'Don't Waste Your Youth': Trump Offers Life Lessons In University Of Alabama Commencement Address

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During his commencement speech at the University of Alabama, President Trump urged graduates not to waste their youth.

Transcript

00:00ever, ever, ever before it's going to be.

00:11As you embark on this great adventure,

00:13let me share some of the biggest lessons I've learned

00:16from a lifetime spent building dreams and beating the odds.

00:19I beat a lot of odds.

00:21A lot of odds.

00:22A lot of people said, I don't know.

00:25But it worked out okay.

00:26Where are we?

00:27Oh, gee, I'm president.

00:28How did that happen?

00:30Now, you're going to be in the same position.

00:33But some of the things, would you like to hear some of the ideas?

00:36Or should I just skip over that part, huh?

00:38That's going to be more interesting than all the other stuff,

00:41which was slightly political, right?

00:44I'm going to give it to you, though, just as I see it

00:46and as I've learned it, the hard way and the easy way.

00:49First, if you're here today and think that you're too young

00:54to do something great, let me tell you that you are wrong.

00:57You're not too young.

00:58You can have great success at a very young age.

01:01You're all very young.

01:03In America, with drive and ambition, young people can do anything.

01:07I was 28 when I took my first big gamble to develop a hotel in Midtown Manhattan,

01:12the Grand Hyatt, and it worked out incredibly well.

01:16But I was very young at the time.

01:18I was like a very young person in sort of an old-person business.

01:22Steve Jobs was 21 when he founded Apple.

01:25Walt Disney was 21 when he founded Disney.

01:28James Madison, James Monroe, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson.

01:33They were no older than 25 when they began the journeys

01:37that etched their names into the history books for all time.

01:41So to everyone here today, don't waste your youth.

01:44Go out and fight right from the beginning,

01:46from the day you leave this incredible university.

01:49Go out and fight.

01:51Fight tough.

01:52Fight fair.

01:52But go out and fight.

01:54You're going to be very successful,

01:56because now is the time to work harder than you have ever worked before.

01:59Push yourself further than you have ever pushed yourself before.

02:04Find your limits and then smash through everything.

02:07Go and smash through.

02:09You've watched that football team smash through.

02:12You're going to do the same thing.

02:13You're at the age when you have the time and vitality

02:20to do really incredible things.

02:22If you give, just give it your all.

02:25You'll look back, and a decade from now,

02:29you'll be astounded by what you've achieved.

02:31You'll remember this day.

02:32You'll remember when a guy named Trump

02:34was giving the commencement address,

02:37and he said I could do it, and guess what?

02:39I did.

02:39I think you're going to remember that very fondly.

02:41I hope so.

02:42Second of all, and very importantly,

02:51you have to love what you do.

02:53Okay?

02:53You have to.

02:55I rarely see somebody that's successful

02:57that doesn't love what he or she does.

03:00That's the way you really like work isn't work.

03:04It's fun.

03:05I find it fun.

03:07I work all the time, and I find it fun.

03:08If I didn't find it fun, I wouldn't be successful,

03:10whether it was real estate or in showbiz.

03:14I had a lot of different careers,

03:15but I loved real estate so much,

03:17and I was very successful at real estate

03:20because I loved it.

03:21I learned a lot from my father

03:23because I watched him work.

03:24He worked seven.

03:25He was a workaholic.

03:26He worked.

03:26He loved to work.

03:27He's a good man.

03:28He was a tough guy.

03:29Tough as hell, actually.

03:31Now that I think back,

03:32I don't know if you could even get away with that nowadays.

03:35He was tough,

03:35but he was a good man, I'll tell you,

03:38and he worked seven days a week.

03:39He worked Saturdays, Sundays.

03:41It didn't matter,

03:42and I learned by watching him,

03:44he loved his life.

03:45He loved what he was doing.

03:46He had a great long-term marriage,

03:49a long, long, many, many, many years.

03:51He beat me on that one.

03:54Now, mine are very successful,

03:56but they haven't lasted quite as long.

03:58It was close to 70 years.

04:00That was a long time.

04:02I said,

04:02Pop, you beat me on that one.

04:04But you know what I learned from him?

04:06That he just,

04:07he loved life,

04:08and all he did was work.

04:09I see people that don't work hard,

04:11and they're miserable.

04:12So go out and find,

04:13but he loved what he was doing,

04:15and you have to find something that you love,

04:17and you have to follow your own instincts.

04:20Listen to your parents.

04:21They're very wise,

04:22but you have to follow your instincts

04:24and your heart, your soul,

04:27and you want to be the very, very best you can be.

04:29Treat every day like a home game against Auburn.

04:33Fight like hell,

04:34and enjoy doing it,

04:36and your coach can tell you all about that.

04:39Third thing is to think big.

04:41You know, you're going to do something,

04:42you might as well think big,

04:43because it's just as tough.

04:45You can think small.

04:46I know a lot of people,

04:47they thought small.

04:49They're very smart.

04:50I know others that weren't nearly as smart,

04:52but they had a better picture of the big picture,

04:55because it's just as hard to solve a small problem

04:58as a big problem,

04:59and it's just as much energy and everything else

05:02except the result is going to be a smaller one.

05:04So love what you do,

05:06but think big if it's possible.

05:08Now, if it's not possible, that's okay, too.

05:10You do something,

05:11you have to do something that you love.

05:13You will have all the same headaches and challenges,

05:16all the same delays and setbacks,

05:18so you might as well do something that's just amazing.

05:21America doesn't aim small.

05:23Alabama doesn't aim small,

05:25and neither do you.

05:26So think big when possible.

05:28Think big.

05:29Fourth is work hard.

05:32Work hard.

05:35Never, ever stop.

05:37An example is a great athlete, actually,

05:40Gary Player, golfer, great, great golfer.

05:44He wasn't as big as other men.

05:46He was actually on the small side.

05:48Don't tell him that.

05:49A friend of mine.

05:51Don't tell him that

05:52because he doesn't understand that.

05:54But he worked very, very hard.

05:56He made up for it.

05:57He never stopped.

05:58He won 168 golf tournaments.

06:00Think of that, 100.

06:02I said, Gary, you're winning like every weekend.

06:04Do you ever choke or anything?

06:06I don't know what choke means.

06:08And he made a statement years ago that I read,

06:11and I thought it was sort of an incredible statement.

06:14He said, it's funny.

06:15The harder I work, the luckier I get.

06:18Think of that.

06:19The harder I work, the luckier I get.

06:21So you really have to work hard,

06:23and you're going to be successful

06:25because you have the talent.

06:27To get into this school is not easy.

06:29To get through it is even more difficult.

06:31You have a lot of talent.

06:32Fifth is don't lose your momentum.

06:36You just want to keep it going.

06:40And you have to know if you are losing it,

06:42you have to know when you're losing it.

06:43So maybe you stop, and maybe it's time to stop.

06:46Listen to the feedback.

06:48Think through your plan very carefully,

06:50and keep moving fast.

06:53The word momentum is very important.

06:55I mean, I'll just tell you a little story

06:56about a great real estate developer named William Levitt.

07:00He built Levittown.

07:01Some of you might live in a Levittown.

07:02He was the biggest developer in the whole country

07:04in the 1940s and so.

07:07And he built these jobs.

07:08He started with one house,

07:10then two houses,

07:11then 20 houses,

07:12then thousands and thousands of houses.

07:14And a company, Gulf and Western,

07:17came along,

07:18and they said,

07:20we're going to make you an offer to buy your company.

07:23And they offered him a lot of money,

07:25a lot of money,

07:26more money than he ever thought he could make.

07:28And he retired,

07:30lost his momentum.

07:31He retired,

07:33and he led a beautiful life.

07:34He had a wife,

07:36I must tell you.

07:36It was his second wife.

07:38It was a trophy wife.

07:39What can I say?

07:40I don't like telling you everything,

07:42but we're all friends, right?

07:44Can we talk?

07:45We're all friends.

07:46He had a trophy wife.

07:48And he lived a different life.

07:49He moved to the south of France,

07:51but he lived,

07:53it was a life of tremendous luxury.

07:55He had so many millions of dollars,

07:57he was given a fortune for the company.

07:59And 10 years went by,

08:00and then 15 years went by,

08:02and he got a call from this big conglomerate,

08:05Gulf and Western,

08:06and they said,

08:06we're not doing well with the purchase,

08:09because he used to pick up every nail,

08:12every piece of sawdust,

08:13every piece of wood,

08:15every chip,

08:15everything,

08:16and he'd sell it,

08:17he'd make a couple of bucks,

08:18everything was perfect.

08:20They can't do that.

08:21You know,

08:21these big companies,

08:22they don't do that.

08:23You see it a lot when an entrepreneur sells to a big company,

08:26and then he ends up buying the company back for peanuts later on.

08:29It happens a lot.

08:30But he was the best at what he did.

08:33But 15 years went by,

08:34and he was so excited,

08:36and they sold him back,

08:37his company.

08:38And he started,

08:40and he was going to tear apart the world,

08:42because he got bored with a life of luxury.

08:45And he started building,

08:47and building,

08:49and building,

08:49and the markets turned on him.

08:53And he went bad,

08:53he lost everything,

08:54and he went bankrupt,

08:56absolutely bankrupt.

08:58And it was a sad story to read.

09:00It was such an amazing story,

09:01because he was so rich.

09:02But he paid them,

09:03and he bought it for the right price,

09:04bought it low,

09:05but he went wild.

09:07But he lost his momentum.

09:08He wasn't good at it anymore.

09:10And he was at a party on Fifth Avenue,

09:13I'll never forget.

09:15And it was a party of a very,

09:17very powerful man,

09:18who was having the party in a magnificent apartment,

09:21overlooking the park.

09:23And I walked in,

09:24and there were 50 or so people.

09:26I recognized most of them,

09:27all the biggest business people in the world,

09:29actually.

09:30Very glamorous.

09:31I was doing well.

09:31I was young,

09:32and I was doing well.

09:33And I was invited to parties like that.

09:35And I looked in the corner,

09:37and there was Mr. William Levitt,

09:39sitting all by himself on a chair,

09:42looking very glum.

09:44Nobody was talking to him,

09:45because you'll find that when you're not successful,

09:47you lose a lot of friends.

09:48It's not a good situation.

09:50But there was nobody talking to him,

09:52but I wanted to talk to him,

09:53because I was in the real estate business,

09:55and he was,

09:56and most of these people were in different businesses.

09:59And I went over and talked to him,

10:00and I said,

10:01How are you, Mr. Levitt?

10:03He goes,

10:03Donald?

10:05He knew who I was.

10:07Not well.

10:08I'm not well.

10:09I said,

10:10So,

10:11can you come back?

10:13He said,

10:13No, son.

10:15I lost my momentum.

10:17I shouldn't have done it.

10:18I lost my momentum.

10:20And I never forgot that expression.

10:22He lost his momentum.

10:23If he would have kept going,

10:25instead of selling and relaxing

10:27and going into a different life,

10:29he probably would have been

10:31three times bigger than he was.

10:33But he lost his momentum.

10:35And you have to know when it's your time.

10:37I mean,

10:37there'll be a time when you do lose.

10:39You see it with fighters.

10:40You see it with a lot of people.

10:41They have a great record,

10:43and they retire.

10:44Then four years later,

10:46they say,

10:46I'm going back.

10:47I can beat that guy.

10:48And they get knocked to hell.

10:50And it's not good.

10:51It's not good.

10:52So,

10:53he lost his momentum.

10:55You have to know when

10:56your momentum time is up.

10:57I call it momentum time.

11:00But,

11:00follow your momentum.

11:03It's a very important word.

11:04You don't hear it from too many,

11:05but I've seen it.

11:06I've seen it a lot.

11:07Number six,

11:08if you want to change the world,

11:10you have to have the courage

11:11to be an outsider.

11:12In other words,

11:13you have to take certain risks

11:15and do things a little bit differently.

11:16Otherwise,

11:17if that weren't the case,

11:18everybody would be successful.

11:20It doesn't work that way.

11:22Progress never comes

11:23from those satisfied

11:24with the failures

11:25of a broken system.

11:26It comes from those

11:28who want to fix the broken system.

11:29And you'll make the bigger money.

11:31You'll make them more success

11:33by acting that way.

11:36The other way may be more secure,

11:39but if you want to go to the top,

11:40you're just never going to do it

11:41unless you break the system.

11:43Change is never easy.

11:45And the closer you get to success,

11:47the more ferociously

11:48those with a vested interest

11:50in the past will resist you.

11:52They want to resist.

11:54So I just say,

11:56trust me on that

11:56because I know you really do.

11:58You have to break the system

11:59a little bit

12:00and follow your own instincts.

12:03But if your vision is right,

12:05nothing will hold you down.

12:07Nothing.

12:07You have to have the right vision.

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