Recently Tom Hanks gave the commencement speech for Harvard graduates. In 2005 Steve Jobs gave the commencement address to Stanford graduates. Which man gave the best speech?
Well according to their V.E.T. coded scale totals (Vulnerability, Empathy, and Truth); Tom Hanks won with a score of 305 vs Steve Jobs of 281.
However.
My biggest challenge with Tom Hanks speech is it feels unauthentic. Somehow mixing Marvel Comics with truth just missed the mark. Perhaps a clue is at the start of Mr. Hanks speech when he said, “It’s the way of the world kid’s.” This is in reference to his success despite not having a Harvard education. This statement makes one wonder did he game the system with this speech?
You can almost feel an internal laughter coming from Mr. Hanks as he reads through his speech. A laughter that reeks of superiority. If I were a betting man I’d put up a big chuck of money that Mr. Hanks didn’t write more than 5% of his speech. It’s a cautionary tale of how leaders should NOT hire a speech writer. I can almost hear the conversation now:
INT: Upper Class Condo Overlooking Central Park. – Day
Tom Hanks, 60’s, looks out the window in a white bath robe. He paces back and forth as he holds an iPhone on speaker.
Tom Hanks
“Hello Bill. Listen. I’ve been invited to speak a Harvard. (Pause) Yes, Harvard graduation. I’m the keynote speaker. Can you put something together? Okay great! Yes, not too serious but, you know it’s Harvard. I gotta run Bill, I got another call coming through.”
THE END
Such a missed opportunity. (sigh) Instead of hearing some heart warming stories of personal truth and triumph, we are left with a speech writers nightmare of coming up with text that a client thinks makes them sound good but not too pretentious. I wonder if the writer found the story of Morlon Brando and the answering machine or if Mr. Hanks wanted it in. Next time, Tom, when you have a speech to give that carries this much weight, please find a writer that locks you in a room and makes you come up with the first draft or at least an outline.
Being touched by the hand of God was a major advantage to Steve Jobs when he gave his address at Stanford. He had recently overcome pancreatic cancer or so he thought. When one balances life and death it gives a different focus. Thoughts, time and energy are more refined. You want to be remembered for being you. Mr. Jobs speech came from his heart. His eternal truths came from his life experience
He wrote it and it felt authentic as he shared three truths he had learned in life. Was it as polished as Mr. Hanks speech? No, but it was real, and in todays world authentic is all the rage.
There are four levels of truths leaders can share, 1) Common 2) Important 3) Critical and 4)Eternal.
Look at each of these examples given.
Steve Jobs:
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was
the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of
being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again,
less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative
periods of my life.”
This is a wonderful example of an “eternal truth” from Mr. Jobs. As an audience we can relate to it. All of us have failed in our life. But have we all learned that failure frees us from heaviness and the lightness that comes from being a beginner can put us into our most creative periods?
Tom Hanks:
“The language of telling the truth. It is the in the vision quest for
truth that we look to you newly incorporated members of the Justice
League of Avengers to come to the rescue. For the truth to some is no
longer empirical. It’s no longer based on data nor common sense, nor
even common decency. Telling the truth is no longer the benchmark for
public service.”
Important truth, yes. Critical truth, maybe. Over all It feels flat and somewhat comical. Imagine if Mr. Hanks would have talked about the pressure of 10 years of consecutive 100 million box office hits and finally the failure he experienced when working with the Coen brothers. How in the world did Lady Killers fail?
I’m being really hard on Tom Hanks here, did he give a bad speech, no. Maybe my expectations were too high having grown up with his 100 million dollar, block buster movies. Where much is given much is required.