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Charlie Daniels UNCW Commencement Address to the Class of 1996

Proud parents and grandparents, faculty members, Chancellor Leutze, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Good Morning.

I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re all feeling a little apprehensive about what I’m going to say to you this morning.

Well, let me put your minds at ease right now.  I will not be speaking about pickup trucks, NASCAR racing or the finer points of bass fishing.  My text contains no rebel yells, is totally devoid of the word redneck and I definitely will not be taking requests.

That taken care of, I would like to congratulate the Class of 1996 for your perseverance and sacrifice and with a great deal of humility and gratitude, I thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your very special day.

Across this nation this morning, there are other auditoriums with other rows of bright-eyed young people, clad in cap and gown, and wondering, as I’m sure you are, what the world outside these walls holds for them. There must be at least a thousand questions rushing around under those mortarboards.

What about the economy?  How about the job market?  What about the new technology?  The old work ethic?  Will there be a place for me?  Will I find success?

An obscure cracker barrel philosopher once wrote that “the man who gets what he wants is successful, but the man who wants what he gets is happy.”

Success means many different things to many different people and as you prepare to enter the world of commerce and competition, I would have you ask yourselves two all important questions.

What do I want out of life? And how badly do I want it?

You may be intending to go back to your hometown and accept a job or hang out your shingle and devote the rest of your life raising a family and being a good citizen.  If so, then more power to you.  There is no nobler calling.  Such is the backbone of America.

Perhaps a white picket fence, a BMW and a membership in the country club represents success to you.  Then that’s what you should strive for.

But if you’ve got a fire in your belly and adventure in your soul, if you want to see the world, if you’re ready to kick over the traces and knock down some doors, if you’re not willing to accept anything less than something spectacular, I can certainly understand that.

That’s how I felt in the summer of 1958. I was making a living at my chosen profession, I was playing music.  But it wasn’t my music.  There was too much world out there that I hadn’t seen.  I had a compelling hunger and a burning desire to pursue my dreams, wherever they led.

So I packed up and left the little white house at 4017 Wrightsville Avenue and accompanied by a three-piece band I headed off into a world I knew very little about.

Well after 38 years, millions of miles, and a considerable amount of beating my head against the wall, I’ve learned quite a lot about that world and this morning I’ve comeback home to share some of what I’ve learned with the Class of ‘96.

For instance, I’ve learned that attitude really is everything.  I’ve learned that honesty and integrity are the bedrock of character.  I’ve learned that, if pursued diligently, there is an answer to every question.  I’ve learned that success is pyramid shaped.  There’s plenty of space at the bottom, but as you climb higher and higher, it gets tighter and tighter until at the very pinnacle there’s room for only one.

And I’ve learned that success does not bestow her choicest jewels on the half-hearted, the faint-hearted nor the insincere.

What do you want out of life?

How badly do you want it?

Are you willing to march to a different drummer? Are you willing to be the first one to get there and the last one to leave?  Can you be content to work while everyone else is playing?  Can you develop the attitude of “I’m going to make it if I have to work twice as hard as anyone else?  Can you put up with rejection, unrelenting competition and scathing criticism?

Do you feel like you just can’t stand it if you don’t make something out of yourself?

If you can honestly answer yes to all of the above, congratulations, you’re about to embark on the most exciting, exhilarating and gratifying journey you’ll ever undertake in your lifetime.

And don’t be afraid to start at the bottom.  In fact, that’s a great place to start.  You’ll learn the job from the ground up.  It breeds determination and tenacity.  It engenders empathy for those who will work under your direction through the years.

And don’t be afraid to fail.  Remember, it’s not how many times life knocks you down that counts. It’s how many times you get back up. If you get back up one more time than you get knocked down, that makes you an unqualified winner.

Set goals for yourself.  But make them realistic and reachable.  After you accomplish your first goal, set a higher one, then a higher one and so on.  Your goals will constantly change.  I know that mind did.

My first goal was just to make a living traveling around the country entertaining people. Then I wanted to entertain in the better places, then I wanted to make a record.  Then I wanted to make an album, then it was a gold album, then a platinum album.  I wanted to travel abroad and share my music with other people and other cultures.  I wanted to win awards and appear on television and in motion pictures.

Yes, my goals were constantly changing, but never my direction.  I was always headed upward to a higher place in the pyramid.

And ladies and gentlemen, after almost four decades, I can stand here before you and honestly say that it’s been worth every rejection, every ridicule, every ounce of expended energy, every drop of sweat and every lonely hour I’ve ever spent to achieve the things which make up my dreams.

And if you’re thinking “Charlie Daniels, you were just lucky,” I would say to you that I don’t believe in luck, once you’ve set your goal, never, never ever give up.

Nashville, Tennessee, is a hard nut to crack.  When I moved there in 1967 it was almost a closed shop.  And the people who were in power jealously guarded that shop, freezing out new ideas and new people.  It seemed that I just couldn’t get my foot in the door.

When I first went to Nashville I made a living playing on other people’s recording sessions.  Well the good old boys didn’t like the way I played and they didn’t like the way I looked. My hair was longer than theirs and I played my guitar in a bluesy, rock and roll fashion.  I was a square peg in a round hole.

There was a hill not far from where I lived which overlooked the city.  I used to drive up there late at night and shake my fist at Nashville and say “you’re not going to beat me, I WILL make it here.

Then a gentleman named Bob Dylan came to town to record an album called “Nashville Skyline,” and chose me above all the other guitar players in Nashville to play on it. I went on to make other albums with Bob Dylan and I will be eternally grateful to him because playing on his albums helped launch my career.

Never give up.  Never compare yourself with someone else and never let somebody else tell you that you don’t have what it takes.

If I can do it, believe me, anybody can.  I’m not a naturally talented musician.  I’ve known naturally talented musicians.  To them, achieving proficiency on a musical instrument is like falling off a log.  I’ve always had to take a little longer to learn a song. To practice a little bit more, to work a little bit harder.

The caliber of my vocal talents fall somewhere between Mr. Rogers and Roseanne Barr, and I’ve never once been accused of being a sex symbol.  Yet I’ve had incredible things happen to me.  Things I didn’t even have the imagination to dream about when I left this beautiful city all those years ago.  Why? How?  Desire, attitude, hard work and the blessings of Almighty God.

Don’t believe everything you hear or read.  If you’d listen to some people they’d have you believe that America’s golden days are behind her. That we’ve lost our competitive edge to the Pacific Rim nations and other newly awakened economies.

Others will tell you that it’s a fixed game, that minorities and women don’t stand a chance of excelling in the marketplace.  Well, in the vernacular of the street from whence I came, I say B.S.!

America may have her ups and downs and she certainly has her faults, but the United States of America is still the envy of the planet. We still set the standard for which all others aim, with more freedom and more opportunity than any other nation on the face of the earth.

Minorities have made tremendous strides in the mainstream of American business, politics, athletics and the arts in the last few decades. The late Ron Brown was a successful businessman before he entered the government at Cabinet level.  Colin Powell, Henry Cisneros, Clarence Thomas, Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, Bill Cosby and the list goes on and on.

Broadcast Music Incorporated, the largest performing rights society in the world, is headed by a woman.  Frances Preston has worked her way to the very pinnacle of her profession. She has had an expansive and highly successful tenure at BMI and is held in the utmost esteem by her peers of both genders.

Can anyone deny the success of Mary Kay, Janet Reno, Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Day O’Connor, Donna Shalala and Marcia Clark?  I think not.

America desperately needs her best and brightest, her most dedicated, innovative and motivated children to meet the challenges we’ll face in the new millennium.

The cream of your generation will rise to the top because of who they are, not what they are, race and gender notwithstanding. The challenges are diverse and innumerable. The opportunities are countless.

Who will find the cure for Aids and cancer?  Who will become the new captains of industry? Who will design the fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly internal combustion engine?  Who can solve the drug problem? 

Who will bind up the wounds of the disenfranchised and help to usher the third world countries into the twenty-first century?

Who will be the next Ernest Hemingway, the next Billy Graham?  Who will fill the shoes of Bill Gates, John Hammond and Norman Schwarzkopf?  Who will be the next Michael Jackson?

Outside those doors, there’s a whole world waiting for you to come and stake your claim.

What do you want out of life?

How badly do you want it?

Time goes by so quickly.  I know that sounds like a tired old cliché to you.  You probably thought that the last four would never be over.  But they are over and the next four will be over before you realize it.  Then another four, until like me, you’ll be looking back wondering where it all went.

But I’m happy to tell you today that I wouldn’t trade places with any man on earth.  And I wouldn’t trade lives with anyone.

Life is so wonderful, so unique, so fragile.  It can’t be rewound or relived.  Make the most out of every day.

And in closing, I would like to give you the most important advice I know,

            “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

It really works.  God bless the Class of ‘96!  Thank you.

Charlie Daniels

UNC-Wilmington

May 11, 1996