Thank you. I have to be honest with you. This was not the easiest speech for me to prepare. Here I am, privileged to be the leader of a system charged with delivering training and retraining, to make sure North Carolina has the best workforce in the world.

And here you are, a roomful of bright, dedicated, highly educated, well-trained people who have done just about everything right to be leaders in that workforce and instead, you are out of a job -- because the industries that a year or two ago looked so promising have shake out so drastically.

Do I talk to you about the habit of lifelong learning?

You've got that one down already. Otherwise you wouldn't be here, having paid your money and pledged your volunteer time to be part of this truly imaginative approach to training and networking.

Do I point out that your local community college is the best place to go for the learning that you need, throughout your life? For certifications, and hands-on-skills, and support for budding entrepreneurs, and a whole change of direction? A lot of you know that already. Either you went to a community college the first time around, or you've already found your way there for at least a course or two. Keep it up!  As the success stories on the website for TechEngage prove, Wake Tech and the other 57 community colleges in our system are truly your open doors to the future!

Instead, I thought maybe I would fall back on that old standby of preachers and teachers and talk a little about myself, the lessons I have learned thus far on my life's journey, and what they have to do with the challenges that you now face. The folks who introduce me are usually very generous in running through my resume. I've been honored to have the chance to pursue many satisfying tasks that rewarded me professionally and financially.

However, another way to look at that long list is that I have trouble hanging on to a job for a long period of time! And there's at least a grain of truth in that…just as there's truth in the statement that I've always had a bit of trouble in deciding what I want to be when I grow up.

When I was growing up, working in tobacco on my family's farm in Wayne County, I dreamed of being an architect. I knew that NC State had a fine college of architecture and design. Unfortunately, that fine school required calculus of its applicants. My country high school didn't have anything beyond plane geometry. So I changed directions and prepared myself for the practice of law. After service off the coast of Viet Nam, courtesy of the United States Navy, I did enter the private practice of law and found in that profession my open door into the public service that was my true calling.

Do I regret giving up the dream of designing buildings and houses? No -- because now I am in the business of building lives -- and I cannot imagine a more satisfying place to be.

Have I faced the kind of uncertainty that you do, in finding myself suddenly cut from a team that I had worked hard to qualify for -- and to stay on?

Yes, I have…I served four terms in the United States House of Representatives. The reason I didn't serve five terms is -- I lost. Pure and simple. I worked harder in that campaign than in any of the previous eight I had successfully run, but it was 1984, and lots of Democrats lost -- I'd like to think through no fault of our own.

And not being independently wealthy, I woke up the next day with the same worries that you have -- house payments, looming college tuitions for two talented daughters and the urgent need to find new doors of opportunity to open. Those doors opened for me in Washington and then back home in North Carolina.

Was I lucky? Certainly -- lucky to have great contacts, good friends, a strong education and training in a profession that demands flexibility and problem solving. But I remember what Thomas Jefferson said about luck:

I'm a great believer in luck, 
and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Wouldn't it be great if hard work by itself guaranteed uninterrupted success and prosperity? But we know better than that, because we can't control all the things that happen around us, especially in the economy.

We can, however, put in the hard work to make sure that we ground ourselves with the best education we can find; keep looking forward to the next opportunity; make sure our skills are up to date; embrace change and cultivate our own self-confidence. Don't forget that last part. It matters tremendously.

The great American image of self-confidence is surely Teddy Roosevelt, that hearty leader of a century ago. Here's his career advice:

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' 
Then get busy and find out how to do it.

I don't imagine that any of you planned on this, but your job right now is getting the NEXT job! So when I ask you, "Can you do it?", what's the answer? It's "CERTAINLY I can."

Your community colleges, your friends at TechEngage, this great university and the community that surrounds you are here to help you do that. Two opportunities that Wake Tech might offer you are entrepreneurial training and an introduction to a career in biotechnology Many displaced workers are going into business for themselves through an excellent entrepreneurial training program and Wake Tech's campus in Waverly Shopping Center off Tryon Road in Cary. Others are exploring the potential of biotech through our BioWork curriculum. Often more than half those the students in those classes already have masters or even higher degrees. Biotech may well be North Carolina's future.

I look forward to reading YOUR success stories very soon, and I look forward even more to the day when this conference can happen every other year, or every five years, because North Carolina's economy is back where it should be among our country's strongest and fastest-growing.

Thank you for inviting me to share today with you.