Hale, president of Granite Telecommunications, was onstage during Thursday’s rainy graduation ceremony to accept the medal for his support for the university. In his brief speech, he praised students for their hard work, and, drawing from his own early experiences, encouraged them not to let failure defeat them. Later, just as the headmaster was about to start awarding degrees to graduates, Hale gently pushed him aside, saying he wanted to celebrate the graduates by giving them $1,000 each. Students appeared from under their umbrellas, erupting in loud cheers and applause (掌声). It went on for nearly a minute before Hale could cut back in.

“Listen, there’s a rule,” he said. “The first $500 is our gift to you. The second $500 is for you to do charity, giving to somebody else in need or another organization who could use it more than you.” As he spoke, two big bags were carried onstage. They were filled with 3,000 envelopes, which he said were decorated by students at two local elementary schools, and marked either “gift” or “give”.

It was time for students to walk across the stage. One at a time, wearing, raincoats and big smiles, they accepted their diplomas (文凭) and their pair of envelopes.

“These are kids who are working their tails off to be there,” he recalled. “They could certainly use the gift.” The 57-year-old man put much of his wealth — over$ 270 million — toward charitable causes, including cancer research and educational institutions.

“Some of the most joyous times have been when I’ve had the chance to share,” Hale explained. “If there’s a way that I could create that seed within another generation where they would get to experience the joy of giving, then maybe that becomes something that they would make an effort to do and be accustomed to doing and make us all a little bit better along the way.” He has learned that one of this year’s graduates gave her money to a local charity that provides holiday gifts for poor children. She herself had been a receiver years ago.

Stained glass artists create different designs by making cuts on the glass to “score” it and then breaking off the pattern that they want to use in the finished product. The most difficult cut in stained glass is called an inside cut. Basically, it’s a curved line where you throw away the part inside of the curve. The problem with inside cuts is that the edges of the curve tend to break off when the pieces of scored glass are broken apart.

As the artist talked about inside cuts, he said, “The glass will break into pieces if you try to cut too much off at once. The best way to do an inside cut is to slice off smaller curves piece-by-piece. In fact, it’s not just the best way lo do it, but it’s the only way to do it.”

How many times do you try to make a big change and cut the entire piece at once? We convince ourselves that we can do this all the time. We’ll commit to transforming our diet overnight or we get inspired to launch a business in a weekend or we finally get motivated to work out and push ourselves to the edge of burning out.

Why not approach your goals and dreams like a stained glass artist? Starting by slicing a shallow curve and breaking a small piece off, you cut a slightly deeper curve and break that off until you have your full inside cut. By slowly cutting deeper and deeper curves, you prevent the glass from breaking as it change shape.

Of course, change isn’t easy — no mailer how you do it. Slow gains are boring, but if we keep making small improvements, then pretty soon we will end up with a beautiful masterpiece on our hands instead of a bunch of broken pieces.

There is an old Spanish saying which states, “Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.” How many times have we put off (推迟) our dreams till tomorrow? 【小题1】 We have to go for them now!

Tomorrow is not promised.

Nobody likes to talk about death, but everybody is going to die at one point. None of us know the day or the hour. 【小题2】 Don’t go to your tomb (坟墓) with unrealized dreams. Make the decision to go after every dream, big or small right now.

【小题3】

One of the biggest dream killers is fear. Many people could have achieved amazing things if only they weren’t afraid. Just think about all the things you’ve wanted to go, but allowed fear to convince (使…相信) you that you weren’t gifted, or good enough. Fear is not real. It is a product of thoughts you create.

Take actions to realize your dream.

You can dream about writing a great play, but it’s never going to happen unless you actually put pen to paper. You can dream about finding a cure for cancer, but it will never happen unless you actually have the necessary tools to find that cure. 【小题4】

Possibilities are waiting for you.

There are so many amazing opportunities and people waiting for you. How do you get to them? Simple! Follow your dream. 【小题5】 You’ll never see those doors if you sit around waiting for a dream to come true, instead of actually working to make it come true.