CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon delivers the commencement address at William Peace University on Saturday, May 6, 2017.

CBC President & CEO Jim Goodmon honored the memory of his mother one week early for Mother’s Day this year.  He spoke at her alma mater.  On Saturday, May 6, 2017, Goodmon delivered the commencement address at the graduation for William Peace University in downtown Raleigh.

Goodmon also received an honorary degree in the humanities during the ceremony.  His mother graduated from Peace in 1940, which was a women’s college at the time.   The school only recently became co-ed in 2011.

Goodmon told the graduates, “I’ve got one point to make: The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”

After a twittering of laughter from the crowd, he explained. “What is the main thing?  It is time. …  It’s how you spend your time.  The decisions you make about how to spend your time, the course you choose.”

He spoke of compasses and setting sails on a ship to determine direction.

“You can go any direction you want to, it doesn’t matter where the wind is coming from, it’s how you set the sails,” he told the graduates.

He added, “You can really become great at something.  You’re the captain of your ship.  You’re the captain, and where you go is up to you.”

Watch Goodmon’s entire speech from William Peace University’s live stream of the ceremony:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HPZZwJ9XPU
(Goodmon’s address begins about 58:45 into the stream)