WASHINGTON—Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook told George Washington University graduates on Sunday to find their guiding stars.
“Graduates, your values matter. They are your North Star,” Cook said as the university’s commencement speaker before 3,000 graduates and more than 10,000 guests on the National Mall. “It’s about finding your values and committing to live by them.”
The CEO of the world’s most valuable company AAPL, +0.17% told graduates they should never accept the idea that “this is impossible” and should stretch to see beyond what exists.
“This is the one thing I’d like to bring to you all the way from Cupertino, California: the idea that great progress is possible, whatever line of work you choose.”
Cook remembered his predecessor, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, by recalling him as the person “who made me question everything and who upended all of my assumptions in the very best way.”
Cook remembered when he first met Jobs, a “very animated 40-something guy with visions of changing the world,” he was convinced and hooked. Cook joined Apple in 1998, a decision that changed his life.
Standing in front of the Washington Monument, Cook also talked about his first visit to the capital. The Alabama native had won an essay contest when he was 16. Before he set off, he met then-Gov. George C. Wallace.
Cook said meeting Wallace, who had blocked African-Americans from enrolling in public schools and displayed his prejudice proudly, in the summer of 1977 was not an honor.
“Shaking his hand felt like a betrayal of my own beliefs,” Cook said. “My heroes in life were Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, who had fought against the very things that Wallace stood for.”
“Injustices like segregation had no place in our world. That equality is a right,” Cook said.
Sunday was Cook’s first commencement speech as Apple CEO. He gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, Auburn University, in 2010 as Apple’s chief operating officer.
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