Success requires an “entrepreneurial mindset,” keynote speaker Arthur Brooks told the University of Utah’s Class of 2026.
“I’ve got the data on this, and the truth of the matter is that people are getting married less,” said the Harvard professor, bestselling author and happiness expert. “They’re forming families less. They’re even falling in love less than they used to. And that’s a non-entrepreneurial mindset.”
Brooks spoke at the 157th General Commencement on Thursday, April 30. The ceremony honored a record-breaking 9,506 students.
As an impact scholar at the university since 2023, Brooks is familiar with Utah. Each semester, he visits the state to meet with students, staff, faculty, business and community leaders and elected officials to share insights about human flourishing. Through this experience, he said that Utah has become his “Western home.”
Inspired by this year’s student speaker, Gerald Parrott, who earned his degree following years of homelessness, addiction and brushes with the law, Brooks shared what he had learned from the Houston Prison Entrepreneurial program. According to Brooks, the program helped reduce recidivism rates from 50 % to 7 %, despite the fact that only 16% of participants actually start businesses.
When Brooks asked a participant about this, the man replied, “Because when we learn about startup businesses, we learn the startup life.”
The man went on to tell Brooks the crime that had put him in jail—robbing the store beneath his apartment—was easy. However, showing up for kids, marrying their mother and committing to a higher power was the hard part. And for him to change his life, he had to take that risk.
“Take a risk in what really matters the most to you,” Brooks said.
The second lesson Brooks took from the men in the prison entrepreneur program was to own your weakness in order to connect with others. For him, this meant sharing that because of poor choices as a young adult, he earned his degree in his late 20s from a correspondence school.
“I am here today because somebody gave me an opportunity and I didn’t want to admit it,” Brooks said. “So I took responsibility for it, and that was the day that my life really started to change for the better, when I started to lead with these weaknesses.”
Brooks emphasized the richness this philosophy can add to life.
“Connect with other people, not through the strengths that you exhibit this day,” he said, “but through the weaknesses that connect you to your sisters and brothers.”
Highlights:
- Brenda Bass, a distinguished professor of biochemistry, was named the 2026 recipient of the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the University of Utah’s highest faculty honor.
- Watch U President Randall highlight members of the Class of 2026 here.
- Watch the college dean callouts to graduates here.