[9 min] The Advice I Needed to Hear When I Started My Business: My 2024 Whittier Commencement Speech

0:0010 years ago, I made the decision to build my personal brand that was elevated, yet approachable, and reflected who I was, not just what I did. I created my website with ShowIt because it's true drag-and-drop freedom, so you can easily build and update your site. Plus, their real human support team, game changer. Want to try it for yourself? Head to jasminestar.com forward slash showit for a 14-day free trial and first month free when you subscribe. Ready to feel inspired, empowered, and ready to take action? Boxo! Hi, I'm Rosie, HR and Customer Success Specialist at Social Curator. And in this very special episode of the Jasmine Starr Show, Jasmine gives a, dare I say, killer commencement speech at Whittier College, where she, too, crossed the stage years ago.

0:47Let's listen in. Class of 2024, your future begins now. Congratulations. I'm very honored to tell you that I sat in these exact seats. My parents, my family were in the stadium and they were there to see me graduate summa cum laude. I was the first in my family to go to college. Thank you. How many of you are the first in your families to graduate college?

1:22We are the sojourners. We are the people who change legacies and histories. This school has given you everything you need. And forgive me for this emotion, hearing Dr. Sel Johnson talk about what it means to be resilient. I stand in front of you telling you that life can get hard. I was sitting in these seats and I had no idea what to do. In fact, the first time my grandmother ever stepped on a college campus, it was here in Harris B. I had just moved in to the dorm with my twin sister, and she looked around. She says, mira, oh my God, people live here. Yes, they do. And then she asked us to put on Celia Cruz, and we danced.

2:11And in that moment, I felt invincible. I felt like nothing could stop me. And then we flash forward to graduation day, and I'm sitting in your exact seat, and if I could be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do. So me and my 4.0 got a job at Lucille's Barbecue in Brea, California.

2:37Oh, humility tastes like barbecue baby back ribs. It was there slinging those ribs, and mind you, I did get employee of the month. Thank you, Whittier College. I had an idea I should go to law school. I should go to law school. I got a full ride to UCLA, and it was there during my first year that my mother had a relapse with brain cancer. She was diagnosed my junior year here at school. and I realized that for the first time in my life I looked at her and I didn't ask what I should do. I asked what I wanted to do and everything that I learned at Whittier College prepared me for success by learning four important qualities.

3:24I learned consistency by going to a writing lab every week my freshman year so I could learn how to write like a college graduate. I learned perseverance in Dr. Decker's business leadership class. I will never forget the day that a student had fallen asleep and he got a small piece of chalk and he threw it at the student's head and he says, this is too good to sleep on. Dr. Decker, you were right. I learned creativity in Dr. Sal Johnston's sociology through photography class. I had never taken sociology. I hadn't even heard of that word, but we're at a liberal arts college, so what do you do? You take classes you never had interest in and then you meet professors who rock your face off and find yourself interested in things you didn't know were possible so I went for the easiest sociology class with photography and I didn't own a camera and then all of a sudden there I decide to take pictures and they called it the film development lab which was just a closet that had been converted into a dark room and I developed film for the first time in my life and at the end of the semester my photos were chosen to be on an art display in Mendenhall.

4:32That was the first time in my life that I wondered, am I creative? Dr. Cell Johnson opened up his room during the attack of September 11th when all of us students were worried about life and the world and what it looked like. We didn't have a class that day, but he looked at all of us and said, we're going to be okay. It's going to be better than you think. And Dr. Johnston, you were right. I learned determination from Dr. Jose Orozco in the history of Latin America. And I was determined to get an A in that class. And I thought it was impossible. And I looked at him and I said, I'm going to get an A.

5:14And he looked at me and he said, Miss Waters, you don't get anything. You earn something. Dr. Jose Orozco, you were right. Consistency, perseverance, creativity, and determination are all the things you need. And they're all the things that I need. Because I don't know where you're at right now, but if you feel uncertain, and if you feel unsure with what you're going to do next, I am telling you, you have all the tools, because Whittier College has given you everything you needed. I needed consistency when I dropped out of school, and I became an internationally recognized photographer. I had never owned a camera, and I learned it on Google.

5:52You can learn anything you want because they teach you how to think here. I needed perseverance when I began creating digital resources for entrepreneurs about business strategy on the back of Google. I needed creativity when I expanded into a consulting business and somebody says, have you ever consulted? And I said, no. And they said, how much do you cost? And I said, how much do you have? And I said, funny, that's what I charge. Because we can figure it out because that's what poets do. We're gritty and we're scrappy. And I will tell you that I needed determination when I created a tech company social curator and I didn't know development or a line of code and I didn't know that most tech companies get funded and the amount of women who get international or venture capital is less than 1 % and the amount of brown women who get that is less than 0.7.

6:41The odds are always going to be stacked against us and you want to know what we're going to do. We will be determined because that's what poets do.

6:57I'm going to tell you this is not about me because you're going to need the same tools you will face a lifetime of moments when you're going to have to ask yourself not what should I do but what do I want to do because that is the only way you are going to find out what you were supposed to do in your life that is the only way you will find purpose because I believe you were put here with intention. I don't believe you chose this school happenstance. I believe that this chair had your name on it since the day you were born. But now the opportunity comes and asks yourself, what are you going to do with it?

7:30Will you squander the luxury and the gift of education in this beautiful country? Or are you going to say the odds will be stacked against me and I'm going to step out to figure out what my fullest potential is? And I'm going to tell you, you will be faced with difficulties and you will be faced with fear and you'll be faced with doubt and you will be faced with opposition. And at these hard moments, when you are rejected, when you are denied, when you are ignored, and when you are looked over, you might ask yourself, like I did before, what is this all for? I am here to tell you that your purpose isn't present.

8:07It's not today, and it's not next week, and it's not next year. Your future is generational. My grandmother was born in a tiny hill town of Puerto Rico, a place that didn't have running water. She moved to East Los Angeles to work in a sweatshop, taking three buses to work after dropping off her three kids at school, one who had special needs. And there she sat in front of a sewing machine and she made basketballs in the summer and bikinis in the winter, making things that her children would never buy, use, or wear. She returned home exhausted every single night to make dinner and put her kids to bed.

8:43And she woke up and did the same thing the next day and the next day and the next day and the next day. I look back at that story and I wonder if she ever thought to herself, what is this all for? Little did she realize that decades later, her work and her sacrifice would create opportunities that she never had for herself. She walked alone to the bus stop so one day she could dance in Harris B. She sewed until her fingers were numb so that one day her granddaughter wouldn't just graduate college but would come back and give a commencement speech. I want to remind you that there will come moments where you need to ask yourself not what you should do but what you want to do and when that happens you might even ask yourself what is this for?

9:31for. But please remember you have all the tools you need. Consistency, perseverance, creativity, and determination. May you go out into the world and make mistakes so you learn lessons. May you refrain from spending time in triumph or disaster. And one day, may you turn on your favorite song and find yourself dancing in the celebration of the future you built, not just for yourself, but for future generations. Felicidades. Congratulations, poets. You did it. Whoa, wasn't that powerful? The social curator team and I are cheering you on. Until next time.