Title: ‘This World Needs Fixing. Go!’ Henry Winkler’s Graduation Speech at Georgetown

On May 17, Henry Winkler, an Emmy Award-winning actor, director and author, delivered the graduation speech for the Class of 2025 in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Winkler, known for his roles in Happy Days, Barry, Parks and Recreation and Arrested Development, spoke to the Class of 2025 about overcoming learning challenges and negative thoughts, transforming his career from The Fonz to a New York Times bestselling author, and never letting go of chasing your dream. 

Read an excerpt of his speech:

I grew up in New York City on the West Side, and I grew up dreaming about being an actor. I don’t know how it came into my mind; I don’t know how it came into my body. But if people were born to do something, I was born to try. 

I would lie in bed, and I just couldn’t fall asleep. My mother would walk in. I was brought up by very, very short Germans. And my mother would say ‘You must be asleep now!’ 

I said, ‘But I’m dreaming about being an actor!’ 

‘You’re too young to dream!’ Very supportive, short Germans.

So I went to high school, and as you heard, I took geometry for four years, same course. I took it in regular school, summer school, regular school, summer school, regular school, summer school, regular school, summer school. I finally passed it with a D-minus in August of 1963. And if I did not get that D-minus, I could not go to the one college that accepted me: Emerson College in Boston. I applied to 28. 

The overall umbrella of what I’m going to say today is that all things are possible. Because I am living proof.

So I went to Emerson, I nearly flunked out. I talked my way back in, I don’t know where I got the nerve. I went to the Yale School of Drama. Twenty-five actors were chosen. Eleven finished. Three were asked into the professional company. I was now making $173 a week. I was on my way. This was amazing.

Then I went to New York. I tried out for commercials. Everybody I went to Yale with said, ‘I don’t know how you can do commercials. It goes against our aesthetic grain. We were trained for the theater.’ Their next question to me was, ‘How do you get them?’ 

Do not be deterred. You listen to your instinct. All of you are so smart. All of you know so much. All of you have gained so much from Georgetown. But your tummy, your instinct knows everything. And when your instinct talks to you, you listen. You don’t double-think it. You don’t think, ‘Oh! I could possibly be wrong. Oh! I have a feeling. Oh! I’m leaving.’ Don’t forget what I’m saying right now. It is the truth.

OK, so I was a negative thinker. I wanted to beat the system. ‘I can’t — I won’t — I’ll never — oh, she won’t go out with me.’ So I tried to find the answer to negative thinking. I found Gurdjieff — he’s an Armenian philosopher who wrote a gigantic book. But he doesn’t want you to finish the book unless you understand him. So I didn’t. Cause I didn’t know what the hell he wasn’t talking about. And I found a disciple of his, Ouspensky, also a big book. I got one sentence.

OK, so you’re walking to your dream. Never let your dream out of your brain. And when you decide what it is you want to do, just know it without a doubt. Know it without ambivalence. So you’re walking to your dream, and you have your dream in your brain, and all of a sudden, a negative thought comes in. Your shoulders drop. Your head drops. And then that negative thought, it blooms into a thesis of negativity. A negative thought comes into your mind, you say out loud — you say out loud — ‘I am sorry, I have no time for you now.’ Yes, people will look at you very strangely. But it doesn’t matter. Because it becomes your habit. 

A negative thought comes into your mind. You move it out; you move a positive in. For me it is a Bundt cake with melt-y chocolate chips, no icing. And all of a sudden your shoulders fly back, your head flies up, and you continue to your dream, and then you get to stand here and talk to you. It is true. 

Don’t put a period on the end of a negative thought. I want to tell you that every one of you is powerful. Every one of you here — your parents, your relatives, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, your uncles — you are all powerful. 

Now some of you know it. Some of you have tasted it. Some of you don’t know that you have it in you. Some of you are frightened of your own power; it’s like sitting like a furry beast in the corner, ready to pounce. I am telling you, you don’t know what you can accomplish until you just put one foot in front of the other.

I was doing a Broadway play. I went back to LA; I couldn’t get hired. They said, ‘Oh well, you know you’re the Fonz and you were so funny and you’re a lovely guy, but you were the Fonz.’ And I went to a friend, I said, ‘I can’t get hired. I need help.’ 

He said, ‘Write books for children about your learning challenge.’ I said, ‘Well, I can’t do that because I’m learning challenged.’ And he said, ‘I’ll introduce you to Lin [his co-author].’’ 

There is not one way to do anything. There is only your way. You’re not hired to fill just time and space. You are hired to fill that time and space with your imagination, with that power that you’re going to find. You are wonderful. And everything is possible. Everything is possible. 

You know it was said in this city a while ago, the trouble with America is that it has empathy. How insane is that? Oh yes, you can live a great life, you can accumulate things, you can fill up your house and your lawn and a warehouse with things. But you cannot live a rich, full life — filled with love, the love you’re giving, the love you receive from your parents, from your relatives, your friends, even a random conversation on a line in an airport with a person you’ve never met before. There is a difference between being a human and being human. Steve Jobs. I hope you decide to be that human. 

I am counting on you. All things are possible. You have no idea what you can accomplish, no matter how in the distance it feels. It is scary to think that tomorrow, you’re gonna be out there [points]. And oh my goodness, but let me tell you something, when you get out there, all of a sudden you look around, you go, ‘Wait a minute, I can do this. There’s no mystery here. I’m prepared. I’m a good person.’

Be the most you can be. Because there are hurts to be healed, needs to be met, and if you are not the most you can be, something will remain undone forever. 

You can be the voice of the children before they ever take their first step, before they ever speak their first word. I want to tell you — I don’t know you, I met some of you, I took some selfies, I met a future reporter, but for the most part, I don’t know you — but I’m telling you from my gedeyrem, from my center, I am so proud of you. 

I am proud of how you got yourself into these chairs. And I cannot wait to see who you become. This world is yours now. And this world needs fixing. And I pray to the heavens that you are the fixers. I say to you now, go!