1.
Binghamton University
Commencement Address
Fall 2013
David Berkowitz
dberkowitz@gmail.com
@dberkowitz

2.
Dedicated to
Jack Weinstein
1926-2001
“A bit of sun, a bit of rain,
a peaceful place to lay your head …
so long as you’re healthy, you can be happy.”
- translated from “Abi Gezunt” – “So Long as You’re Healthy”
a Yiddish song, penned by Molly Picon,
which Jack loved singing, and teaching his students

3.
In December 2013, I was invited back to my alma mater, Binghamton University, to deliver
the keynote address at their fall Commencement ceremony.
Here’s the text of the speech, as it was delivered.
Note: the version on SlideShare includes an embedded video of the full speech after this,
with the full text following. You can also watch the video on YouTube directly.

4.
Thank you, President Stenger,
graduates, your family and friends,
faculty and staff, alumni,
community members,
distinguished guests – and the
bagpipers (weren’t they amazing?)
– for welcoming me here.
How’s it going?
How are you? Comment ca va?
Que pasa? Que tal? Kif halken? Ni
hao ma? Tsup?

5.
Normally, people say these words and don’t really care about the response. It’s just a polite
greeting. People aren’t usually looking to give or receive an answer.
If you do have an answer though, it’s a great way to catch people off guard.

6.
I learned another way to ask “How are
you?” when I was at Binghamton. I’ll
never forget it. I had a professor here, Jack
Weinstein, of blessed memory. He taught
Yiddish here – yes, Yiddish, and most
people who took it once kept coming back
for more not really to be proficient in the
language, but to spend more time learning
from Jack. He was pretty good at teaching
linguistics. He was amazing at teaching
life.

7.
One of the first lessons Jack taught was, fittingly, how to say, “How are you?” In Yiddish,
it’s only two words – “Vos Makhstu?” And people in Yiddish often throw it out there like
they’re saying, “How are you?” – a casual question that tends to yield a similarly casual
response – “I’m good,” “I’m fine.” But what Professor Weinstein taught me that I’ll never
forget is the real meaning of “Vos Makhstu?” The literal translation is far more profound.
Instead of just asking, “How are you,” you’re asking, “What are you making of yourself?”

8.
Imagine that. You’re at an alumni reunion a year from now. You run into an old friend you
used to do a scorpion bowl with at the Ratt but haven’t seen since, unless you count a few
Facebook exchanges. And your friend comes up to you and says, “Hey, how have you been?
What are you making of yourself?”
Whoa.
How do you answer that one?

9.
What are you
making
of yourself?

10.
Do you have an answer for that?
Could you come up with one?
Are you remotely prepared to answer the
question?

11.
Today, I hope you are. Congratulations, by the
way. Today, the thousands of us gathered here
should all be convinced that you graduates
here are in the process of making something of
yourself. As this ceremony ends, you will have
done so. This is a truly wondrous, momentous
achievement. You’ve earned a degree, one that
most of you have probably worked hard to
earn (let’s admit it – at least a few of you
mailed it in… and now is probably not a good
time to look over at that friend of yours in that
camp if you want to stay friends after you
leave here). This will almost definitely add
some positive momentum to the rest of your
lives. I’m thrilled to soon count all of you as
comrades in the Binghamton University
Alumni Network.

12.
But what happens next?
Sorry to bring this up. It might be a touchy subject. Whatever you do and wherever you’re off
to, you can always say you’ve made something of yourself by earning this degree you’ve
received today. That’s great, if you were asked, “What have you made of yourself?” But then,
each day that’s ahead, with every tomorrow, how will you answer, “What are you making of
yourself?”

13.
Even thinking about this myself, it’s
incredibly daunting. Yes, it’s been a pretty
good run for me. I wasn’t invited back to
speak here because the administration felt
sorry for me and wanted to give me some
kind of consolation prize. I clearly wasn’t
invited back here because I’ve given the
most money to the school (sorry!); the Bartle
Library will not be renamed the Berkowitz
Library anytime soon, which is just as well,
since I didn’t spend very much time there.
I’m assuming someone at Binghamton
thought, “Here’s an alumnus who’s making
something of himself, and he probably won’t
embarrass us too much.”

14.
Presumably, that person hadn’t looked too closely into some of the satirical stunts I pulled
during my tenure on campus, and some other light infractions were kindly brushed aside. Heck,
my first semester, I was taken down to the campus police station in the back of a squad car for
trying to bring my own car to campus freshman year before I had enough credits. Perhaps they
will vet the speakers a little more closely next year. Thanks again for having me, President
Stenger!

15.
Since my time as a student here, I have tried to make
something of myself, and then remake it. Unsure of
what I’d do when I’d graduate, during my senior year
I received advice at Binghamton’s Metro Career Fair
run by the Alumni Association and Career
Development Center that forever changed my life. An
alum recognized that by ditching Pipe Dream my
senior year and trying my hand starting an online
publication for the university, I inadvertently gave
myself job skills – something I tried as hard as
possible not to do in my four years as an English and
then a Psych major. I am someone who thought it
was a good idea to take Yiddish, after all. Six courses
of Yiddish, not one in economics. My parents
probably spent years wondering what it was they
were paying for, though I did move out of their place
pretty quickly after college.

16.
I’ve tried to make my way through what was then
known as new media and the new economy. First it
was technical writing at a dot-com startup, which let
me go five months later and then imploded (that was
also the time I really learned the meaning of the word
“schadenfreude”). Then there was the research firm
which I joined as an editor, and then I got the chance
to make up a public relations role, with no training.
This was followed by a couple of director of
marketing roles in the interactive media field. Then I
took a role so focused on making stuff up that
“emerging media” was in my job title, and I lasted
seven years doing it. Ultimately, this summer, I
joined the agency MRY as its first Chief Marketing
Officer. Each time around, it presented new
opportunities to make something of myself, as well as
of the organization I was working for.

17.
That’s one thing Binghamton prepared me for in a
big way. This is a phenomenal university, but it’s one
where you have no choice but to make something of
yourself. Binghamton – I think we can accept this –
is not New York City. It’s not a place where there are
a million things to do, or institutions with hundreds
of years of tradition to fall back on, or, despite its
move to Division I, a history of athletic dominance
that attracts thousands of alumni back for
homecoming. Binghamton is a school that, even at
the age of 67, is still a work in progress. Its identity is
still being shaped, especially as its brand spreads
further nationally and internationally. That makes it a
ripe institution for entrepreneurs, and the
entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a school where there’s less
of an opportunity to take part in traditions than create
traditions.

18.
It is a 67-year-old startup. That’s to its credit. To be around that long and still create an
atmosphere where anything is possible is practically a singular feat. Look around and see how
many 67-year-olds, whether people or corporations or organizations, that are open to
reinventing themselves, and open to everyone connected with them taking part in their
reinvention. That, in modern parlance, is the definition of crowdsourcing. If you have taken a
proactive role here in shaping your identity at this university and shaping the university’s
identity in the process, you can consider yourself with having unparalleled preparation for
what’s ahead.

19.
The world is now entering a new phase of
entrepreneurialism. It’s called the Maker
Movement. This is an era where it’s possible for
anyone to come up with, design, prototype,
create, fund, and market new products and
services. It’s an era where anyone can turn the
iPhone in their pocket into Edison’s Menlo Park
lab or Hewlett and Packard’s Palo Alto garage.
This era is epitomized by 3D printing, where
someone can download a design for practically
any kind of object in the world and print out a
unique, personalized version of it, or a million
personalized versions, whether from their home
printer or through an industrial printing factory.

20.
It’s an era of disruption. If you think of the industries
disrupted by companies such as Google, Expedia, Amazon,
AirBNB, Uber, and others, just wait for what’s ahead.
Consider just one example. Or as Sophia from Golden Girls
would say, picture this. A former colleague of mine who’s a
3D printing hobbyist needed shower curtain rings one night.
I’m not sure what he was doing where, in the middle of the
night, he realized he needed shower curtain rings, but listen
to what he did. He went on a website called Thingiverse –
fun name, right? – and found a design for the shower curtain
rings that he liked. He saved the file for free. Then he sent
the file to the 3D printer sitting on his desk – a Makerbot, if
you’re familiar with it. In an hour or so – these early versions
take awhile – he printed the dozen plastic shower curtain
rings that he needed. That was it. The plastic that he used to
print it came from Makerbot, and maybe cost a dollar – and
the price will drop rapidly.

21.
Think of all the businesses
disintermediated here. Goodbye
designer at the bathroom supply
company. Goodbye factory in
China manufacturing them.
Goodbye DHL shipping them to
the States. Goodbye Bed, Bath &
Beyond. Goodbye the need for the
gas in the car and the faster need
for the car’s oil change, and the toll
paid on the highway, and the pit
stop at McDonald’s, and
everything else that would have
been affected by his need for
shower curtain rings in the past.

22.
And this is all just the beginning.
Today, it’s quickly becoming just as
easy to print out a new human organ
that could save someone’s life as it is
an unregistered gun that could take
someone’s life. If Bed, Bath & Beyond
were to be threatened by this new
movement, would there be viable
businesses taking its place? What’s to
prevent you from taking a pocket-sized
3D object scanner into a store,
scanning a product you like, and then
uploading it for anyone to access for
free? As many lawyers as there are
who have graduated from this
university, the world’s actually going
to need even more of them to sort all
this out.

23.
Beyond lawyers though,
innovators are needed. The Maker
Movement needs makers. The
world is now in demand for
people who will make something
of themselves. It needs people
who know what it’s like to create
something from nothing, to look
at what there is and reinvent it, to
imagine how the world should be
and could be and will be, and to
do something about it. There have
been many good times over the
past millennia for inventors. But
there’s never been such a
propitious time for makers.

24.
You are one of them. You need to be one of them. As you graduate today, you have the talents
and qualifications needed to be a maker, whatever it is you choose to make. And it’s not all
about goods and services. Making something of yourself means molding your character and
living your life in a way that you feel does justice and even honor to your name. That’s going to
be the far bigger challenge, with the promise of a far bigger reward. For me, it has meant
making myself into the best person I can, the best brother and son and grandson and uncle, and
in recent years, the best husband. If all goes well, this February, I will aim to make myself into
the best father I can possibly be – one of life’s most profound transformations.

25.
The making of your character is a
far more meaningful undertaking
than the making of your career,
but the choices you have made and
will make as to your education and
life’s work will in turn shape how
you make yourself into who you
are. Making something is not just
going to be your opportunity, but
your obligation – and hopefully,
your calling.

26.
Congrats again on making something of
yourself. I join the thousands of others here in
being proud of you for the achievement. Get
ready for each day ahead though. You know
what’s the best way to prepare yourself? Ask
yourself each day, “What am I making of
myself?” Listen to your answer. At first it may
be a challenge. And then, as you make
something of yourself more often, and it
becomes part of your habit, you’ll start to love
it. You’ll start to live for each moment that you
ask yourself that question, because you’ll take
so much pride in how you respond.

27.
You’ll start to wish that instead of people asking
you how you’re doing or how it’s going, they’d
ask you, “What are you making of yourself?”
Because whenever they ask, you’re going to
know the answer.

28.
Thank you!
David Berkowitz
dberkowitz@gmail.com
@dberkowitz
MarketersStudio.com
about.me/dberkowitz