President Trump traveled to Connecticut on Wednesday to deliver remarks at the 145th Commencement ceremony of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London. Trump told graduates that success comes from relentless hard work and perseverance, sharing the quote, “the harder I work, the luckier I get.” Trump argued that luck is created through discipline, momentum, determination, and refusing to give up. <\/p>\n
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Let me leave you and your mission in life. today. Let me leave you with a few words of advice today. Let me leave you with a few words of advice to maybe help you a little with a few words of advice to. maybe help you a little bit on your way first. First, most important, never ever give up. Never give up. The best way to be successful is to start with never give up. I’ve learned a lot about life, but the one thing I really learned is that perseverance, never quitting, never giving up is a big deal. You’ll be right there, right at the gate. You’ve seen it. You’ve seen it in sports. You’ve seen it. They’re right there at the gate and they give up. Never give up. And whatever happens, no matter where you are in life, or what situation you find yourself in, the seas, or anywhere else that you may be, keep pushing forward. Always push forward. Never stop pushing forward. No matter how terrible the storm, no matter how difficult the mission, never surrender. Keep going. Keep fighting. And make the adversary quit first. Let them quit. They’re going to quit if you keep going. Second, in this pivotal time of transformation for our armed forces, you have to think big. It’s much better thinking big. Small solutions yield small results. Only big ideas will yield to tremendous change and greatness. Americans do not want to live in a world ruled by someone else’s big ideas. Live in the future and shape your future, and you want to dominate your future, and you want to dominate it for your military and for your country. Think big. During the course of your Coast Guard careers will be time, incredible change, and change is going to happen, change that we can’t even think of right now. Things will happen, and I believe for the best, hopefully for the best, but I believe for the best. But things will happen that you can’t even imagine, and it’s going to be very exciting, but the way that it’s going to happen is through thinking big. Nothing great was ever built. Think of that. Nothing great was ever built without the word momentum at your side. In times of your life, you’ll have momentum. That’s the time you go for it. I tell stories about people that lost their momentum, and they went, and it didn’t work out well. You know when you’re doing well. You know when you have that positive momentum. So take that momentum and go for it. So many people, they wait. They wait the wrong time. You know when it’s right. Go with the momentum. The towering men and women of history have always been people of action. You answered the call to serve, and now you need to make sure that most of your time is spent on very important roles in life. You’ve done a lot, and you’ve had a lot of relaxation. Frankly, you enjoy what you’re doing. There’s no such thing as work. It’s not work. What you’re doing, I would say with most of you, it’s not work. What you’ve done is a lot of work, but it’s not work. It really isn’t. It’s a great pleasure. I find myself, I work a lot. They say he’s a workaholic. I’m not a workaholic. It would be tough if I didn’t do things. If I didn’t do things, I don’t know what I’d be doing. It probably wouldn’t be good, but you’ve got to love it, and if you love it, it’s never considered work. There will always be time for taking the easy path, and there will be times when you want to do that or to settle for maybe a short-term fix. But for the best results, it will always be a product of unbelievably hard work. That’s why I always sign something. They say, oh, can you put something on it that says, work hard, to a young person, work hard. Because you have to work hard, it’s so competitive. If life is so competitive, you have to work hard. It’s never going to come easy. You have to work hard. A lot of great athletes, they say the harder I work. I remember a gallery player, a great golfer. He was somewhat smaller than other great athletes, and he said the harder I work, the luckier I get. That was the first time I heard that expression a lot, but the first time was from a great gallery player, one of the top three golfers of all time. And he said the harder I work, the luckier I get. It’s a great expression. Fourth is you go and go to life. Right here at the Coast Guard, you want to keep your eyes in the boat. You want to have your eyes in the boat. You know what that expression means better than anybody. Do not be distracted by what’s outside. You just want to look back, and you want to just see what’s happening, but keep your eyes in the boat. The Coast Guard expression is focus on the task before you, and move forward. Always, always move forward. Never move back. Remember, what actually matters in the pursuit of success is it really has to be relentless. You’ve got to be relentless, and many of you are relentless. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t because there are ten people for every seat that I’m looking at. Ten people, and I think even more than that, that wanted that seat, and you made it. So finally, you have to be strong. You have to be really strong. And I don’t mean just with muscle strength. I mean with mental strength. And you have to be brave. In your profession, you have a level of bravery that has to supersede a normal person’s bravery. But that’s why you’re here. America was not founded by weak and timid men, or women who cowered in the face of evil, or sat by in a danger loom. As President Theodore Roosevelt said, freedom is not a gift that lasts long in the hands of cowards and weak people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n