Former cabinet official urges grads to prepare for success

‘You can wait for luck to tap your shoulder or you can leap off the stage, and jump into the future'

CLARKSDALE – An overflow audience of 4,000 celebrating Coahoma Community College’s 57th annual commencement here Saturday listened intently when former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy told the 2009 graduating class, “Good enough is no longer good enough.”

The speaker urged graduates to prepare themselves for success just as Barak Obama prepared himself to become the first African American president of the United States.

“You can wait for luck to tap your shoulder or you can leap off the stage, and jump into the future,” he said

“You can’t deal with luck or mediocrity – excellence is where you should be going,” he said.

Citing today’s hardest economic times since the Great Depression with the country subjected to pink slips and Swine Flu, the former cabinet official said, “No corner of the world is immune; we are all under a dark economic cloud.”

The speaker continued his litany of negatives in America: two wars, climate change, and nuclear proliferation before repeating the mantra: “Good enough is no longer good enough.”

“But we have a secret weapon – you,” he said and gestured to the rows of graduates.

“You are sitting on seats now getting ready to step up on this stage; you and your generation are not afraid,” he said.

Espy said luck once played a major part in an individual success, but this formula was no longer true.”

“It’s a new day, and you are in a perfect position to take advantage of it,” Espy said.
”You live in a remarkable time with enormous challenges, but you have what it takes.”

Listing his own personal axioms to navigate storms, Espy told graduates to discount chips on the shoulder and to focus ahead rather than looking back.

“Try to be better than what the world expects of you; don’t let bitterness blind you, but focus on your career,” he continued.

He urged independence over dependence and advised finding a mentor.

“When you meet trouble, have faith; there is a God who loves you and will lift you up from your enemies,” he said.

“The greater your gifts, the greater are your responsibilities; follow your passion,” he said.