Dr. Mehmet Oz’s 2012 Commencement Speech at Wharton

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the two-time Emmy® Award-winning host of the The Dr. Oz Show, is something of a surprise business school commencement speaker. But he came to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School this year to deliver the keynote address.

A professor of surgery at Columbia University and a best-selling author, Dr. Oz was introduced by Wharton Dean Thomas S. Robertson, who noted to the more than 900 MBA recipients and hundreds of their family members, “Optimism is an undervalued commodity. Indeed it is the fuel of human progress.”

Dr. Oz greeted the audience by saying, “Graduation is a time to reflect on the meaning of success and what will make you happy.” He then highlighted his “Top Ten Tips for Success and Happiness.”

They are as follows:

10. Every day feel productive and challenged in a way tailor made for your unique desires and strengths.

9. Generate an expertise in an area other than the profession in which you earn your living.

8. Develop a system for living your life, meeting challenges and evaluating opportunities.

7. Find a mentor, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and copy their positive attributes.

6. Whatever you choose, do it fully with a passion and child-like enthusiasm.

5. No one is a jerk on purpose. Let people surprise you.

4. Recognize relationships need to keep growing and partners should positively influence each other.

3. Never forget that the body is the temple of the soul.

2. Live in the present. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.

1. Make the driving force in your life love, even more than wisdom. Humans die, not of darkness, but of cold.

DON’T MISS: SHERYL SANDBERG’S INSPIRING 2012 CLASS DAY SPEECH AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL or LINKEDIN FOUNDER REID HOFFMAN’S 2012 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH AT BABSON COLLEGE