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13 EW NEWS & OPINION August 2014 that things will get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better—that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope and we don't look away. Bill: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes. But we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism. Even in dire situations, optimism can fuel innovation and lead to new tools to eliminate suffering. But if you never really see the people who are suffer- ing, your optimism can't help them. You will never change their world. So who's right? The people who say innovation will create new possi- bilities and make the world better? … or … The people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don't think innova- tion will change that? The pessimists are wrong in my view, but they're not crazy. If tech- nology is purely market-driven and we don't focus innovation on the big inequities, then we could have amazing inventions that leave the world even more divided. We won't improve public schools. We won't cure malaria. We won't end poverty. We won't develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate. If our optimism doesn't address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy. If empathy channeled our optimism, we would see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools, we would answer with our innovations, and we would surprise the pessi- mists. I started learning in Soweto that if we're going to make our optimism matter to everyone and empower people everywhere, we have to see the lives of those most in need. If we have optimism but we don't have empathy, then it doesn't matter how much we master the secrets of science, we're not really solving problems; we're just working on puzzles. Melinda: Let your heart break. It will change what you do with your optimism. On a trip to South Asia, I met a desperately poor mother who brought me her two small children and implored me: "Please take them home with you." When I begged her forgiveness and said I could not, she said: "Then please take one." On another trip, to South Los Angeles, I was talking to a group of high school students from a tough neigh- borhood when one young woman said to me: "Do you ever feel like we are just somebody else's kids whose parents shirked their responsibilities, that we're all just leftovers?" These women made my heart break—and still do. And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself: "That could be me." When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, I see that there is no difference at all in what we want for our children. The only difference is our ability to give it to them. What accounts for that differ- ence? Bill and I talk about this with our kids at the dinner table. Bill worked incredibly hard and took risks and made sacrifices for success. But there is another essential ingre- dient of success, and that ingredient is luck—absolute and total luck. When were you born? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earned these things. They were given to us. When we strip away our luck and privilege and consider where we'd be without them, it becomes easier to see some- one who's poor and sick and say, "That could be me." This is empa- thy; it tears down barriers and opens up new frontiers for optimism. So here is our appeal to you: As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well. You don't have to rush. You have careers to launch, debts to pay, spouses to meet and marry. That's enough for now. But in the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you'll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don't turn away from it; turn toward it. That is the moment when change is born. Congratulations and good luck. EW Editors' note: This text was excerpted from the address by Bill and Melinda Gates, philanthropists and co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as prepared for delivery at Stanford University's 123rd Commencement on June 15, 2014. 3360 Scherer Drive, Suite B, St. Petersburg, FL 33716 800-637-4346 • Tel: 727-209-2244 • Fax: 727-341-8123 Email: Info@RheinMedical.com • Website: www.RheinMedical.com *Patent Number RE 37,304 Stylized Eye 2.2, Rhein Medical • Patented 3-D Blades* Designed To Create A Superior Self-Sealing Incision. Unique Asymmetrical 3-D Bevels Push Stroma In Three Directions, Creating A More Torturous Path For Fluid Egression. • Special Handles Are Autoclaveable And Reusable, Allowing Multiple Uses To Bring The Cost Per Case Down. • Available Sterile 6 Per Box In A Variety Of Sizes. 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