Tim Cook's Commencement Speech at Duke University - "Be the Last to Accept It"

Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook, gave the commencement speech at his alma mater Duke University on May 14, 2018. His theme was the need for change. Let’s look at his speech methods. He started by telling a story about one of his favorite Duke professors: 

“I reached out to one of my favorite professors from back then. Bob Reinheimer taught a great course in Management Communications, which included sharpening your public speaking skills.

“We hadn’t spoken for decades, so I was thrilled when he told me: he remembered a particularly gifted public speaker who took his class in the 1980s.”

And – it turned out – that gifted speaker was Melinda Gates. We all know about her. Cook built up to the point nicely, and got a good crowd response in return. Stories are a great way to begin a speech. This wasn’t an especially exciting story, but it worked. It related directly to Duke, and it set up a relationship between the speaker and the audience. Very nice.

The need for change arose, Cook said, because the nation has become divided:

“Our country is deeply divided -- and too many Americans refuse to hear any opinion that differs from their own.”

For example, he noted that “our planet is warming with devastating consequences – and there are some who deny it’s even happening.” He noted education inequality. Accordingly, Cook advised the graduates not to accept the status quo. Citing his friend, late Apple founder Steve Jobs, he said:

“Steve’s vision was that great ideas come from a restless refusal to accept things as they are. And those principles still guide us at Apple today.”

Cook continued, “the question we ask ourselves is not ‘what can we do’ but ‘what should we do.” He cited an authority – once again, Steve Jobs:

“Steve’s vision was that great ideas come from a restless refusal to accept things as they are. And those principles still guide us at Apple today.”

Jobs is highly respected in the business community, a point that I’ll look at again later. Cook also used a nice touch of parallel language:

“Robert Kennedy . . . said you should be the last people to accept things as they are.”

“You should be “the last people to accept it.”

“Be the last to accept the notion that the world you inherit cannot be improved.”

The “be the last” passages emphasized that change is inevitable – we should embrace change, control it, and use change for good. We should not accept things that are wrong just because they have always been. Parallel language helps the listeners tie the speaker’s ideas together in their own minds. The (almost) identical phrasing helped his point to come through. A nice public speaking technique indeed. Like most epideictic (ceremonial) speeches, the speaker suggested policy changes to improve education and protect the climate. His policies were vague but, again, that’s typical of epideictic speeches.

The great political irony

A final comment. This speech was about change. Successful business people know that they need to innovate. Today’s business triumph is yesterday’s news. They know that they need to move forward. Cook is not only a successful business person himself, but he carefully cited the highly respected entrepreneur Steve Jobs. This greatly enhanced his credibility.

Yet, the business community often supports extremely conservative political candidates who think government must always do the same things the same way, year after year, century after century, with no change. They know that can’t be right…don’t they? They know that can't be good for business...don't they?

P.S. – The almost-ultimate irony is that we professor-types tend to be politically liberal, but are very conservative – narrow-minded, really – in the ways that we conduct our own business of higher education. That doesn’t make sense, does it? I’ll think about that and find a way to blog about it later. 

P.P.S. – See my post about Oprah's commencement speech about fake news. Also, you can use the box on the right to search for "epideictic" to see some of my other posts about ceremonial speeches. 

Congratulations to all 2018 graduates everywhere! Good work, future leaders!

Thanks to Entrepreneur for printing a text and posting a complete video of this excellent speech.

To post comments, log on to your Google account.