Ladies Who Launch

by Shyla Batilwalla

Article courtesy of DivineCaroline

Editor’s note: Meredith Vieira delivered this commencement speech at Tufts University in Medford, MA, on May 18, 2008. We love her transparency in talking about her career successes and failures and the fact that she made some surprising choices along the way. Read on for her wise words on leadership, decision-making, balancing family with professional goals, and mapping your own road for success.

Thank you President Bacow. Thank you to the faculty and fellow honorees, trustees, the alumni, friends, families, and graduates. This is very emotional. I realize if I were to apply here today, I would never get in.

So I’m really grateful to be invited back. I was invited to a dinner last night at the president’s house and I couldn’t go because I had an accident Friday on the Today show. We had New Kids on the Block performing and it was raining, the indignity of it all, and I fell on the stage and just took my shin off. I was lying in my hotel last night, at the Taj Mahal—the hotel, not the actual Taj Mahal. I was on drugs but I’m not delusional. And I had time with my leg up to think about how I got here today.

I don’t make speeches. Despite what I do for a living, I’m basically kind of shy. But about a little over a year ago, Larry, you know Larry, Larry called. We traded phone calls and I finally reached him and he was on his sailboat. He said to me, “Listen, I want you to give this speech in 2008.” And I had just started at the Today show and everything I read said the show is going to tank now that Katie was gone. I said, “Listen, Larry, I could really screw up my job and then you’re not going to want me here giving the commencement address. He sort of laughed and he said, “Don’t worry about it.” And then I said, “Plus, I don’t even know what I would say to these students.” He said, “Oh, you’ve got a year to think about it.” And then there must have been a gust of wind because his voice sort of trailed off and the last thing I heard him say was, “Speak from your heart, Meredith.”

So for the past year I’ve been trying to think of what I should say to you. Obviously I should try to inspire you or maybe alert you to some of the potholes along the way that you’re going to face. Or I could cut right to the chase and tell you the real story behind Barbara Walters and Star Jones. I know, I know. And I do know. Actually, you know what, I’m going to get to that, I am going to get to that.

But first—yeah—but first, as I look out over your faces, the graduates, I’m so impressed by the mission of this school to create real leaders. Back when I was here, I was a student here from 1971 to 1975, I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t much of a leader, except for January 1975, I led a group of female students across the campus streaking. Literally. Yeah. It was really cold, I remember that. And at one point, you know, I looked over my shoulder and the only behind I saw was mine. So as I was crouching in the bushes waiting for the campus police to drive by with the high beams on because, you know, got to catch these girls in the act, it struck me that every leader, no matter how small, occasionally will find themselves alone and exposed.

After that I did actually make a little bit more of myself, albeit with my clothes on—and quite frankly, I advise you do to the same, keep them on—to the point where nowadays, people your age often come up to me—we have a lot of interns at the Today show—and they’ll say, “How did you get where you are? What did you do? What is the formula for success?” I tell them all and I’ll tell you, the only formula is that there is no formula. There is no easy way to get from point A to point B, nor is there any right way.

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