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Kogod School of Business
What a moment. Class of 2025—let's go. Let me hear it, come on! Let's go. You know, everybody who I work with knows that that is my favorite phrase. And I say it only when I'm really fired up. And I'm really fired up for you right here, right now. I came here to talk to you from the heart.
In my job, I have to be on 24/7. I always have to be traveling. I have to be gone in order to do a good job for everybody that invests in us, that gives us their trust, their time, everything they have. At the same time, I love my family, and I heard from one of the great speakers about support from the family. I have these four incredible kids. One of them is four—she's turning four today. Isn't that awesome? And then she's having this birthday party. And when I got the call from your awesome Dean, I said, yes, I'm coming here. This is too important. Vivi, my four-year-old. She's going to be okay. We had cake yesterday. We had a good time. Everything's going to be okay.
But this—this is too important. And I have an agenda today, overall. I am deeply, deeply honored, and I'm one of you today. Now, I am deeply honored to be able to talk to all you graduates, as you are the next generation leaders of our country and of the world. I also have so much appreciation for how hard you've worked. I know what it takes. I know what that means for so many of you since a very, very young age. You've worked extremely hard and now you have made it. You're graduating from American University and this moment. And that's why I came. It's so important. It puts you in a path of future leadership.
Today I'm going to attempt to help you on that path of future leadership. And I'm going to do so by sharing one word with you, one word that I really hope you take with you throughout your life. And that is positivity. I need all of you to be positive and stay positive.
First, I need you to be positive in your outlook of the world and on all the opportunities that are right here in front of you. I grew up in a small town in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. My dad worked really hard on his business, and my mom was an educator and school teacher. Together, they taught me the values of hard work and they showed me that there was a really, really big world out there.
And I gave it my all, step by step. Now, when I was in your shoes, graduating from business school, I thought I was already there. But you know what? Things are not looking too good for me. I couldn't get a job. So what's the deal with that? Maybe I should have had a little bit more fun. All these years of hard work and all the library nights and all the sports and everything else I did in my field of interest, private equity, I was rejected by hundreds of firms. But you know what? Throughout my entire process, I remained hopeful. And I remained hopeful until I got my chance. And it was a good one. And I took it.
Today, the economic and geopolitical challenges are so visible to all of us, and they may be affecting some of you, but these will be temporary. They will pass.
The big picture is that the world is wide open for you to do whatever it is you want to do. Stay positive. Stay with it. If your opportunity hasn't come yet, it will come. Stay positive."
Orlando Bravo
Co-Founder, Thoma Bravo
Second, stay positive about your ideas. Each and every one of you is so special and you're meant to do something very unique in the world. But you have to stay positive in order to build the conviction that is necessary for you to create things that have never been done before. When I was looking for a job, I got a chance to interview with a head of one of the largest private equity firms at the time—by the way, this is one of the many jobs I did not get, just to put it out there. And in that interview, the head of that firm told me that private equity was already a mature industry and that for people like me and my generation, there wasn't much opportunity to be a leader in it. That was 1998. Can you believe it? Of course, that was wrong. Of course, private equity wasn't taken back in 1998, but more importantly, private equity as we do it. And my firm today, Thoma Bravo Software Private Equity, did not even exist back in 1998. Once again, you will create things that have never been done before. But to do that, you have to stay positive. Do not be intimidated by what others that have come before you have done, all your predecessors have actually done, has given you a beautiful roadmap and cleaned up a really, really wide path for you to then come in and do something better, something bigger and something that fits the times. So therefore, stay positive in your ideas and third, in whatever field you choose to go in.
Always look to make a positive contribution to society. Always focus on that. Times are too important now. With your future leadership comes big responsibility. The responsibility to take that foundation that I spoke about, that important foundation that your predecessors have built have left for you and to continue to build it in a really, really careful way. And for your generation, this is critical because you will be inheriting the future development of AI. Like the Dean spoke about and the foundation that you got here, you will be inheriting that extremely, extremely important work.
An analogy for me is when I was graduating from business school, the internet was just getting started. At first there were so many bad use cases and bad applications that did not benefit society, that were built on the internet. And all of this over time corrected itself, so that now we have been interconnected. We know that this has been transformative, but we're still dealing with some issues like social media and the effect on mental health and the effect it's had on you, on your generation. In your hands, it will be something much bigger, much more complex, much more important. And once again, that's the future development of AI.
You are entering the world at a time when ethical and thoughtful leadership is extremely, extremely important. And I know that you will make the right choices, just looking around and really focusing on the graduates here. To all of you—I love what I see.
Your generation represents a more thoughtful, ethical, caring, socially conscious group. Keep those incredible values with you throughout your journey."
Orlando Bravo
Co-Founder, Thoma Bravo
Now, when you put it together, when you're positive about your outlook, you're positive about your ideas, and you're always striving to make a positive contribution to society, you will be more successful. You will be a more successful leader, and that will put you in the position to help others in very personal and meaningful ways. I had this experience years ago—actually not too long ago, in 2017. I'm having fun building Thoma Bravo, building our business. I’m very busy at work when disaster struck. Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico, devastated it. I could not reach family or friends, but I got a call, and there was a shelter near a hometown that had a two days’ supply of food and water left. Two days, I thought to myself. I'm living in San Francisco at the time. I'm really far away. I don't know anything about disaster relief. Zero. I've never done it. I've done private equity software all my life. But you see, I had put myself in a position to help. The next day we got there. We help that community that inspired us to do humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico. That inspired us to start the Bravo Family Foundation. And today, our positive attitude overall has us working really, really hard and motivates us to improve the lives of others who are much less fortunate. You will have that opportunity by being positive and having a positive demeanor in everything in your life. You will open up your heart to be able to be ready for when the world calls upon you to do something that is special, and that is for you to do.
So class of 2025, big congratulations! I am so proud of all of you. Remember, the world is wide open. The world needs you and the world welcomes you with open arms. Now go out there and lead it. I know you're ready. Thank you.