that is great.pay more attention to your self-worth than your net worth. make a difference in the lives of others. participate, don't spectate. have the feelings of victory and defeat, it will make you a all means,rson.by keep colgate close to you. as for that number 13, we will be celebrating the schools opening later this year. the one conventional wisdom said was not visible.-- not feasible. the one the experts said would never be built. when, you ask? september 13, because nine plus one plus three equals 13.guess what? friday the 13th happens to fall in september this year, we will be opening that school on friday, said number 13, 2013. you know what i would say? why not? [applause]

>> she makes the first speech by sitting first lady, becomes the first president of the daughters of the american revolution, designs her own time and-- china and establishes the white house china collection and is the first to have a christmas tree in the white house. meet caroline harrison, wife of the 23rd president, benjamin harrison, as we continue our series on first ladies with your questions and comments. monday night, live at 9:00 eastern on c-span, c-span3, c- span radio and c-span.org. >> we are showing some of this year's commencement speeches by business leaders from around the country. next, arianna huffington at the thenege-- smith college.

wesley bush at johns hopkins university. after that, former president bill clinton speaking at howard university. arianna huffington was the commencement speaker at graduation ceremonies this year at smith college in massachusetts. she is the head of the "huffington post" an online news site and blog founded in 2005. this is about 25 minutes. >> arianna huffington. [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you so much. numbers of the faculty, devoted fans and friends, and especially the fabulous class of 2013.

[applause] congratulations, you have reached the light at the end of the tunnel. when you first arrived four years ago, i am sure you never imagined that at the end of that, we there would be a lady behind a podium talking to you in a funny accent. [laughter] this accent has been the bane of my existence until, in 1980, i moved to new york from england and i met henry kissinger. he said to me and don't ever worry about your accent. in american public life, you can never underestimate the advantages of complete and total incomprehensibility. [laughter] [applause] i am so grateful to be with you at this very special moment. you don't know it, but i have

spent the last few weeks stalking you. [laughter] on your smith website, your twitter feed, facebook, instagram, tumblr, so i can get to know you better. here is what i have found. you are fascinating and curious and quirky and asking the big questions, and worrying about the little things. and solving the cosmic riddles and agonizing about what shoes to wear at commencement. [laughter] what happens if you become a i have learnedion. about writing on their pcs -- theses on things that i can't even pronounce. stephanie, i want you to hear

her thesis pronounced in a greek accent. on entropy and contributions to the chelate effect. i have learned about the three seniors who are part of the basketball team, which made the division iii ncaa tournament. [applause] a historic accomplishment to add to your already -- lots of them -- fun for them. a historic accomplishment to add .o your historic standing i learned about the many who are first in their family to graduate from college. like marciel del la santos, who began

her journey in the dominican republic. before i go any further, because i have been so impressed, i feel compelled to extend to all of you graduating class of 2013, a lifelong invitation to blog in the huffington post. [applause] about your graduation, and about all of your adventures on the next stage of the journey you are starting today. in order to bypass the growing huffington post bureaucracy, i am going to give you right now my e-mail address. arianna@huffingtonpost.com. you can send it directly to me and get the password for life. [applause] getting to know you has made me feel very protective of you. especially because i have two daughters who are about your age, college-age kids. it has also made me realize that you don't need protection

because you are ready to take on the world. and you have attended the center for work and life. you even have a passport to life after smith. [laughter] the opportunity to learn things like job interviewing skills, how to balance a budget, cook a healthy meal and change a tire. you can consider my speech today a continuation of the passport to life after smith area and full disclosure, i cannot cook and definitely cannot change a tire. [laughter] part of life after smith will be deciding what things you want to put your energy into and what things you don't. either the big revelation for me when i realized that i did not have to complete everything i thought i wanted to do, like learning german or becoming a good skier or learning to cook.

i realized that you can complete the project by dropping it. [laughter] [applause] commencement speakers are traditionally expected to tell graduates how to get out there and climb the ladder of success. i want to ask you instead, to redefine success. the world you are headed into desperately needs it. and because you are up to it. your education at smith has made it unequivocally clear that you're entitled to take your place in the world on equal footing. what i urge you to do, not just take your place at the top of the world, but to change the world. [applause] what i urge you to do is to lead in the third women's revolution.

[cheers] the first was led by the suffragettes over 100 years ago, when brave women like susan b anthony and elizabeth cady stanton fought to give women the right to vote, among other things. the second women's revolution was led by smith alumni and the -- and gloria steinem. gloria continues to fight to expand the role of women in our society. to give us full access to the rooms of power where decisions are being made. why the second revolution is still in progress, we simply cannot wait any longer for the third revolution to begin. i can't imagine a place where i would be more likely to find the leaders of that revolution than

at thehere at smith. moment, our society's notion of success is largely composed of two parts. money and power. success, money, and power is practically become synonymous. but it is time for a third metric beyond money and power. one founded on well-being, wisdom, our ability to wonder and get back.-- and to give back. money and power by themselves are like a two legged stool. you cannot balance on them, eventually you will topple over. more and more people are toppling over every day. basically, success, the way we have defined it, is no longer sustainable. it is not sustainable for human

beings, it is not sustainable [cheers]planet. to live the lives we want and not just the lives we settle for, the lives according to society's definition of success, we need to include the third metric. in 2004, a president give a speech that was ahead of its time. it was titled, inside the clockwork of women's careers. to me, it is very much a third women's revolution called to-- call to arms. she spoke of the need to dispel myths about ambition and success, chief among them the myth that success and ambition look like a straight line. i guess it is no big surprise that the image of success created by men would be an long phallic shape, straight line. [laughter]

[applause] if we don't redefine success, the personal price we pay will get higher. as the data shows, the price is much higher for women than men. among career women, who have stressful jobs and which career woman doesn't, have to there is a nearly 40% increased risk of heart disease and a 60% increased risk of diabetes. in the last 30 years, as women have made strides and gained in the workplace, levels of stress -- gone upup to 18%. by 18%. another smith graduation speaker, alyssa cook, notoriously told the class of 1954 that their way to the top would be determined by the men they married.well --

i want to do her one better and tell you, don't get to the top by marrying someone. a much simpler way is to sleep your way to the top. [laughter] right now, i imagine the president is thinking she should have edited me. [laughter] but i am talking about sleep in the literal sense. [laughter] right now, the workplace is absolutely fueled by sleep deprivation and burnout. i actually know of what i speak. in 2007, sleep deprived and exhausted, i fainted, hit my head on my desk, broke my

cheekbone and got four stitches on my right eye. that is the beginning of my reacquainting myself with sleep and a need to redefine success. to include our own sense of well-being. even if sleep deprivation is not affecting your health, it is affecting your creativity, your productivity and your decision- making. did you know that the exxon valdez wreck, the explosion of the challenger space shuttle and the nuclear accidents of chernobyl and three mile island were all partially the result of decisions made on too little sleep? according to research at walter reed hospital, the only thing that gets better with sleep deprivation is magical thinking and reliance on superstition. [laughter] for those of you majoring in fortune-telling, go ahead and burn the midnight oil. the rest of you, not so much. [laughter]

as you can tell by now, i am a major sleep evangelist. at the huffington post a number newsroom, we have two map rooms. [cheers]ooms. at first, hundreds of editors and reporters and engineers were very reluctant to be seen in the middle of the afternoon having a nap. but now, the two nap rooms are continuously booked and we need to offer a third. i must say, the other day i was walking by one of the nap rooms and i saw two people coming out of the nap room. i thought to myself, whatever it takes to recharge yourself. [laughter] just please don't tell hr.ok? adding well-being

to our definition of success means is that in addition to looking after our financial capital, we need to look after our human capital. my mother was an expert at that. i remember when i was 12 years old, a successful greek businessman came to dinner at our home in athens. he told us how well everything was going in his life. my mother looked at him, looking burned out, exhausted, drained, and said to him, i don't care how well your business is doing, you are not taking care of you. your business might have a great bottom line, but you are your most important capital.there are you can makedraws from your health bank account. but you just keep on withdrawing. you could go bankrupt if you don't make some deposits. not long after that, the man had to be admitted for an angioplasty. when we include well-being in our definition of success, the

-- another thing that changes is our relationship with time. right now, we are all so stressed out about time that every time you look at our watch, it is later than we think. researchers have a term for it, time famine. dr. seuss wrote about it ahead of the researchers, of course. how did it get so late so soon? it is night before this afternoon. december is here before it is my goodness, how the time has flown. how did it get so late so soon? does that feel similar to any one or more likely to everyone? as long as success is defined by money and power, climbing and burnout, we will never have the time to be able to enjoy that other aspect of the third metric, wonder. i was blessed with a mother who was living in a constant state of wonder, whether she was washing the dishes or feeding

seagulls at the beach or reprimanding overworking businessman. she maintain her sense of wonder. delighted at the mysteries of the universe in the everyday little things. whenever i complain or be upset about something, she would say, darlin', change the channel. you are in control of the don't replay that bad, scary movie. one of the gifts of that attitude to life that gave her was the ability to cut through hierarchy. i remember one night i was living in london and dating a tory member of parliament, it must've been one of those decisions made on sleep deprivation -- [laughter] he got home to dinner at the then prime minister ted heath. my mother was in the kitchen, where she was most of the time, and a plumber had to come in and fix some last-minute problem. my mother asked the plumber what

he thought of the prime minister. not much, the plumber said. he has not been good for working people. oh, let me go bring him in so you can tell him directly. and she did not think there was any problem at all about bringing the prime minister into the kitchen and it is where he sat down and heard a mouthful from the plumber. [laughter] well-being, wonder, and the third w is wisdom. if you look around you, you see leaders in positions of power in politics, in media, and business, all with high iqs, great degrees, making terrible decisions. what is missing is not iq, but wisdom. today, it is getting harder and harder to tap into our own wisdom. we are also hyper connected to our devices, our screens, our social media, we are having a

hard time disconnecting from the technology and reconnecting with you're very old and wise smith sophomore mcdonnell wrote about her decision to disconnect from all her social media. she will have real social connections in favor of or both superficial technology once will -- superficial, abridged once. if you don't have the head of a digital company to tell to completely disconnect from technology. what i am telling you is to --gularly disconnect from tech technology, regularly unplug and recharge to reconnect with ourselves and our own deepest wisdom.[cheers] i am convinced there are

fundamental truths about human beings. the first is that we all have within us a centered place of wisdom, harmony, and strength. this is a truth that all the worlds religions, christianity islam, judaism, buddhism, hold true in one form or another. the kingdom of god is within. the second truth is that we are all going to spend most of our life not in that place. we keep veering away from that place again and again. in fact, we may spend our lives off course more than on course. at the huffington post we launched an app called gps for the soul. it gives you a personalized guide that helps to course correct. that snake in the garden of eden, hyper connectivity with

technology is so widely that we evenly that is has to be more wily and use technology in order to disconnect from technology. [laughter] when we are in place of wisdom, harmony, and strength, life is transformed from struggle to grace. we are suddenly filled with trust, no matter how many setbacks, challenges, and disappointments we are facing. there is a purpose to life that is often hidden and that often makes sense only when we look back in our life, not as we are experiencing it. basically, when we moved to that place of trust and race, we can -- grace, we can live our life as if anything is rigged in our favor.we talked about well-being, wisdom, wonder and the last element, empathy,

compassion, the willingness to give back. the founding fathers wrote about the pursuit of happiness. if you go back to the original document, as i'm sure you all have done, happiness does not mean the pursuit of more ways to be entertained. it is the happiness that comes from feeling good by doing good. many of you already know that. [applause] smithies have given back in countless ways, near and far, working with chinese schools through the smith china project, spending time in the community with people with disabilities. tutoring children in holyoke and using digital storytelling to start conversations about health issues in springfield. as you leave this beautiful campus to follow your dreams and

scale great heights in whatever field you choose, i beg you, don't buy society's definition of success. it is not working for anyone. it is not working for women, it is not working for men, and is -- it is not working for polar bears. it is not even working for the cicadas that are about to emerge and swarm us. it is only working for those who make pharmaceuticals for stress, sleeplessness and high blood pressure. [laughter] [applause] please don't settle for just breaking through glass ceilings. in a broken corporate system or broken political system, where so many leaders are so disconnected from their wisdom that we are careening from one

self-inflicted crisis to another. than a w at the top of a corporate flowchart. go to the root of what is wrong and redefine what we value and what we consider success. there will be many signposts along the path directing you to make money and climb up the ladder. there will be very few signposts reminding you to stay connected to the essence of who you are. to reach out and to pause and to wonder and to connect with the place from which everything is compatriot greek archimedes said, give me a place and i can move the world. find me a place to stand. your place of wisdom of speed and strength.from tpl