Chasing Your Own Tail
by Don Draper
The following speech, authored by advertising executive turned motivational speaker Donald Draper, was presented at the commencement ceremony of Columbia University’s Humanities and Social Sciences graduating class of 1975. Initial critics of the choice for speaker expostulated the department was ill-suited for a businessman to present. Draper, who cut his teeth for many years in the lucrative ad world, pinnacled his career with creating Coca Cola’s famous 1971 hippie-worldview campaign. It is said Draper had some pull with certain female administrators at the University, thus his nomination for the parting words. Yet after the festivities, the majority of professors present concurred that the ad man was the right choice.
My fellow students, you might be asking yourselves why I say “fellow students.” The reason is because even though you’re done with school, or perhaps taking a break til’ grad school, you never stop being a student of life. You never stop learning lessons from that enigmatic subject, believe me.
Many of you may think you have it all figured out. I’m gonna get a good job, marry my sweetheart, get a dog, buy a new car, have some kids, retire in the Hamptons. [Audience laughing…] And that may be, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you gotta keep the door open for surprises.
I had it all, then I lost it all. I’d been on top, then hit rock bottom. I had the high-paying job, respect, family, freedom—but even as you’ve reached the popular definition of success, you can be blind to it. I was blind—blinded by the need for more. Once you have everything, what more do you need right? Ah, therein lies the problem. The human heart always yearns for more. More of what? That was a question I had a hard time figuring out.
I didn’t have a family growing up. I didn’t have any money to my name. I had nobody. When I got older I went to war and I killed people. When I came back, I was even lonelier. I was smart though. Got into the right business. Met the right people. Formed a new life. But even with all these things going right, my soul was troubled.
I had trained myself that I could not be loved… I had a wife, kids, friends, a fortune, and yet I let myself feel alone, as if it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I needed to prove myself to some indefinable, unknown audience. An audience that filled a million stadiums. No matter how many people were close to me, I kept chasing that sign of approval, and when you’re too focused on signs you miss what’s going on right in front of you.
The world isn’t your oyster, it’s your pearl—if you chose to see it that way. You have to appreciate what’s lying there in front of you… because before you know it, it’ll be gone. A snap of the fingers, a gust of wind, and all you’ve ever wanted will vanish before you realize it was sitting next to you on a brand new sofa, in a brand new home, with a brand new life.
Achievements have merit, don’t get me wrong. Accept them, embrace them, be proud. Never stop striving to better yourself, but don’t stretch yourself so thin that the hunger has made you lose appreciation for what makes life worth living—joy, happiness, love… love for the people you cherish. If you forget these beauties, you’re just a dog chasing your own tail.
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