Tom Brady didn’t come to Georgetown’s commencement to talk about winning. He came to talk about what happens when you’re losing.
Addressing the McDonough School of Business Class of 2026, the seven-time Super Bowl champion anchored his speech around a single number: 99.7%. The odds the Atlanta Falcons had of winning Super Bowl LI when they led the New England Patriots 28-3 late in the third quarter. The odds, in other words, that Brady was finished.
He wasn’t. And the lesson he left with Georgetown’s newest graduates wasn’t about talent or luck. It was about preparation, resilience, and the refusal to quit when everything points toward giving up. “When the odds are stacked against you,” Brady told the crowd, “you will have a choice to make: to quit, or to fight.”
For Georgetown Entrepreneurship, that message lands close to home. Because if there’s one thing student founders learn on the Hilltop, it’s that building something from scratch almost always feels like a 28-3 moment and the difference between founders who make it and those who don’t rarely comes down to the idea. It comes down to what Brady described: preparation meeting opportunity, and the willingness to keep going.
Georgetown Entrepreneurship was built upon the principle that anyone can be an entrepreneur. Founders don’t need to arrive with polished pitch decks, only a problem they are passionate about solving. Rocket Pitch gives students the opportunity to share ideas at their earliest stage. Summer Launch provides the funding and mentorship to turn those ideas into real ventures. Bark Tank puts students in front of entrepreneurs and investors to take their ventures to the next level. Each program serves as a brick in the path of an entrepreneur’s journey, helping founders navigate the challenges that come with building something new.
Brady put it best: “Every hard choice is a brick in the path toward the life you want. But every excuse is a brick in the wall that will stand in your way.” At Georgetown, both the community and resources available to aspiring entrepreneurs ensure that every student who wants to build, has the tools to do it.