Commencement speech

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This commencement address entitled Keepers of the Light was given on April 23rd, 2026 by Ulysses Suarez of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Dear graduates, honored faculty, and esteemed guests.

My wife and I feel profoundly honored and deeply grateful to stand with you on this sacred and celebratory day.

Maybe not you, but other [laughs] people listening might be like, "Oh, true self, like that sounds like a little woo, woo.

Like, what good is that gonna do if I have, like, real revenue goals to attain?" So, um, are you familiar with the 20- 2005 Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford?

No.

He had this iconic commencement speech when he was ...

He was ill at the time, and wild enough, my dad had the foresight, 'cause I grew up in Palo Alto too, where Stanford is, to take us all to see this commencement speech when I was a kid.

And he stood up there and said two famous things.

He said, one, you know, "You can only connect the dots looking backwards," and that the best part of his ability to lead at Apple and create incredible products and to create even the iPhone and the, and, um, the iPod was his ability to trust his intuition.

I hadn't thought of it in that way that maybe it reduces some of the quote-unquote standouts or pedestals that can get sometimes shown up in other spots.

And Um, as we kind of bring it to a close, I have one last question that I'd love to ask you, cause this was actually a clip or something I come across where it was, I think the first thing I was, I kind of did a dive into your story and your coaching, but you, uh, you gave a commencement address at your former high school.

And, uh, um, I don't want to ask you to retell the whole commencement address by any means, but you, you shared this really cool metaphor, um, around, um, the doorstop and, and just, uh, I would love for you to maybe kind of give a version of, of a cliff notes version of, of really why that message was so important.

But then I think it actually is a fitting ending to what you just described of like, there's an aspect of it about being open to things.

And so, well, I'll ask that.

And then I maybe I'll say, we'll see if I ask a part.

Well, I was really

honored to be asked to speak at my high school and give the commencement address.