Last Sunday, actor Charlie Day delivered an inspirational speech at Merrimack College’s commencement ceremony.
The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star, who graduated from Merrimack in 1998, also received an honorary doctorate from the school.
“Although I acknowledge that ‘Dr. Charlie Day’ sounds like some type of club DJ, I assure you I intend to go by this title from now on,” Day says.
In his speech, Day shared life lessons with the graduates and explained that his journey from student to television star was the result of willing to risk failure and creating opportunities for himself. Although he was offered an entry-level finance position after graduating from college, he instead decided to pursue his passion, which was comedy.
“If I was going to run the risk of failure, I wanted it to be in the place where I would be proud to fail, doing what I wanted to do,” he says. “And let me tell you something, I did fail.”
After Day and his friends began filming a homemade version of what would become It’s Always Sunny, Day was offered a spot on Fox’s Life on a Stick, which he decided to turn down.
“Creating the job, as opposed to waiting for it to be offered to me, was the way to go,” Day says. “Don’t wait for your break; make your break. Go make it happen for yourself.”
The speech quickly went viral, receiving over 1.5 million views on YouTube.
Watch the entirety of Day’s inspiring (and hilarious) speech below.