region. In recognition of Mr. Ballmer's extraordinary

achievements in technology and business, his inspirational

public service, the university today conferring upon him the

honorary degree of Doctor of Science. The honorary citation

will be read by the chairman of the Board of Regents, Mr. Orrin

Smith. Will Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Smith please join me. [ APPLAUSE ]

>> Stephen Anthony Ballmer, you are the founding father of the

information age, one of its foremost architects, and for

over three decades, an unparalleled force at the heart

of its rapid development. Your vision and drive have brought a

new freedom of discovery to virtually every field of human

endeavor and transformed the world in which we live. Your

success began in cool and opened systems that would lead to your

life's purpose' you were a valedictorian of your high

school class and graduated making Noah

Magna cum laude from Harvard University. It was learning that

propelled you forward in the university setting that led you

to opportunity. Stephen, you were also a risk-taker, leaving

Stanford university's graduate school of business in 1980 to

join forces with a former classmate Bill Gates and a

fledgling startup with a very uncertain future. You had the

courage to follow an uncertain path into an unknown future and

the boundless energy to make such a bold venture

succeed. Your leadership was fundamental to the company whose

products, imagination and enterprise, have radically

accelerated the pace of scientific research and ill

illuminated the vast expanse of creativity and possibility. You

guided Microsoft's exponential growth with a style and a

genuine enthusiasm that ever inspired those you led. The

ecosystem of hardware and software you envisioned brought

success not only to Microsoft, but thousands of other companies

as well. In 2000, you became the company's Chief Executive

Officer, a position you held for 14 years. Under your

leadership, annual revenues more than tripled and profits

soared. Yet, you have always been and remain a man of the

people. Compassionate, without pretension, and extraordinarily

giving. Your civic and philanthropic contributions are

as great as your business and tech

technological achievements. Your support in healthcare,

education, the arts, and countless charitable

organizations has uplifted the lives and hopes of people around

the world. For the extraordinary success of the

company you helped build,

for Crafting tools that have made it possible to vastly

extend the frontier of knowledge, and for all you have

given towards the betterment of society, the University of

Washington is proud to confer on you the degree of Doctor of

Science. Congratulations. [ APPLAUSE ]

[ APPLAUSE ]

[ APPLAUSE ] >> Thank

you, gentlemen.

>>> Well, thanks! I'm a little fired up to be here today! This

hat gets in the way! Sorry about that! I -- you never told me in

my wildest dreams that I would be in the end zone at Husky

Stadium, lower bowl, 40,000 people! I would have told you no

way! So I have exactly two thoughts for you. One, touchdown

Washington! And two, go dogs! [ CHEERS & APPLAUSE ]

>> I want to congratulate everybody who is graduating

today. It's been a little low key in here for my taste. I want

actually all the graduates, every one of you to get up and

give yourself a round of applause. Congratulations! [

CHEERS & APPLAUSE ]

>> Actually for me, you may not know this. This is a special

class, the class of folks graduating this year are the age

of my oldest son, and the notion that some of his friends

are in this audience graduating today just gives me a little

extra special umple, Hank, Justin, others, you know who you

are, but congratulations

to all and the surprise of seeing one of my son's mothers

here, Melissa, congratulations! Great job!

[ APPLAUSE ] >> Michael and Chris made, I

think, a wonderful point. Neither one of them knows what

the heck at age 22 or 30 life holds for them. And you know

what? It's okay. It's okay. This class is graduating at perhaps

the best time in history, a time -- and if you don't remember

anything else from this speech, this is it. You have the

greatest opportunities in front of you of any class ever to

graduate from university. You have the opportunities to go out

and change the world in so many ways. I've had an amazingly

fortunate and lucky journey. I was born at the right time and

the right place to be able to participate in the launching of

the information age. And if you only take the perspective

information technology, the impact you all can have on the

world, the world of business, the world of science, the world

of education, the world of healthcare, there has never been

a better time, opportunity, opportunity, opportunity, it

awaits you. It's there for you! You have an extra blessing.

You're graduating from one of the best universities bar none

in the entire world. The University of Washington! [

APPLAUSE ]

>> This university is unbelievable. Mike and I were

actually talking up on stage and some of the various

departments, but I certainly know the medical school here and

Dean Ramsey, I've gotten exposure to the school of social

work, certainly the computer science department! Will all the

computer science graduates please stand up! Yeah! [

APPLAUSE ] >> Let's give our countless

wonderful departments at the University of Washington and to

graduate from here means you have opportunity sitting in

front of you for the taking. I want to give you three

principles to think about as you look at the opportunities that

you have to make a difference. And it can be a difference in

one or two people's lives, 100 people's lives, a difference in

the world, a difference in arts or letters or science or

business. I'll give you three things to think about. First,

there's a Latin expression which I think is great. I love it. It

was in a now very old movie called The Dead Poets Society.

But the line in the movie was carpe diem. Seize the day. The

opportunities are there, but you got to reach out and pick them

up. You got to grab at them. Some of you may have already

done that at the U in your classes, in other students that

you met, in your extracurricular activities, but grab them.

Don't be afraid to make a mistake, because you know what

you can do if the grab the wrong one? Drop it and pick up

another one! It's okay. Seize the day. I think back of all of

the luck, but also the times that were in front of me to

seize the day. I don't know what got me to drop out of business

school and come to Microsoft. My parents thought I was a whack

job. Neither one of them graduated college and they

thought this was really a wild idea. I was lucky. I seized

the day. Microsoft, one day some guys fly in from IBM and all of

a sudden we figure out we could actually provide all the

software they need for this thing that became the

personal computer. People had the wisdom to seize the day when

that opportunity presented itself. And yet when you think

of all the opportunities, when I think back of all the

opportunities I've had, had the one that was most important was

an opportunity I got in 1969. Sitting in my junior high school

class, I was in a public junior high, not very simulated at the

time, and over the loud speaker, they said a private

high school in our area that I had never heard of was giving

scholarship tests that weekend. I told my mother I wanted to

take them. She said that's fine, as long as you get a

scholarship because we can't afford to send you there. But

that's really where I got switched on, switched on in

math, switched on personally, energized in a way that never,

never could be turned back. And I am very thankful for that

opportunity. Yes, there's a lot of luck in opportunity, but

there's a lot of seizing the day, and I encourage you all to

reach out and carpe diem, really seize the opportunities that

are in front of you. Number two on opportunity, have a point of

view. Sometimes it will be your point of view that creates

opportunity and sometimes you will pick up an opportunity and

it will give you a chance to build a point of view. If you're

Art Levenson, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, you may have a point

of view on what will happen in the world of genetics and what

can be invented, or the fact that software would be the most

powerful force on the planet and what it can do to change the

world. Points of view do matter. If you're like me, you might

not have a point of view before you get started, but I had the

privilege then to learn, and all of you will from somebody, you

will develop your own point of view on how to develop and shape

and bring those opportunities to the floor. One of the

favorite stories I have to tell kids is the story of the guy who

founded both Twitter and Square, guy named Jack Dorsey. I

barely know the guy, but I am in awe of his story. He's a guy

who was writing software to help taxi cab dispatch in the city

of St. Louis. And he discovered that blowing out small messages

was a really powerful force for taxi cab scheduling and the taxi

cab drivers neededded to be paid. And out of that

experience, he developed the point of view that allowed him

to create both Twitter and Square, now the most popular way

that people get paid. So point of view creates opportunity and

you need to be a person who takes a point of view with the

opportunities that

you're given. Third message, be hard core. Hard core is really

hard to define, but it is my favorite expression. Hard core!

Hard core means tenacious. Hard core means long-term. Hard core

means determined. I don't care what you do. You'll have to be

patient and industrious and really stay after things. When

Microsoft first decided it wanted to sell software into

businesses, people told us we couldn't. This was in the 1980s.

They told us in 1989 we couldn't. They told us in 1995

we couldn't.

2000, 2005. Today, if you look at Microsoft's enormous success,

70 or 80% of it comes from selling the software that really

automates the way businesses and institutions like the

University of Washington automate. Tenacity, sticking

with things. Outside the business realm, Nelson Mandela.

Just think about that case. The constant nonstop long-term fight

against apartheid that finally paid off. Opportunity is about

seizing what's there. It is about what's having, having a

point of view, but it's also about patience and

determination. Things will not necessarily come to you, poof,

immediately and overnight. You're going to have to be

determined and long-term. My wife about seven years ago got

started with some folks here at the University of Washington on

something called partners for our children. It's a center

based here rat the university that works in partnership with

both private sources and the state of Washington on ideas to

reform child welfare. Seven years, some progress. Seven

years, a lot more to go. And whether you're choosing careers

in business or the arts or in areas in which you will do

service, you will need to put in long-term effort and be hard

core in order to seize the opportunities that are in front

of you. Seize the personal opportunities that are in front

of you, too. I really believe that people need to have more

than one thing in their lives. I feel fortunate I have a life

partner, I have kids, I have a family. And you need to seize

those opportunities in addition to the ones that you will find

in front

of you professionally. The two of you guys said you are

respectively 22 and 30 and don't know what you're doing. I am 58

years old, and I too don't know what I'm doing again! [

APPLAUSE ] >> I retired from Microsoft

earlier this year. It's a wonderful opportunity, frankly,

for Microsoft. Fresh blood, fresh ideas, fresh thinking,

fresh leader who is outstanding. But new opportunities for the

company, and I look forward to new opportunities for me. One of

those, I'm afraid to admit I might be pursuing down in Los

Angeles. Please forgive me that. That's a passion for sports.

Yeah, I knew I had to take a little bit of that. But anyway,

I also am looking for what's next. How would I serve going

forward? Government? Other service, not as a politician.

That's certainly not me. You can tell that. But the search for

opportunity doesn't stop. It's there in front of you at all

times. You will face times where you want to renew yourself.

Seize the opportunity. Carpe diem. Develop a point of view