Andrew Yang ‘92 Addresses Assembly
By ROXANE PARK
“You all are better situated to fail, and then fail, and then fail again, and then [still] succeed, than just about anyone else in this country. And the question is, what are you willing to fail for?”
As alumnus Andrew Yang stood before the Academy, a black-and-white photograph of his 17-year-old self glowed from the screen behind him. That boy, Yang told the crowd, would never have imagined that he would one day be an entrepreneur, creator of a nonprofit, a presidential candidate, and founder of his own political party.
A member of the class of 1992, Yang was a resident of Peabody Hall, which he fondly referred to as “not the cool dorm [back then].” Though he described struggling in Exeter’s social scene as a new upper and from the pressure to be accepted into a “good” university, Yang also maintained an appreciation for the distinct opportunity that the Academy offers. Addressing current students, he reminisced: “You actually think you’re capable of doing anything anyone else does, because you’ve been with the most talented people of your generation, so you think if that person’s doing it, I should be able to do it too.”
This motif of self- confidence and determination was a constant throughout the thirty-minute journey that
Yang narrated of his path to success. “I succeeded in a way that made no sense at all,” he said.
After graduating from Brown University and Columbia Law School, Yang abandoned a secure foothold in law — the pride of his family — for an unpredictable career as an entrepreneur. He described being a lawyer as “like a pie eating contest where the reward is more pie,” and recalled telling his parents that they “did not immigrate to this country for me to do this job.”
However, the next three business ventures that Yang embarked on were not the vision of success that he had imagined. At ages 25, 27, and then 29, the startups that Yang had pioneered were unsuccessful and he shouldered both disappointment in himself, embarrassed to face his friends from Exeter, and the shame of his parents, who were unwilling to tell anyone that he had abandoned his “successful” career at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
Yang’s fourth and finally profitable venture, a test preparation company called Manhattan GMAT, was acquired in December 2009, and soon after, he dreamed up Venture for America, a nonprofit organization sponsoring students and young professionals to work for startups in emerging cities. Channeling his uplifting personality and passion for his cause, Yang spent six and a half years raising money and convincing donors to take his side, which would prove useful to his campaign years later.
The election of President Donald Trump in 2016 allowed Yang to reexamine and recognize the flaws in the American political systems. Among them, he cited the discrepancy between low Congressional approval and high incumbent reelection rates, holding the isolated two- party system accountable for this deterioration. He recalled sharing with his wife his resolution to repair it by running for president and the confusion from his acquaintances when they asked him: president, “of what?”
Nevertheless, Yang began the grueling process of collecting donations, first from his friends, then from strangers, and at last gaining the support of millions. “I was okay with accepting failure,” Yang admitted. “I didn’t think I would be president of the United States...But what I wouldn’t accept was just shrugging and letting the world head towards what I thought was disaster.”
Although Yang withdrew from the 2020 election to endorse President Joe Biden, he has retained his following and dreams for the future of American public policy recently founded the Forward Party with the goal of breaking free from the confines of the destructive two-party rivalry. A champion of universal basic income, regulations on artificial intelligence, and climate change policy, Yang promised the audience, “The marketplace that I now serve is the American people.”
Current students, Yang asserted, should take control of their own future. “When I was here at Exeter, we all wanted to succeed. And there were few versions of what success looked like,” Yang said. He encouraged students not to conform to what “85 percent” of their classmates would eventually pursue in “one of six things”: finance, consulting, law, medicine, technology, or academia. After all, Yang assured,“You all are going to end up having a very very significant impact on what the world looks like a number of years from now.”
Student reactions to Yang’s address were mixed, especially given his unexpected endorsement of candidate Dean Phillips, a Democratic candidate in the 2024 election, as well as his own Forward Party.
“I found it really interesting that the expectation was for him not to talk about politics, but towards the end of his time he still decided to voice his support for Dean Phillips’ bid for presidency,” said senior and Democratic Club co-head Eric Wu, recalling Yang’s brief statement of support. On a more general note, he continued, “I think it was cool to have such a well-known political figure speak to us; it seemed to have spurred political conversations on campus. Yang was a great speaker and extremely well received by the crowd.”
“Even though I don’t agree with all of them, I think that Andrew Yang has some interesting ideas on how to adapt to the widespread use of AI,” commented upper and Republican Club co-head CJ Smith. “However, I don’t think he clearly communicated his ideas to the student body. My issue was less with him endorsing [or] talking about a candidate, and more to the fact that he didn’t discuss anything about why he supports UBI, just to give an example, or how it would work in American society.”
Smith also expressed that he did not appreciate Yang “talking down about other alums who work “typical” jobs (Wall Street, lawyer, etc.), and aren’t ‘changemakers’.”
Other students interpreted this message differently, however; upper Catherine Yan reflected that “Andrew Yang was very motivational in showing how everyone has a different pathway to success and to never give up in life.”
Yang greets students in the Assembly Hall after his speech
Courtesy of @phillipsexeter