UCLA Commencement, Keynote Address, June 14, 2002, Dov Seidman

Universal values like thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not kill thyself, are blown up every day, calling into question the very foundation of what makes us civilized let alone human.

Our most respected institutions are themselves shaking with scandal at their foundations. The Catholic Church is grappling with its own sins. Arthur Andersen is undergoing a painful audit of its own integrity. Enron is now the largest corporate bankruptcy in history.

And all around us, individuals are losing their footing.

The head coach at Notre Dame resigns over a 25 year-old lie on his resume. A Pulitzer Prize winning professor is suspended for lying about serving in Vietnam. The president of the U.S. Olympic Committee resigns over a PhD she never earned. An investment banker publicly touts a stock while internally calling it a “dog” and costs his firm one hundred million dollars in fines.

All of these failures are failures of ethics. Failures, large and small, by people and institutions to simply do the right thing.

You might be asking “what does all this have to do with me?” I'm not a future hijacker or embezzler. And it's too late to plagiarize - I'm graduating.

It would be easy to draw a distance between us and them. To assume that we're better and smarter than that.

But what is remarkable is how much in common we have with them. How educated they are. The CEO of Enron has a PhD. He danced at the White House and slept in the Lincoln bedroom. Until they fell we considered them paragons of success.

And they probably believed that they were acting rationally and practically. The system out there seemed to reward their math…until it all came tumbling down.

In their comeuppance and in the pain it has caused others, you can see that the ethical equation out there is changing. Ethics matter more than ever. Even the 11th commandment -- thou shall not get caught -- no longer applies. Everyone gets caught, it's just a matter of how soon.

But why? As I see it, one of the main reasons is technology. It's making life and work more transparent than ever. With email and cell phones, everyone is just a send button away from telling the whole world what you just did. A young American banker in Korea emailed his friends about his sexual exploits. Quickly, the email crossed the globe, ended up in the press and his boss's in-box. He lost his job. And his reputation with it.

Reputations now vanish overnight. And the evidence of a mistake never goes away. It's always on some Web page or database somewhere, following you around, making second chances rare.

What I'm saying is that in this world where nothing stays hidden, the only rational choice is to make sure you have nothing to hide.

Now what if I told you that there was an added bonus?

Virtue is now more than its own reward. Doing the right thing actually pays. Study after study has proven that ethical companies keep their employees longer, their customers buy more, and their revenues increase.

But forget about studies. I'm sure you don't want to hear the word “study” ever again. I'm out there ….where you will be joining me soon. I could give you countless examples. Every day in my business I see companies investing in creating a “do it right culture”, promoting employees who do the right thing, and firing employees who don't.

So no matter what you choose to do, it's now more efficient to do what's right. Because they know you are honorable, people will give you incredible freedom to pursue your success. They will share opportunity and credit with you. Your reputation will precede you wherever you go, and you'll get ahead faster.

So what does it really mean to do the right thing in a world that's as slick as that stuff in Steve Lavin's hair?

It doesn't necessarily just mean focusing on the Super Hero stuff - you know, fighting for truth, justice and the American way. It means starting with the little things in life. Writing a resume that reflects who you are -- not who you think they want you to be. Not cutting someone out of a parking space just because you can. It's telling the waitress when she has undercharged you. It's calling your parents and not just when you need money.

But it might also mean doing what's hard, even if it means turning down that job that you desperately need. Now, wait a minute parents…I know you don't want them to move back in with you.

And I understand that for some of you graduates just finding work feels like a matter of survival. But, how long will you survive and how much precious time will you waste in the wrong job or at a company that does not focus enough on doing the right thing?

So what will you use throughout your lives to make decisions, both easy and hard, to deal with people, both trustworthy and not, and to chose careers, both practical and noble?

I would suggest to you that you'll use your ethical compass, or I guess we should call it GPS - or Global Positioning System.

That GPS was formed at home, on the playgrounds and in the streets of your lives. But, like mine, it was sharpened and tested right here at UCLA. You calibrated it when you decided not to cheat on exams. And when you ended a relationship compassionately. You honed it in Bunch, Royce, Life Sciences, Powell, Dodd, and all the other great buildings where you gained insight into the human condition, learned about extending sympathies to others, celebrated differences based on culture, class, race, and gender, and explored the fundamental forces of nature that shape us all.

Your legendary struggles with Murphy Hall taught you about “give and take” and dealing with powerful forces.

And don't forget what you learned in the North Campus Cafeteria about friendship, romance, love, humor, indigestion and the benefits of a good tan.

UCLA has given both you and me not just the gift of a great education but the gift of a strong ethical GPS.

But is this gift enough? As we have seen, it doesn't guarantee that you'll do the right thing.

That will depend on keeping your GPS turned on beyond this campus, even when it's not convenient.

Here, derive inspiration right from the floor of Pauley Pavilion. The winning baskets that put up all eleven of those NCAA championship banners were born not in a single play but in the hours of practice in the days, weeks, and months before.

What makes the great athletes truly great isn't just their natural talent, but the discipline and practice that enabled them to make the play when it counted.

They have validated Aristotle's teaching that excellence is not a single act but a habit.

I urge you to make doing the right thing not a single act but your life's habit. To become great ethical athletes.

So when you leave this physical space, take the metaphysical with you.

Strengthen the foundations of our lives by joining the quiet revolution of right over wrong.

Start when no one is looking.

Then topple the belief that success is measured solely by money - and create a new definition based wholly on character. Overthrow a world based on fear, and replace it with one based on trust. Bring down a system based on expediency and build one up based on principle.

And on this solid foundation, your dreams will come true. Your research will cure the blight of cancer, your screenplays will touch people's hearts, your software will bridge the digital divide, and your arguments will serve justice in the Supreme Court. And some of you will do things that we have yet to imagine.

Do the right thing. That's the most practical and principled advice I can give you.

Congratulations class of 2002.

Good luck and have fun tonight.