I seek next? Whatever “that thing” is, be it God, purpose, knowledge of self, love, etcetera, I encourage you to seek “that thing” first. Centuries ago, a great spiritual teacher encouraged us by saying “seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you as well” (Matt 6:33). My time here at Stanford has shown me that my Spirit is healthiest when I am in relentless pursuit of my god-given purpose.

The theme of this year’s Black graduation is unity without uniformity. Here at Stanford, we are in a melting pot of people, cultures, and ideas. In melting pots, the ingredients do one of two things; they either blend in and assimilate with more dominant ingredients or they stand out and add a distinct texture or flavor that make the final dish memorable. Will you and I conform or will we preserve our character and culture while simultaneously engaging with the rest of the world?

As people of African descent, the original women and men of the world, we are the host of this global banquet yet we are 100s of years late to our own feast. Our guests have already arrived and are awaiting us with their unique contributions in hand. What will we bring to this potluck? Or will we be empty handed?

To the graduates, I pray that each of you sees your degree as an invitation to the world table and humbly accepts the call on behalf of all African people and the advancement of humanity. We are who the world is waiting for. What will we contribute to the world table?

Thank you.

I don’t even know where to start. Jullien was a true renaissance man. He was an incredible poet, musician, artist, community leader, businessman, counselor, mentor, father, husband, brother, and son. He was also prolific public speaker and so ahead of his time that he wrote this eulogy on my behalf!

In the book of Matthew, chapter 22, the Pharisees got together to question Jesus about the law. In verse 36, an expert in the law asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

If there is anyone that I know in this world that has strived their hardest to fulfill these two simple commandments, it was brother Jullien.

He had a huge heart big enough to fit all of us in it. It was his loving spirit that got him everywhere he wanted to go. Goodness always seemed to follow him. Did you ever notice him glow? It was like he was immersed in a ball of light and like moths people just naturally gravitated toward him. He would attribute this energy and radiance to his spiritual connectedness. He was always seeking his highest most divine self. He knew that everything that came through him came from a higher source and was therefore able to remain humble in the midst of his many accomplishments. His spiritual beliefs rested on two words, “We’re Jah-men” (referencing Bob Marley and John 10:34). He believed that we were all divine expressions of the Creator and treated every living thing, people, plants, and animals as such.

Jullien was always very careful with his words, oftentimes speaking in parables and analogies to help himself and others understand the complexities of life. Everything he talked about had to do with love and life; I’m not sure that he saw a difference between the two. He was such an inspiration to me, even as his best friend, I felt like he was my older brother. He didn’t even know this, but I read every single thing he wrote. If I had to summarize everything, I would distill it down these three simple messages.

1. Pursue purpose: Jullien’s goal was to help as many people as possible reach their full potential and that he did. His Passions + Problems = Purpose equation has impacted the lives of millions. I remember his biggest fear being that the equation wasn’t right. The only way to test it was to be his own guinea pig and today, I think we can all agree that it works.

2. Connect communities: Jullien always thought of people as his brothers and sisters. He sought to break down all barriers that divided people. He was about unity. Whether it is the impact he has made on the business world by serving his business school classmates as the world’s most sought out executive leadership coach or the way he has established partnerships between diverse groups through spiritual practice or social enterprise, he has always strived to bring people together.

3. Empower entrepreneurs: He had a loose definition of entrepreneur; he thought of it more as a mindset than as an actual business owner and that education should be customized to students’ passions to teach this way of thinking. Jullien’s vision was to create a world where people could feed their families and at the same time do what they loved. He was able to build Mylinia into a multi-billion dollar company, yet what’s even more powerful than that is that the total value of his mentee’s companies triples his own. He would always tell us, “Challenge assumptions. Cherish mistakes. Create tomorrow.”

Jullien’s sunrise was on July 11th or 7-11 as he would say and his sunset was in 2082. He was 100 years old. He is survived by his lovely wife and a football team of biological and foster kids, but he never saw a difference. But as you all know, for Jullien, family was not just biological; it was spiritual, and therefore it includes you, me, and everyone else’s life that he touched. May the example of his life live with us forever. Ashe. Amen. And so it is.

UCLA African Men's Collective Confernce
Spring of 2005

Thank You. First and foremost, I want to thank the entire conference planning committee of the UCLA African Men’s collective. Without them, today’s event would not have been possible, so if they could please stand. Lets give them a round of applause.

I also wanted to make you all aware that the African Men’s Collective is not a nationalistic organization. Nationalism is one step short of world peace. We are not here to express hate or place blame on another racial group. Ultimately, hate hurts the hater more than the recipient. We are here to learn how to love ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Nationalism, like religion, has a history of hate because it fails to realize that EVERY living being is of one; not just those with similar beliefs, origins, customs, or appearance. Today, we have chosen to begin with Black men because in this highly race-sensative society, our race and gender are the most natural bonds we have. Black men are perhaps the most fragmented and under the most distress. Being a Black man is merely one of many points of unity. As we begin to recognize our interconnectedness and significance to life, we will eventually develop the confidence to make cross-cultural bonds (like hyrdrogen, carbon, oxygen, and other chemical compounds) to form a united world community.

One day a man saw a butterfly shuddering on the sidewalk locked in a seemingly hopeless struggle to free itself from its now useless cocoon. Feeling pity, he took a pocket knife, carefully cut away the cocoon and set the butterfly free. To his dismay it lay on the sidewalk, convulsed weakly for a while, and died. A biologist later told him, “That’s the worst thing you could have done! A butterfly needs that struggle to develop the muscles to fly. By robbing him of the struggle, you made him too weak to live.” I repeat, “By robbing him of the struggle, you made him too weak to live.”

The beautiful struggle. What was Talib Kweli trying to communicate by naming his latest album the Beautiful Struggle? To most people it sounds like a contradictory phrase, but there are others who have grasped the true meaning of this statement. If Talib Kweli happens to be too new school for the older men in the room, the beautiful struggle is reminiscent of Maze and Frankie Beverly’s song, Joy and Pain. And the lyrics read:

Love can be bitter love can be sweet
Sometimes devotion and sometimes deceit
The ones that you care for give you so much pain
Oh but it's alright there both one in the same

Tupac Shakur, the face that graces the cover of our flyer, understood the concept when he wrote his book of poetry “The Rose that Grew from the Concrete”. This is the same understanding that Jesus had when he commanded us to love our enemies. In his book, Strength to Love, Martin Luther King writes “we love every man because God loves him…We love the person who does an evil deed, although we hate the deed that he does.” We must discard our romanticized television version of love and come to an understanding that love has the potential to be the most painful thing we will ever endure in life, but it also has the potential to be the most joyous feeling.

You see, in this two-word phrase, beautiful is merely the adjective. Struggle is the noun. Struggle is the constant because change is constant. Our mother’s struggled to bring us in this world, we have struggled to live in this world, and ultimately, many of us will struggle as we leave this world. Therefore, our challenge is not to get rid of struggle. We should not spend our time worrying about something we cannot change. Our challenge is to rethink how we define that struggle for ourselves. We must erase the dichotomy that life is either beautiful or it is a struggle. Life is guaranteed to have its up and downs or pleasure and pain. In his book “Maat, the 11 Laws of God”, Ra Un Nefer Amen writes that “Unhappiness is a life that flows from pleasure to pain, pain to pleasure. Happiness, on the hand, is going through life from pleasure to peace, pleasure to peace. Until one understands the concept of the beautiful struggle, life oscillates like a roller coaster ride instead of a boat sailing on a buoyant ocean of peace that always seems to keep the boat afloat.

Sometime over the last 40 years, the progress of Africans in America became regression. Somewhere along that period, we stopped struggling for positive change and we began struggling because of our own resistance to natural change. Struggle can be seen as a choice or struggle can be seen as uncontrollable condition. We can choose to struggle from a standpoint of weakness or we can choose to struggle from a position of strength. Gandhi once said “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that the one that must be loved is not a friend.” I choose to accept the fact that struggle strengthens. Therefore, I choose to view life’s daily struggles as opportunities for growth. For those of you who have ever weight trained before, you know that in order to see physical development, you must struggle against gravity and counter resistance. In the same way that we work hard to develop our bodies, we must also struggle to expand and cultivate our minds. Like the butterfly, we must struggle to grow and gain strength so that we can eventually fly and be free.

Most scholars would argue that perhaps the greatest struggle facing African men in America today is our detachment from our original culture. But how can you lose something that is within you? Still today, Africans in America are among the worlds most poetic, most social, most open-minded, most forgiving, most family-oriented, most resilient, most ambitious, most creative, most physically inclined, most spiritually inclined, best dressed, best cooks, best musicians, best dancers, best artists, best physicians, best scientist, best engineers, best teachers, and best philosophers. Though our creativity has been commercialized, that just goes to show that the entire world recognizes our creative spirit. On top of that they imitate us and imitation is the highest form of flattery. If God is the creator and we are all created in his image, then each of is a creator as well. We are all individualized expressions of God, however, in a non-malicious effort to validate our own uniqueness, we divide ourselves.

As African men and people in general, we have been deceived to believe that our skin color is what binds. Moreso than anything, the greatest human adhesive is shared experience. Our experiences unite our spirits and when our spirits unite, we learn to have compassion, respect, and understanding for one another. In attendance today, there are fraternity members who can testify about the bond brought about by their rigorous pledge processes. There are athletes in the audience who have experienced Cinderella seasons together. There are also old friends who get nostalgic about their long days at the playground. One of the most unusual things about shared experiences is that the strongest bond usually occurs after the actual event when two or more people are able to relate to one another in the midst of others who were not involved. Today’s conference is about our shared experience as African men in America that goes deeper than our flesh and should naturally unite us as we seek to participate in a pre-dominantly white society. Today is to remind us of our shared experience and dispel the illusion that we are divided or against one another. This conference is about eliminating all of the erroneous and external divisions outlined in the infamous Willie Lynch Letter that we continue to allow divide us today.

When I look out into the audience, I see Africa before me. I see Algeria in the north, Eritrea in the east, Liberia in the west, and Angola in the south. Though we represent different countries, organizations, generations, social-classes, and professions, ultimately, we are one. Our destinies are intertwined. Mine to yours and yours to mine. Our collective vision is merely the sum of our individual visions. Therefore, it is in our best interest that each individual in this auditorium realize their full potential and place in the world. We each have a responsibility to resurrect ourselves and bear our own cross so that we can be an example to those around us.

In closing, I pray that the God within us all is unified by the unbreakable bond of love and that this day go forth as divinely planned. May good seeds be planted in the soil of your soul. May your ears be receptive to the truth. May we learn to love ourselves through the acquisition of wisdom so that we may in turn love one another. And so it is. Thank you.

by Jullien Gordon
Think Globally Act Locally Conference 2005

If I’m going to change the world, I need a world of change in me.

Good morning my brothers and sisters. Before I begin, I want to give thanks to our Creator, the reason we are all fortunate enough to be here today. Secondly, I want to acknowledge the spirits of all those who came before us who courageously walked the narrow path of righteousness. And last but not least, I would like to thank Michael Cox, Jessica Wood, and the organizers and volunteers of this marvelous conference and all of those in attendance.

It feels good to be back at UCLA…

When I began thinking about this speech, I asked myself, what can I share with young activists that will benefit them for the rest of their lives? And I was reminded of a powerful passage from Mark Albion’s book, Making A Life, Making A Living. He begins one chapter with the following short story about how people distinguish night from day.

The traveler asks, How can you tell when night ends and day begins?

The first man responds: “When I can distinguish the olive tress from the fig trees, then I know that night is over and day has begun.”

The second man answers: “When I can see the forms of the animals across the Serengeti, I know that the darkness is leaving and the light of day arriving.”

Finally, a man renowned for his wisdom replies: “When we see a black woman and a white woman and call them both ‘sister’, when we see a poor man and a rich man and call the both ‘brother’, then the darkness of night has lifted and the light of day has come.”

This passage resonates with me deeply because during my second year at UCLA, I went through a nationalistic phase where it was all about Black power. I read any book about African history that I could get my hands on including the Bible. And then one day, as I’m walking up Kerchoff steps, I see this White guy reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Though I grew up in the Bay Area, which is perhaps the most diverse place in America, racially, economically, and politically, this threw me off guard. I couldn’t help but wander why Malcolm X would interest this young middle-class White male. As we began talking, he went on to share with me that in addition to the personal transformative growth of Malcolm, he was extremely interested in Malcolm’s efforts towards the end of his life.

For many people, the story of Malcolm X ends with the Nation of Islam. Little do people know that within a month after visiting the Middle East and Africa and changing his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X established the Organization of Afro-American Unity. His plan was to internationalize the Black struggle by taking Black people’s complaints against the United States before the United Nations. He sought support from several African countries, as well as Black and White progressive organizations in the United States. As with other leaders in history who tried to establish cross-cultural unity, we all know how the story incoincidentally ends.

We cannot deny that race is a social construction designed to divide, degrade, and disenfranchise people all over the world. It is no coincidence that throughout most racially diverse societies, people of color tend to reside in the abysmal doldrums of poverty and squalor. Many of the global problems that we are here to address today are rooted in racism and colonization, globalization, and indoctrination are merely the bad fruits. As the gardeners and caretakers of beautiful Mother Earth, we have the responsibility to uproot these institutional, historical, and mental weeds of thought and planting new ones. But before we engage, we must first acknowledge our privilege and then secondly, we must deny it. If we don’t acknowledge it, we can never deny it. To deny privilege means to tear down the very structure that gave you the privilege in the first place. This requires a process of self-development that not only enhances one’s idea of self and their efficacy, but also results in the individual’s understanding of their interconnectedness with all life and the immeasurable value of everything living. We must recognize that every life is worth just as much as our own and therefore, learn to see the infinite potential in every human being from the underweight 2-year old infected with AIDS to your most empowered peer. This relational evolution will change our language as social activist from “I’m helping them” to “I’m helping us”. We will stop saying “they” and begin using the word “we”. And our divisive labels such as “educated”, “American”, “White”, “Black”, “rich”, “poor”, “democrat”, “republican”, “liberal”, “conservative”, “Christian”, “Muslim” will all disintegrate. Only then can we form a world community based on true brotherhood and sisterhood.

Now that I am at business school, I am in perhaps the most diverse setting on the face of the Earth. At Stanford, there are over 50 countries represented in a class of 375. During my undergrad, I missed out on the opportunity to study abroad, but now I am using my graduate school experience to expand my worldview by adamantly seeking to understand my classmates and their experiences growing up in different parts of the world. One cannot begin to think globally until they have exposed themselves to global experiences. This global understanding is important to be aware of how this machine operates and where you fit in. Social change will only come about when we begin to challenge and question the societal roles designed for us since birth. This institution called UCLA is designed to manufacture minds, a middle-class, and middle-managers, but how will you prove them wrong and go against the grain.

With that, I want to transition and walk you through a 11-question holistic test of your head, heart, and spirit. There are two choices for every question; yes or no. I ask that you be honest with yourselves. This is a measurement of you for you. If you have a piece of paper, please join me as we begin.

We will start with our head because it is the primary source of our fear. Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that affect the body. Fear is perhaps our greatest enemy when it comes to being “revolutionary” or charting new paths of life. I’ve identified five facades of fear that social activist face when making decisions; they include finances, funding, family, friends, and failure. The first five questions will be based on these.

Question 1:
Does your financial wellbeing after graduation worry you more than the wellbeing of those less fortunate than you?

I hope that many of you answered no. As college students, you have learned how to live off of less. With rising student fees, financial aid just doesn’t cut it nowadays. Statistics show that 70% of college students work. The problem we have is that after we graduate, we try to create a false perception that our degree has value by foolishly increasing our standard of living. All of sudden we have car notes, mortgages, bills, etc. Most people call these things luxuries, but I call them bondage because by increasing your monthly needs, you give up your freedom.

Question 2:
Do you think that the more money you have, the more you can personally impact the world?

Many of us deceive ourselves and say that we are going to work first and then do what we love. We put our ideas on hold because we don’t have the money. In reality, many of us haven’t even taking the time to do the cost analysis for how much it would take to execute our ideas. Things that are sustainable, grow at a sustainable rate. Don’t be overwhelmed by the end vision, instead be excited by what you can do to manifest that vision today. If we only invested in ourselves as much as we invested in clothes and electronics, we would be in a position to launch our ideas right this very moment.

I’ll share a quick secret with you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Do you want to know how I’m currently financing Purposefinder.net and how you can finance your dreams at the lowest cost possible? I’m maximizing my students loans! Where else in the world are you going to get a lower interest rate? Growing an idea is like growing a plant. In the same way that the seed must go deep into the ground before it sprouts, oftentimes, we will have go in debt to bring our dreams to life. Deficit spending is common for almost every business in existence.

Question 3:
Are you afraid of what you family might say if you choose to walk the road less traveled?

For many of us, our parents already had our career paths laid out for us. Either they wanted us to be exactly what they were or they wanted us to be what they never had the opportunity to be. The hardest thing to do is to tell your parents that you’re not majoring in what they thought you were anymore. At the same time, it’s the most liberating. Though your parents may be paying for your education, they cannot live your life for you, therefore, you must do what makes you happy. For them, your education is a financial investment and they want a financial return, which is often measured by your income 5-10 years out of college. As someone who went through this process, all I can suggest is that you follow your heart, but also have some logic for your decision-making.

Question 4:
Are you afraid of what your friends might say about you if you end up earning less money than them?

The path that many of us are preparing to take is oftentimes not as financially rewarding as the corporate path. Therefore, coming out of college, your friends who have a different agenda will likely earn more than you, question you, and joke about you. In reality, what they are projecting on you is merely a sign of their own insecurities and unhappiness with their own choices. They may even subconsciously wish failure upon you. Why? Because for you to succeed while also positively impacting the world, exposes the fact that there is a path more fruitful than the one they chose that only yields financial rewards.

Question 5:
Are you afraid of failing? Are your afraid that your social venture, non-profit organization, micro-finance program, free-clinic, or school won’t succeed?

For all of the social entrepreneurs in the audience, you always hear that 90% of businesses fail and this is probably true; but the real reason that 90% of businesses fail is because 90% of businesses don’t even try. You can only succeed if you try. We cannot allow fear to be our reason for sitting and sleeping on ideas that have the potential to change the world. Potential is worthless if energy is not applied. For one person to hold onto an idea that could positively impact the world out of fear is selfish. For some reason, when it comes to taking risk for good, we always want to play it safe when in fact, in the same way that a bank robber takes a risk for a negative cause, those of us committed to social good must take just as great of risk for the greater good of the world.

UCLA is a microcosm of the world. You have government call USAC, a workforce, low-come housing in the triples, middle-class housing in the suites, sports, and traffic on Bruin Walk, etc. It is your risk-free lab where you can test your plan here and now. If you want to be a politician, get involved in student government. If you want to start a non-profit, start a student-initiated community service organization. If you want to start a socially responsible business, do it now. A friend of mine showed me an article about Resonance Life Clothing, which was started by 3 UCLA undergrads and promotes social awareness through clothing. We have to wash away the idea that we must to wait until we’re a certain age or need a certain degree before we do this or that. Begin creating your future here. Begin developing strong relationships now. Begin honing your craft today.

Next we will cover the heart because it is the source of our intent and love.

Question 6:
Am I striving to make that which makes me happiest available to everyone who wants it?

According to globalrichlist.com, earning $30,000 puts you in the top 7.22% richest people in the world. That would mean that there are 5.6 billion people poor than you. As an American and especially a graduate of UCLA, if you answered yes, you are saying that you are willing to giving up almost all of your material luxuries including your car, designer clothes, and eating habits for the betterment of the world.

If you answer NO, this implies that if there were 100 pieces of fruit in the world and 100 people, and as an American you already have two, you wouldn’t be willing to give that piece of fruit to whoever needs it. Gandhi once said “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” The challenging part is that we were born into a culture of greed without even knowing and therefore, we must reject it if we are truly more concerned about the welfare of all of humanity than just ourselves.

Question 7:
Am I striving to prevent others from having to endure the negative experience that I have had, heard about, or witnessed?

This question suggests that what used to be a weakness or a stigma for you can become one of your greatest strengths. I heard a story about a doctor who practiced anesthesia, but became an alcoholic after a tough divorce. Their licensed was revoked, but after going through 5 years of recovery, this individual got their license back and instead studied to become an addictionologist. They wanted to help prevent others from walking down the path they once took. Lance Armstrong and his fight against cancer is another great example of this in that he is leveraging his celebrity status as a cyclist to raise awareness and funding for cancer victims like himself all over the world.

If you answer no, that implies that you are comfortable with allowing other to be hurt by the things that hurt you. You aren’t willing to pick up the banana peel that made you slip so that no one else slips on it. Some people get gratification by knowing that others are making the same mistakes they made. It makes us feel more secure, but this is a mindset that we must challenge and change.

Now we will move on to our final and most important section, the spirit. The spirit is the purest you. It is who you were and what you believed the second before you entered the world as a child. It is who you would be if you unlearned everything that you’ve been taught.

Question 8:
Do you know what you stand for?

This is the point where you won’t compromise. It is your unique mission or purpose. Do you know what you stand for and what exactly you want? What are you fighting for? How will you know when you’ve achieved it? How are you measuring your progress?

It is important that we learn how to define things for ourselves and stop ignorantly accepting Webster’s definitions. How do you define success, happiness, freedom, love, education, democracy, God? Until we start to do that for ourselves, we will be subject to other people’s interpretations. What democracy means to the US is different than what it means in Venezuela. What education means to you may be different than what it means chancellor, your professors, or even your classmates. Create you own dictionary and allow it evolve as you grow.

Question 9:
Do you know who you stand for?

The only true answer to this question is all of humanity. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Question 10:
Do you know why you stand for it?

Can you articulate your logic? Can you explain how what you stand for is going to improve the world for us all? Determining this logic should be the primary focus of your education here at UCLA. Your studies should be dedicated to diagnosing societal problems in the world and generating solutions to solve them. It’s funny how we study all of these old theories that didn’t even work. It is great to learn from our mistakes, but the ultimate goal should be for you, the student, to develop a new theory that applies to today. There is a gap between education and application and this is evident in the number of books in the stacks of Powell Library that have not been opened since being published. Our education should be geared toward addressing the problems of today, drawing on the best of those that came before us.

Question 11:
Do you know who keeps you standing?

As stated earlier, sometime our friends and family won’t even be there to support on this journey. For years, I wrestled with my mother and father. People we love get unconsciously plugged into the matrix. They buy into the American dream of job security, nuclear families, a home with white picket-fence, and a mid-sized luxury sedan. In the end, your true source is your spiritual source; your giver of life; your energy supply. If you haven’t explored this relationship deeply, I challenge you to do so. It should be one of your top priorities, if not your first.

Take this time to total up your scores. Raise your hand if you scored above a 9? 7? 5? 3? 1? Raise your hand if you found this extremely discouraging? Don’t be. This is a process. There are people out there with 0s or let alone that don’t even care. Do you want to know what my score would have been three years ago? No…I’m embarrassed! Honestly, I would have probably scored between a 2 and 3. Right now, I think I’m at around 6 or 7.

I don’t want this to be like the SAT, so don’t take this test as truth. This is my personal measurement that I use to evaluate myself. If you have suggestions, I would love to hear them. I feel like someone who is able to sincerely answer no to all of the head questions about fear and yes to questions about the heart and the spirit has the right to call themselves a social activist. The rest of us are SAINTS, which is my acronym for social activist in never-ending training. When you examine the lives of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth, Malcolm X, and Che, despite all being killed for their revolutionary thought, they all began to peak in their thirties.

At 37, Gandhi launched his campaign for nonviolent resistance to protest discrimination against Indians by the British government. Where was he at our age? In law school in England!

At 31, Che Guevara was pointed head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform and to the National Bank of Cuba as President. Where was he at our age? In medical school in Buenos Aires!

At 34, Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Birmingham bus boycott, led a 125,000 people Freedom Walk, and gave his I Have a Dream speech. Where was he at our age? In graduate school at Boston University.

During his 30s, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was speaking all over the world on behalf of the Nation of Islam and the African diaspora. Where was he at our age? In jail for selling drugs, breaking and entering, and larceny.

During is 30s, Jesus of Nazareth speaks out against the Roman Empire sparking a spiritual and social revolution among the poor. Where was he at our age? Probably studying in Egypt and doing some carpentry on the side.

That brings me to my theory of involution. Human evolution is a function of time, driven by outside forces such as age and circumstances. To be evolved means that you are letting the world and external forces determine who you become. Evolution is passive and reactionary. Evolution is natural but involution is a choice. Involution is a function of self-knowledge, driven by internal forces such as our capacity to love unconditionally, serve unselfishly, make decisions and problem-solve collectively, and discipline ourselves. Involution is the movement of the mind. Through service to others, you become involved. Being involved is progressive and proactive. We can pretend like we care, but we can’t pretend to be there.

Che once said, “Voluntary service is the created school of consciousness”. Service is unconditional love in practice. There are no income, age, ethnic, or academic requirements to love or to serve. Service is the breeding ground for purpose finders because it shows one that even without qualifications or money, their life can have a positive impact on many lives. In service, one gets to exercise their creativity, develop their compassion, and display their capabilities without fear of failure, judgment, or loss. With fear set aside, the individual can do what they want, how they want, for who they want, however long they want. The cost of service is nothing more than time, love, and energy.

You’re your very own John Wooden said that “Ability is a poor man's wealth”. Service has no start-up cost. From the stories that I’ve heard, a lot of successful entrepreneurs naturally began their companies by serving. Usually the story goes like this. The individual offers their time for free because they see an opportunity to help someone. That someone loves what they do so much that they tell someone else. That someone else calls the individual and then a business is born. If you want to identify your passion, identify a place to serve. If you can manage to positively impact lives without a dime, how many lives will you be able to impact with a budget?

Volunteering is a necessary step toward becoming a social activist, however, the difference between a social activist and a volunteer is that a social activist commits their life to service; a volunteer only helps when it is convenient. Social change is not convenient. There is a big difference been doing good and living it. As American students, we have to ultimately break down the walls of our Pacific and Atlantic isolation, but first, we must break down the walls of our campus isolation by connecting with the local underserved communities. Only then can we begin to see the world from the standpoint of the least well-off.

Franz Fanon said “Every generation must find it’s own destiny and fulfill it or betray it.” The time is ripe. Technology and globalization have shrunk the world and increased our interdependence on one another. This puts us a unique position in the annals of world history. We are who we’ve been waiting for but what are we willing to sacrifice? The solution is already within us, therefore, we shouldn’t start out there (point out of window), we need to start in here (point to heart). I challenge each of you to examine your souls in search of your unique purpose in this world struggle.

The words that I’ve shared with you today have been lessons and learning that have come from my own personal search for my purpose. Over the past 3 months, I’ve been developing Purposefinder.net, the world’s premiere online community for personal growth and social change. I hope that you’ll join our community and its quest to liberate the world by unlocking the full potential of every human being by visiting us at Purposefinder.net. I will be discussing the purpose finding process more in the Social Change from Within workshop later on today.

Next you will hears the story of a young sister, Karina Garcia who embodies everything I have said so listen carefully to her story.

Thank you.

by Jullien Gordon
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Royce Hall at UCLA

Welcome. In addition to my own father, there is another father I’d like to honor today and his name is Steve Biko. Steve Biko is the father and martyr of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. Though he has pasted on, his ideas live on and you will not only hear them, but you will also see them reflected in my speech.

My speech is entitled can you see what I see? (put on noose)

I want to know, if you can you see what I see?
This noose, which once draped the collars of our ancestors, has repositioned itself around our minds. Whereas it used to hang our ancestors from tree branches, now our future hangs in the balance.

Can you see the parallel? Can you see what I see?
During our K-12 education, many of our peers drowned in pages upon pages of impracticality and irrelevance. Middle school became a daunting Middle Passage. In the lower decks of the public education system, our youth huddle in classrooms for thirty by the forties.

Can you see the similarity? Can you see what I see?
Those lucky enough to acquire a higher education were our community’s strongest candidates and most defiant leaders. Schools nationwide bid for us with pricey financial aid packages so that they could all us their own.

Can you see the analogy? Can you see what I see?
After commitments were made, these institutions stripped us from our homes, but rather than traveling by boat, we arrived by plane, car, and train. Untimely and in our prime, we were required to separate from our families who depended on us and much as we depended on them.

Can you see the comparison? Can you see what I see?
Upon arrival, we were mentally challenged to work harder than we ever worked before. Instead of picking cotton, we picked classes, however picking cotton seemed fruitful in comparison to choosing classes, unless we could find meaning in the material.

Can you see the resemblance? Can you see what I see?
The chancellor represents an executive authority, each building is a state, each classroom is a plantation, and each teacher owned each one of us, each quarter. Our campus is even divided into North and South campus, where the North represents liberal arts and sociology and South campus represents logic and sciences. Post-Civil War American history can tell you where many of us spent a majority of our time.

Can you see the coincidence? Can you see what I see?
It’s no coincidence that one of the most decorated degrees in education is called a masters, in which only a small percentage of African Americans hold.

So if this is the case, then how do we prevent history from repeating itself?

Well, graduating with me today are 125 ways we can alter history.

Graduating with me today are 125 acts of defiance declaring that we reclaim our identity and re-write our forecasted destiny.

Today, we can remove this restraining rope (remove noose and hold high) as a statement of our mental freedom, for as Steve Biko said, “ The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Today we can celebrate, as we gather with our families and friends.

Today we can rejoice, and thank God for helping us overcome.

Today we can observe the beauty of being Black.

I see today as our physical departure and our mental arrival, for we have made it through the unsettled waters of higher education.

I see our diplomas are more than purely paper.

I see our diplomas as self-written Emancipation Proclamations, proclaiming that today, we are free.

I see before me political leaders, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and more

I see sisterhood, brotherhood, family, and community

I see a commitment to a common struggle to pursue a utopia that we will not likely see

I see love, hope, prosperity, and potential

And I even see tears of joy

Close your eyes. See what you believe. And tell me, can you see what I see?

Thank you.

Community Programs Office
2007 Closing Banquet @ UCLA

First and foremost, I want to thank the End of the Year Banquet selection committee for giving me the opportunity to address you this evening. I was honored when I got the email from Vusi that I was nominated to speak tonight.

For those who have been here for quite some time, you can testify that I grew up in the CPO. But being exposed to a new campus, new people, and a new way of thinking outside of this context has given me the chance to reflect, compare, and contrast how I grow in different types of environments. Speaking of exposure, I got to see the SHAPE students this weekend as they culminated their Rites of Passage program by observing youth initiatives in the Bay Area. It was amazing to see the seed still growing and the tree bear good fruit. I have been exposed to a lot in these past two years at Stanford and today I return to you, my family, to report what I’ve learned. The title of tonight’s speech is “The C in CPO”.

What is community? Where do its boundaries end and begin? Are there even boundaries? Is anyone excluded? Or is everyone included? Do people need to be initiated? Who leads? How are the chosen?

As I transitioned from UCLA to Stanford, I wondered if I would be able to find community. Stanford’s El Centro and Black House just weren’t the same. The CPO is a unique place and you won’t find anywhere like it, but I knew that without community I couldn’t survive at Stanford. So I had two options; find it or create it. During my search I realized that community was less about a physical space like the SAC; community is defined by the interactions between its members. After finding a community at Stanford, I came to believe that communities do 3 fundamental things together:
1. Work together.
2. Eat together.
3. Pray together.

Communities work together.
• If we examine all of our cultural origins, we find that our ancestors worked the land together. Work was a family affair. Everyone worked in the community on behalf of the community.
• In the same way, the students that came before us fought to turn what were traditionally volunteer-based projects to paying jobs. Since its conception, the office has created almost two dozen full-time university positions and over 100 student positions.
• But we must acknowledge that despite sharing a physical space, in many ways the office is still divided along cultural lines. We have to ask ourselves why. Are our cultures truly that different? Is an African Rites of Passage that much different than a Native American Vision Quest? Few projects have been able to break this barrier, but it is imperative that we critically analyze these divisions as a community. There is a difference between working in the same place and working together.
• In corporations people work together, but that doesn’t make them a community and that takes me to my next point.

Communities eat together.
• I remember one of the first meals I had with a group of friends from Stanford. We ate at this well-known Ethiopian restaurant called Zini’s. When I sat down, I felt like I was in pre-school. The tables where knee-high and circular and the 6 of us sat on stools. One of my friends ordered for us all and the food came out on one big plate. There were no utensils either. Everyone was expected to eat with their hands. That was on of the most intimate dining experience I ever had. I truly felt like I was eating with my brothers and sisters.
• Since the beginning of Spring quarter, a group of friends and I have been organizing weekly potluck dinners. It started off with just 10 of us and since then it has grown to 60 people crammed into a small house in East Palo Alto. Attendees include Stanford students and alumni, neighbors, the youth, and elders. People come to get fed physically by the food, mentally by the wisdom of the elders, and spiritually by each other’s energy
• Food unites people. The CPO Banquet and the CPO Open House are two of the most important events because they create space for everyone to contribute and express themselves through food. If we wanted to, we could have a CPO buffet every day with the best dishes from all over the world.
• There is something about cooking together and co-creating a meal that can’t be substituted by Panda Express or Dominoes. Real relationships are made over food. Communities are united by food.

That brings me to my third point. Communities pray together.
• This quarter has been extremely rough for me. My best friend’s father died. Our community lost a brother to suicide. One of our elders was hospitalized. And my other best friend’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. All of these things were out of my control; sometimes life just has to take its course. Literally, it was enough for someone to take a quarter off. But I wasn’t alone. I had a supportive space to pray with others for healing and restoration for all of the things I just mentioned.
• When is the last time that we all prayed together? When did we become so revolutionary and empowered that we forgot about the Spirit within that gives of life every single day?
• During my second year as the SHAPE director, I remember the CPO being hit hard by a cult. I believe we lost about 4 key members and it crippled us momentarily. Thinking back, I asked myself, what were they looking for that we didn’t provide? The only answer that came to mind was spiritual nourishment.
• Spirituality is central to the success of any social movement; just look at the role it played in the Civil Rights Movement. I recently read an article about African American coping strategies and the research showed that African Americans used internal coping strategies rooted in spirituality more than their White counterparts who tended to rely more on external coping strategies. Before there was religion, there was spirituality and all of our cultures were spiritually-rooted. As a community, we cannot sit here and neglect one of our greatest assets, which is our connection to Spirit.
• Granted there are times where we have to be militant and take over Murphy Hall, I honestly believe that the fall of the Black Panthers, whom many of us revere, wasn’t because of cointelpro; it was because in their effort give back power to the people, they forgot to acknowledge the source of their power in Spirit.

In this office, we use the word empowered a little too freely. If you give me any acronym with and E in it, if I guess education or empowerment, there is a 99% chance that I’ll be right. But when I examine the lives of the people we admire and wear on our t-shirts like Che, Bob, Ghandi, and Biko, I realized that empowerment not the final step in their development. There are three stages of development; victim, empowered, Spirit working through you as you. Fortunately, Tim has some famous quotes that he has been using for years to guide us through this process.

1. If you have ever heard Tim say “Excuses are tools of the incompetent,” he is suggesting that you are thinking like a victim. Whenever we make excuses, we are literally saying that we gave in to circumstances.

2. When Tim is encouraging us to be empowered, he shares his most famous quote from Biko “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” He is merely challenging us to take control of our lives by transforming our thinking.

3. And lastly, through you and as you. He doesn’t say this one publicly, but if you’ve every had a chance to have a 1-on-1 with Tim at the crack of dawn when he arrives, he will tell you “You are a spiritual being having a human experience.” For many, that is hard to accept because it requires the shedding of many debilitating beliefs. But if you don’t believe Tim, just listen carefully to Bob Marley:

We're Jah-men
We're Jah-men
To think that Jah-men was a thing of the past
We're Jah-men
And we're Jah-men in the name of the Lord
We're Jah-men
What you are-re-re-re
We’re Jah-men
What you are

In conclusion, how will we know when we’re a community?
• We will know when every project doesn’t need its own hole puncher, stapler, and scissors
• We will know that we are community when everyone is equally accountable for the office’s existence: How many times have you walked away from the broken printer or copier or left it with no paper?
• We will know when cubicles don’t exist
• When everyone can articulate the CPO’s vision. Right now we are trying to put a puzzle together without the box. Where is our vision?
• We will know when one-time programming turns in daily practice. If you have to make a flyer, it’s a program. We shouldn’t have to persuade people to come to programs. If it adds value to them, they will tell others and people will come.
• We will know that we are a community when everyone is counseling each other and the collective accountability within the office obviates the need for counselors
• We will know when the office is empty because that means that we are actually serving the community
• When Tim leaves and we have to carry the vision forth without our heroic leader
• When the CPO advisors and Mandla are supported by the 5,000 UCLA graduates that have come through this office.
• When there is a seemless link between the communities we serve and the office. Perhaps when there is a CPO somewhere south of the 10 freeway.
• We will know when we work, eat, and pray together.