Long Island University Commencement Remarks

Comments by LTG Robert Caslen, Superintendent, United States Military Academy

Given at Long Island University, 11 May 2018, to the graduating Graduate Class

Thank you President Cline for that kind introduction and for this incredible honor and the privilege of addressing this year’s class of graduates. I am truly honored and humbled.

To you, Mr. Krasnoff and the LIU Board of Trustees, thank you very much for having me here this afternoon.

Congratulations to those presented honorary degrees today.

Most importantly, to the thousand or so graduates here today – congratulations on this incredible milestone.

I’m sure you’ve often heard the phrase “it’s not about you.” Well today - it is about you. This is what you have achieved. This is what you have earned and this is what you should be celebrating today.

As Teddy Roosevelt once said - It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man or woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man and the woman who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself and herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his or her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

This is a big milestone in your lives, and you should feel proud about what today represents. So – again, congratulations, and well done to all of you!

Let me also add my thanks to your family, relatives, Moms and Dads, friends, mentors and others who were so influential in this achievement. Thank-you very much. Graduates, how about one more round of applause for their support for each of you.

I have many fond memories of my LIU experience, more than 35 years ago – going to school at night and working on my MBA while I was assigned to West Point as an assistant football coach. My intentions back then were to leave the Army, take my degree and make my way in the corporate world. As you can tell, life and history had other plans for me. But throughout my Army career, I’ve often relied on my LIU education, as it taught me how to think critically and methodically, to see things from multiple perspectives and reinforced how important leadership from the front and managing by walking around was, to see and understand issues at the grass roots and come up with creative and effective solutions. So, I’m grateful to this institution for being an important part of my education and development.

Apple founder Steve Jobs once said to “learn continually – there’s always one more thing to learn.”

Each of you are here today because of your commitment to continual learning and self-improvement. The course of study each of you have completed, marked by the degree you receive today, shows an investment in yourselves, learning skills and concepts that will help you as you grow professionally, and grow as leaders.

But today doesn’t represent an end. Of course, we know that the learning process never stops, so the degree you receive today represents a pause – albeit a significant one- on your path of lifelong learning.

However, today also marks the beginning of a new chapter in your professional and even personal lives. With the degrees you’ve earned and with the skills you’ve acquired during your studies here at LIU, you are being opened to a world of new possibilities and opportunities to affect change and have an impact within your spheres of influence and beyond.

The LIU motto is “to the city and to the world” – and for many years, LIU grads who have gone before you have had an impact and made a difference in their neighborhoods and communities, and throughout this great city, which in turn, had an even greater impact nationally and globally. I know this class of graduates will do the same, and I challenge you to use your education to affect change, to the city and to the world…

We live in some very exciting, yet challenging times. Today’s global environment is complex, and ambiguous – the most complex I’ve seen in my lifetime and certainly, in my 43 years of service in the Army. Globalization impacts nearly every aspect of our lives, the political and national security environment is challenging and unpredictable and technology has created a global information environment that allows us to see more, share more and create more, faster than ever – giving us access to more information than entire governments once possessed.

The 21st Century environment therefore requires a set of intellectual skills much different than those we developed back in the 20th Century, which doesn’t seem so long ago, and yet, might as well be a lifetime ago.

The 21st century environment requires adaptive and agile leaders with the creative and critical thinking skills necessary to not only understand the environment and culture, but also thrive in it…leaders who can communicate effectively and solve problems across a variety of disciplines.

LIU has prepared you with those skills to not only lead, but to also thrive in this complex environment.

More than 17 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan taught us, as an Army, a number of things – most significantly, it showed us that our greatest contribution as an Army wasn’t conventional firepower, but rather, the intellectual firepower, if you will – our ability to put boots on the ground, get in among local populations, understand the complexity of that environment and culture, and employ the interpersonal skills necessary to build trust and relationships with those people.

Let me share an example - in 2008, when I was a division commander in Iraq, one of my battalion commanders was a young lieutenant colonel named Dave Hodne – who incidentally, today is a one-star general and on the road to even greater things. So, Dave Hodne was operating in the city of Balad, about 80 clicks north of Baghdad – an area of a lot of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’a militias. So, Dave develops a relationship with a couple local businessmen with some money and convinces them to open a bank and lend money to other local businessmen to spark the local economy. One of the businesses he lends money to is a local cannery to produce tomato paste, which now gives local tomato farmers a place to sell their goods.

As the cannery begins to really take off with this new tomato paste line, before long, there’s a long line of trucks on the main highway leading to the factory, waiting to drop off shipments of tomatoes. So, another local entrepreneur comes up with the idea to build a parking lot off the highway, to give the trucks a place to park while waiting to drop off their shipments. Then another entrepreneur realizes that “hey, you gotta eat” and opens a restaurant by the parking lot. Another businessman opens a hotel, and before long, the local economy starts to really boom, as more and more businesses are started and grow.

In the meantime, farming picks up again, and there’s a growing need for water to irrigate crops, placing a greater demand on the infrastructure which had been damaged as the result of the earlier violence in the region. Those infrastructure demands from the farmers place pressure on the local government, who responds by making the needed repairs and at the same time, showing the legitimacy of the new regional government to the local population.

…all because one person had the intellectual agility to understand the environment, build relationships and most importantly, earn trust.

The opportunities that await you out there are limitless – whether it’s entrepreneurial, innovation, creative, social, political, economic and so much more.

Whatever your “tomato paste factory” happens to be – it requires good leadership, the ability to get people to follow you and accomplish a common goal or task. The most important element of leadership is trust, which is a function of competence and character.

Competence is the degree you are holding. On the other hand, character is the set of values you aspire to. Which is more important? I can tell you without hesitation that character is everything.

When I think back at all of the leadership lessons I’ve learned over the years, it all comes down to this simple truth: Competent leadership without character is failed leadership.

A couple of years ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a book called “The Road to Character,” which profiles several notable figures in history for their character. In the book, Brooks discusses what he calls “resume virtues” versus “eulogy virtues.” Resume virtues are those that contribute to one’s external success – those things you would expect to see on a resume.

On the other hand, eulogy virtues go deeper; they exist at the core of our being. They are the virtues that get talked about at one’s funeral. They’re not a list of accomplishments, but rather, they are the characteristics and attributes that define who you are as a person. And throughout the book, Brooks poses the question: “How do we want to be remembered? Do we want to be remembered for our resume virtues? Or, do we want to be remembered for our eulogy virtues?”

Let me put it another way….on your tombstone when you pass away, will be engraved your birth year and your death year, separated by a hyphen. The hyphen is a simple nomenclature, but it represents who you were as a human being. It represents your eulogy virtues.

So, what will the hyphen mean when your time has come? How do you want to be remembered – for your resume virtues, or your eulogy virtues? For what you’ve accomplished, or for who you are as a person?

Let me share two thoughts as I close…

The first is a lyric from country singer Randy Travis, who sang: “it’s not what you take when you leave this world behind…it’s what you leave behind when you go.”

The second is a quote from the Greek statesman Pericles, who said “what you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments…but what is woven into the lives of others.”

So, as you leave your Alma Mater Long Island University today and venture back out “to the city and to the world,” I’d ask you to “consider your hyphen” and what you’ll do with your LIU experience…and that each of you would live and lead with character, and make a difference in the lives of others.

Thank you.