Congratulations!

And it doesn’t matter if you’re the first choice as long as you get chosen.

What do they call the medical (or in my case, doctoral) program graduate with the lowest GPA?

Doctor.

We all know Ringo wasn’t the first Beatles drummer. Does it matter that Hugh Jackman was not the first choice to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies? Or that Bryan Cranston was not the first choice to play Walter White in Breaking Bad? Bruce Willis was far from the first choice to play John McClane in Die Hard.

It’s always possible that what COULD have been WOULD have been better than what WAS, but it’s awfully hard to imagine.

How much of that is due to effort and persistence and surprise talents of those third or fourth (or in GOAT quarterback Tom Brady’s case, 199th) choices, those small fish in big ponds, those finishers gasping and lunging across the finish line?

All you need is the opportunity. Once you have the opportunity, make the most of what you do with it, to be the best solution to somebody’s problem.

Think about your opportunity, not about why or whether you were the second or third or fourth choice.

What do you think? (Or do you have any examples that are less than 15 years old?)

See you tomorrow!