Trump’s Advice to University of Alabama Graduates was Excellent

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on May 2, 2025

Yesterday, President Donald J.Trump delivered a commencement address at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The advice he gave the graduates was excellent.

An Editorial Opinion

Yesterday, President Donald Trump gave some excellent advice to University of Alabama graduates during his commencement speech in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  After the political rhetoric is filtered out of his speech, each one of Trump’s 11 core tenets for success in life is sound, valuable, and practical. 

The substance of Trump's advice has been passed down in the Watkins family for six generations. My parents taught these 11 tenets (and 9 additional core values) to my siblings and me when we were young children growing up in Montgomery, Alabama. These tenets were reinforced in our K-12 schools and church.

My five children were taught these tenets at home, in school, and in the church when they were growing up.  My children are now teaching them to their children.

Here are Trump’s 11 core tenets in his own words:

1. "If you're here today and think that you're too young to do something great, let me tell you that you are wrong. You're not too young. You can have great success at a very young age ... In America, with drive and ambition, young people can do anything."

2. "You have to love what you do. You have to.  I rarely see somebody that's successful that doesn't love what he or she does ... If I didn't find it fun, I wouldn't be successful."

3. "The third thing is to think big. If you're going to do something, you might as well think big. I know a lot of people, they've thought small, they were very smart. I know others that weren't nearly as smart, but they had a better picture of the big picture, because it's just as hard to solve a small problem as a big problem and it's just as much energy and everything else, except the result is going to be a smaller one. So, love what you do and think big if it's possible."

4. "Work hard. Never, ever stop."

5. "Don't lose your momentum. You just want to keep it going. And you have to know, if you are losing it, you have to know when you are losing it, so maybe you stop and maybe it's time to stop. Listen to the feedback, think through your plan very carefully and keep moving fast."

6. "If you want to change the world, you have to have the courage to be an outsider. In other words, you have to take certain risks and do things a little bit differently; otherwise, if that were the case, everybody would be successful. Doesn't work that way. Progress never comes from those satisfied with the failures of a broken system; it comes from those who want to fix the broken system. If you want to go to the top, you're just never going to do it unless you break the system... You really do, you have to break the system a little bit and follow your own instincts. But if your vision is right, nothing will hold you down. Nothing. You have to have the right vision."

7. "Trust your instincts. Common sense. You can go very far in life with common sense."

8. "Everybody should believe in the American dream. It's real, it's there and it's right before you.”

9. "Think of yourself as a winner. The power of positive thinking. Don't consider yourself a victim. Consider yourself a winner. In recent years, too many of our young people have really been taught to think of themselves as victims and blame people and be angry. Don't be angry.  In America, we reject that idea that anyone is born a victim. Our heroes are the ones who take charge of their own destiny, make their own luck and determine their own fate, despite the odds."

10. "Be an original. The all-time greats were people who had the confidence to be a little different ... God only created one of you.  Remember that. You're all different, some are close, but nobody is the same. You're one of a kind so don't try to be someone else. Just be yourself."

11. "Never, ever give up. Never give up.  Don't stop. Never, ever give up. Victory is right around the corner."

For the purposes of completeness, I am adding four of the 20 core values that have been passed down in my family since the 1830s:

1. "Always stand up for the 'least of these, my brethren,' even if you have to stand alone."

   
   

2. "All people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or socio-economic station in life."

   
   

3. "Constructive criticism is the most sincere form of loyalty."

   
   

4. "Always apologize when you make an error in judgment or a mistake that hurts innocent people."