WGU Graduate Speaker, Gregg Moretti

<p>WGU Gradaute Gregg Moretti spoke at the WGU Master's Commencement ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada.</p> <p>Gregg Moretti earned his Master of Science, Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degree.</p> <p>Transcription of video: </p> <p>Gregg Moretti: Early in my tech career, I worked for Apple Computers, and although I never got to meet Steve Jobs, I did get to be in the same room with him once. In the department I was in, several of the software engineers were going to demonstrate a new product, and Jobs came into the presentation with his little entourage, came in, sat down, never said a word. The software developers proceeded to give their presentation. When it was over, Jobs got up, started walking out of the room, stopped, turned around and said, “That’s the cheesiest thing I've ever seen,” and walked out of the room.</p> <p>It was pretty much stunned silence in the room. But a few days later, I ran into one of the software developers, and I asked him. I said, “Geez. You – what are you going to do?” And he had a brilliant and incredible answer. He just said, “Start over.” And I was like, wow. What an amazing answer. There was no animosity. There was no ill will. He just simply stated, “Start over.” And that was something that I have kept with me for almost 20 years. </p> <p>I’m now the chief information officer for an electrical cooperative, and I provide cybersecurity services for our portion of the U.S. electrical grid. However, getting here hasn’t been easy. It wasn’t near as difficult as Blanca, but it wasn’t easy. I started and quit college multiple times to get here. Then a college of mine started at WGU, and I started into the programs, and I decided it was time to start over.</p> <p>I can remember. I was sitting in the San Diego Airport when I got the text from Task Stream. And let’s face it. At one point or another, we are all in an unhealthy online relationship with Task Stream. [Laughter] [Cheering and applause] [Chuckles] And – but I can remember sitting there, and I got the text, and it said, “Congratulations. You have successfully completed the capstone for bachelor’s degree. [Cheering] At, [Chuckles] at that moment, there was something changed. Something was different. There was this tremendous emotional and psychological lift that happened. And from there, I never even slowed down. I went straight on to get my master’s degree, and here I am, speaking to you. </p> <p>And as a matter of fact, I applied to speak at my bachelor’s commencement in Salt Lake City, but I wasn’t chosen. So I finished my master’s degree, I started over on my speech, and I succeeded. [Cheering and applause]</p> <p>Now as humans, we are designed to learn. We are built to learn, but we’re going to fail. The difference is successful people fail, get up, and start over. [Cheering and applause] One, [Chuckles] one of my favorite sayings is a mashed-up version of something Einstein supposedly said. He said something along the lines of, “Education is not about the learning of facts. It’s about teaching the mind to think.” And also, the history or the author of this is dubious at best. It’s extremely accurate. </p> <p>Learning to think is like any other skill: riding a mountain bike, doing yoga, using money. And I think I like that statement so well because it fit me. I needed to train my mind to think. I needed to evolve past biased thinking. Think about how much better the world would be if we could all objectively – and that’s the key word here – if we could all objectively analyze and evaluate a given statement, event, or idea, and not allow our own emotions or worse - the emotions of other people - to influence our thinking.</p> <p>Critical thinking is crucial in our world for success, and critical thinking is a skill that has to be learned as well. If a person is to climb out of the quagmire of mediocrity, rise above the noise of screaming emotions, personal agendas, and biased thinking, higher education and advanced learning is an excellent place to start or start over. </p> <p>Through our accomplishments we have made, we have begun our journey above the – rising above the emotional masses of the discontent. Now let us move forward using common sense and critical thinking in an attempt to make life better based on fact, reasoning, and higher cognitive skills. Never be afraid to fail, and never be afraid to start over. Congratulations. [Cheering and applause]</p>