Here is the full transcript (Edited version) and summary of the best-selling author Dr. Rick Rigsby’s powerful speech titled “The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout Will Change Your Life” at California State University Maritime Academy. He is the author of the book: Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout.
NOTABLE QUOTE FROM THIS SPEECH:
“Son, make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.”
TRANSCRIPT:
Dr. Rick Rigsby – Author
The wisest person I ever met in my life: a third-grade dropout.
Wisest and dropout in the same sentence is rather oxymoronic, like jumbo shrimp. Like Fun Run, ain’t nothing fun about it, like Microsoft Works. You all don’t hear me.
I used to say like country music, but I’ve lived in Texas so long, I love country music now. Yeah… I hunt. I fish. I have cowboy boots and cowboy… You all, I’m a blackneck redneck. Do you hear what I’m saying to you?
No longer oxymoronic for me to say country music, and it’s not oxymoronic for me to say third-grade and dropout.
That third-grade dropout, the wisest person I ever met in my life, who taught me to combine knowledge and wisdom to make an impact, was my father: a simple cook, wisest man I ever met in my life.
Just a simple cook, left school in the third grade to help out on the family farm, but just because he left school doesn’t mean his education stopped.
Mark Twain once said: “I’ve never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.”
My father taught himself how to read, taught himself how to write, decided in the midst of Jim Crowism, as America was breathing the last gasp of the Civil War, my father decided he was going to stand and be a man, not a black man, not a brown man, not a white man, but a man.
He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could all the days of his life.
I have four degrees. My brother is a judge. We’re not the smartest ones in our family. It’s a third-grade dropout daddy, a third grade dropout daddy who was quoting Michelangelo, saying to us boys, “I won’t have a problem if you aim high and miss, but I’m going to have a real issue if you aim low and hit.”
A country mother quoting Henry Ford, saying, “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”
I learned that from a third-grade drop. Simple lessons, lessons like these. “Son, you’d rather be an hour early than a minute late.” We never knew what time it was at my house because the clocks were always ahead.
My mother said, for nearly 30 years, my father left the house at 3:45 in the morning, one day, she asked him, “Why, Daddy?” He said, “Maybe one of my boys will catch me in the act of excellence.”
I want to share a few things with you.
Aristotle said, “You are what you repeatedly do.” Therefore, excellence ought to be a habit, not an act. Don’t ever forget that.
I know you’re tough, but always remember to be kind, always. Don’t ever forget that. Never embarrass Mama. Mm-hmm.
If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. If Daddy ain’t happy, don’t nobody care, but I’m going to tell you.
Next lesson, lesson from a cook over there in the galley. “Son, make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.”
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. You all might have a relative in mind you want to send that to. Let me say it again.
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person.
John Wooden coached basketball at UCLA for a living, but his calling was to impact people, and with all those national championships, guess what he was found doing in the middle of the week? Going into the cupboard, grabbing a broom and sweeping his own gym floor.
You want to make an impact? Find your broom.
Every day of your life, you find your broom. You grow your influence that way. That way, you’re attracting people so that you can impact them.
Final lesson. “Son, if you’re going to do a job, do it right.”
I’ve always been told how average I can be, always been criticized about being average, but I want to tell you something. I stand here before you before all of these people, not listening to those words, but telling myself every single day to shoot for the stars, to be the best that I can be.
Good enough isn’t good enough if it can be better, and better isn’t good enough if it can be best.
Let me close with a very personal story that I think will bring all this into focus.
Wisdom will come to you in the unlikeliest of sources, a lot of times through failure. When you hit rock bottom, remember this. While you’re struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow.
I’m not worried that you’ll be successful. I’m worried that you won’t fail from time to time.
The person that gets up off the canvas and keeps growing, that’s the person that will continue to grow their influence.
Back in the ’70s, to help me make this point, let me introduce you to someone.
I met the finest woman I’d ever met in my life. Mm-hmm… Back in my day, we’d have called her a brick house.
This woman was the finest woman I’d ever seen in my life. There was just one little problem. Back then, ladies didn’t like big old linemen. The Blind Side hadn’t come out yet.
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