Oh, what's up, what's up, Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Silent Hustle Show because without

struggle, there's no story. Special short bonus episode for you today.

Brynn and I were visiting family in Washington earlier this month and Mom dug out the video

from our high school graduation, which was actually 20 years ago this month. That makes

me feel super old, but the fun part is, as co-validictorians, we both got to speak at that

graduation through a little digital magic. I was able to grab the audio from my speech

and even though some things I would want to change today, it's a little bit embarrassing.

I wanted to play it for you. It's graduation season again, which always makes me think of

what type of advice would I give to my younger self or to today's graduates in a similar

three-minute TED Talk type of format. So here you go. This is from Safeco Field in Seattle,

June 2001.

I bet there's quite a few people in this audience who don't even know who I am, but everyone

knows why I'm up there. That's right. I'm one of those nerds with a 4.0. I'm one of the

three top nerds in the school. It's funny because they gave me this microphone because

of my grades and maybe that's what people will remember me for, but the grades are way

down on my list of what I'll remember from high school.

Anyways, being a nerd is something I struggled with in my whole life. When I was 4, I asked

for a math book from my birthday. In third grade, I was school because I could spell anti-disestablishment

arianism. And in middle school, the girls really weren't too impressed with my ability to

recite five to fifteen decimal places. But as a freshman, I was determined to overcome

this nerd disease. I would not be destined to a lifetime of pocket protectors and star

track reruns. So I figured, new school, a new start. So first day of high school, I was

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