Graduating seniors, Chairman Morris, Headmaster Hendrix, trustees, parents, families and friends, it's an honor to be with you on this special day to celebrate and congratulate the Class of 2003.

When Trustee John Glover asked me to speak today, I was honored to find out that the senior class members actually pick the person they want to hear from at their graduation ceremony.  Thank you for asking me.

I'm also honored to continue what's been a long association between The Lovett School and the Atlanta Falcons.

Before I bought the Falcons, the Smith family loved and guided the Falcons franchise for more than 35 years.  They have loved and helped guide Lovett for even longer. 

Generations of the Smith family are proud Lovett alumni, including my friend Taylor Smith, and his sister, Lovett Trustee Dorothy Smith Hines.

We're honored that "WaWa," as we know her, serves on the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation board, reaching out to young people across Georgia.

And Taylor's daughter, Rebecca Smith, is among the Lovett seniors graduating here today.

The association goes even further.  My friend John Williams, who's on your advisory board is a minority owner of the Falcons.  He has three children and one grandchild -- and every one is a current or former Lovett Lion.  

And finally, Falcons Coach Dan Reeves was the Lovett commencement speaker for the Class of 2000.

When you look at Dan or John or Taylor or Dorothy or me, you seniors can see, that in more ways than one, we're of a different generation.

I graduated from high school in 1960.

Elvis had just returned from serving in the Army, shaking up the music scene -- and a lot of parents at the same time.

For music, we bought these black vinyl things called records.

For guys, wearing straight-leg white Levis was cool.

The most popular TV shows were Gunsmoke and the Andy Griffith show.   I'm not sure you can even see those shows on "TV Land" or "Nick at Nite" anymore.

Most of us only had one phone in the house, and one car.  (Actually, in my family, we didn't even have a car!)

A lot has changed.

Today, we've gone from 45 records to MP3...from white Levisto cargo pants...and from Andy Griffith to "American Idol."

A lot of things are different now.  But history repeats itself, and some things are strangely the same.

In 1960, our country sent U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam.   As students, we watched and worried about the prospect of war.

Today, you watched the war in Iraq unfold, and many of you are worried about what happens next in our world.

In 1960, we saw John F. Kennedy defeat Richard Nixon in a bitterly contested presidential race.  Some called it a "stolen election."

You watched the controversy over the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and Al Gore decided only when the Supreme Court was called in.

In the 60's, Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired my generation to stand up for social justice.  He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Just months ago, Jimmy Carter became Georgia's second Nobel Prize winner.  He's inspired young people like you to stand up for others.  Following President Carter's example, you have built homes for Habitat for Humanity-- and you've reached out to help young people in Ecuador -- sharing resources and hope.

So, life today is different but, in many ways, it's the same.

As Yogi Berra once said, "Just because everything is different doesn't mean that anything has changed."

Today, I want to talk about one significant thing that hasn't changed in the history of this country -- something that spans generations -- something I believe is the secret formula for true and lasting success in life...

The formula has two essential ingredients -- two things you need to be truly successful:

One is a competitive spirit.

The other is a compassionate heart.

I learned very early in life that a competitive spirit is key to success.

My high school, like Lovett, was competitive.  Stuyvesant High School in New York City is a public honors school.  That means you have to meet high standards to get in, and you have to work hard to stay in.

As students, we competed, in a positive way, in academics as well as athletics.

I learned competition can be a good thing.  A competitive spirit makes you push yourself -- to be the best you can be.

But it doesn't mean you have to push other people down in order to succeed.    

In the 1930s, Mrs. Lovett said that progressive education should stress both high, competitive standards and cooperation. 

She believed students could pursue excellence as individuals, but still retain a strong sense of social responsibility.

Mrs. Lovett encouraged young people to become "contributing members of society" rather than -- as she put it -- "egotistical people obsessed with the notion that society should contribute to them."

She understood that a competitive spirit and a compassionate heart are both part of the formula for success.

That has been true in my life.

I'm very competitive.  I love competing in sports.  I love competing in the world of business. 

And I love to win in both.

There's even a poster in my office about competition.  It says, "There is no finish line."

In other words, you push yourself hard, far beyond the limits of what you think you can achieve. 

I'm a big believer in a program called "Outward Bound."  I'm sure many of you are familiar with it.  Outward Bound uses challenging outdoor activities to teach the principles of teamwork in reaching a goal. 

The Outward Bound motto is, "To Serve, To Strive and Not to Yield."  I've climbed a lot of rocks and ropes during Outward Bound adventures.  What I've learned is that you rely on others on a team to get where you need to go.       

All of us want to win and succeed in life.

But we have to remember that we do so as part of a larger team -- that the actions we take to win in life can either hurt or help the lives of others. 

Over the past year, you've read lots of newspaper headlines about adults who have broken the rules of their game in order to win.  Corporate executives and coaches alike have wanted to win so badly that their businesses or teams ended up paying a terrible price for their dishonesty.

As Lovett students, you have a calling in life to be better than that.   

Lovett taught you that compassion for others matters.

Your school prepared you to compete -- not cheat.

Real winners in life may get there by being competitive - but they don't break rules -- or hearts -- along the way.

Let me share with you a few examples of people who are real winners in life.

They are talented and competitive.

They are winners because of what they do.

But they are even bigger winners because of what they do for others.

Warrick Dunn is a running back for the Atlanta Falcons.

He has fantastic speed and quickness.  He helps spark our offense.

Last year, Warrick had four 100-yard rushing games, a great accomplishment.  His competitive spirit is a huge factor in our success on the field.

But what he does off the field is even more important.

Warrick created a program called "Homes for the Holidays." He helps disadvantaged, single mothers buy their first homes.   He touches the lives of entire families in need by giving them a new start.

Warrick has been honored by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and dozens of other organizations -- even by the White House.

He has a competitive spirit and a compassionate heart.

Another example is Elise Eplan, Vice President of our Family Foundation.  Elise grew up in Atlanta.  She graduated from two highly competitive universities "Brandeis and Yale" and was a top performer at both.

Elise had an exciting career in investment banking.  She could have written her own ticket to success in the business world.

Instead, she chose to make a real difference by helping nonprofit groups help communities.  Elise was the founding president of Hands On Atlanta, which today creates community service opportunities for more than 25,000 volunteers.

Later, Elise served as program director for The America Project at The Carter Center, fighting poverty in cities across our nation.

At our Family Foundation, she has helped direct more than $100 million in giving to others.

Elise had a driving spirit to do something important in life.  Her compassionate heart told her the greatest thing she could do was to help others.

By the way, Elise Eplan is a graduate of The Lovett School.

Lovett can point to many success stories.  I was particularly inspired by stories I heard of two other Lovett graduates great athletes and champions -- Adam Nelson, Class of 1993, and Brent Abernathy, Class of 1996. 

Both competed in sports on the Lovett riverbank and went on to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Adam Nelson had an impressive track and field career at Lovett.  Later, he was struck with a terrible injury.  Medical experts advised him to quit sports. But he refused to give up the event he loved, the shot put.

Adam's spirit and determination helped him qualify for the Olympic Games, and he proudly brought home a silver medal, a great achievement. 

Brent Abernathy played a record 136 baseball games at Lovett.  His batting average was over .500.  In the 2000 Olympic Games, he scored four runs, drove in another four, stole three bases, and helped lead the U.S.team to the gold medal.  That's competitive spirit.

Adam and Brent are winners.

Funny thing is, whenever people around Lovett talk about Adam and Brent, they don't just talk about their achievements in sports -- they talk about who they are as people. 

Both are known for their belief in teamwork -- their loyalty to friends...their love of family...their compassionate hearts.

That's true of many great athletes.

Dan Millman wrote a book called, "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior." Dan is a former gymnastics coach.  In his book, he says that some of the most competitive athletes and achievers in the world, like Michael Jordan, see what they do from a team perspective.

They believe their own accomplishments don't mean a thing if their team doesn't win.

That's true in sports.  It's even more true in life.

Life is not an individual event.  Every one of us is part of a "relay team."  In our careers, in our families and in our communities -- we succeed, or fail -- together.

We're part of the same team.   There are no age, class, social or ethnic dividers when it comes to working together for success.

In fact, there's a danger in setting yourself apart from, or above, others, or in thinking we're entitled to everything we've gotten in life.

The truth is, everything we've received in life is a gift.

The love of our parents.

The help of our friends.

Our health.

Our ability to study -- to have fun -- and to grow.

You've been blessed in ways you may not have thought of.

For example, this is the first Lovett class to graduate from the Upper School -- that incredible, state-of-the-art facility.

You may think of the Upper School simply as the place you had to take tests or write papers. 

But the Upper School would look like a palace to almost any child from Africa, or Iraq, or most of the public schools in Georgia. 

For you, it provided the setting for one of the best educations you could hope for. 

You've been blessed, and so have I.

In my case, I was fortunate to have great success in the business world.

But the real value of that success lies in what my family and I are able to give back to the community.

When I was growing up, my mother and father taught me that we are called to be our brother's keeper.  To demonstrate that, they shared their scarce time -- and even scarcer dollars -- with people who had even less than we did.

My mother still tells me that everything we are able to do in life is a gift. 

It's our responsibility to share that gift, and to give back what we can to the world. 

Last year, my son, Kenny, took me to see "The Lord of the Rings."

I loved the story, the scenery, the battles, and the action.

At the end of the movie, I was so pumped up I wanted to jump into the screen to help Frodo's friends fight those ugly things called Orcs.

You might remember one special scene in the film.  It's when Frodo realizes that the ring is a rare gift but also a huge and dangerous responsibility. 

Frodo looks at his wise friend, Gandalf and says, "I wish none of this had happened.  I wish the ring had never come to me."

And Gandalf replies:

"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide.  All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."

Then he says: "You were meant to have the ring."

Each one of you -- members of The Lovett School Class of 2003 -- were meant to have your unique gifts and talents.  Like Frodo, you have the opportunity to use those gifts for good, or to achieve purely selfish goals.

Like Frodo, it's up to you to decide what to do with the time that is given to you. 

As you decide -- as you chart your course for achieving success in life -- I'd like to encourage you to carry with you the formula for real success with its two parts:

A competitive spirit and a compassionate heart.

Congratulations, and best of luck in all you choose to do.