SALT LAKE CITY — Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, spoke May 6 to graduates at Utah Valley University as the commencement speaker. Recently, she spoke with Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson and shared her extraordinary story of rising from high school dropout to inflation fighter.

As a teen, she said a woman in her early 30s nudged her into getting her GED.

“I did because I thought, Oh, I can get a better job. I can be a bus driver,” she said. 

Her mentor urged Daly to take a semester of college.

“She’s not satisfied, but she’s not that pushy. She’s just nudging. So, she nudges me to take a semester of college and to pay for that semester of college, which I I still think of that as one of the most enormous giving back.  It was $216 and still changed my life,” Daly said.

Devoted to lifting others  up

She said she knows what it’s like to be helped, to be lifted up by another person.

“I’ve devoted my entire career to trying to do that in every aspect of my life, my professional life, my personal life, my community life. And I really think that is our dedication to each other,” Daly said. 

She added that what’s possible cannot be known until it is attempted.

“I tell my story because it’s really to remind people, not of the remarkable journey I’ve taken, but the remarkable gift that we give each other when we just give a hand up. We never even know what’s possible in people until we just lift them up and let them try.”

Be yourself

Daly said it’s important for young people starting out on a career to be themselves and resist the pressure to conform.

It’s important “they bring their unique self, and they look at things that we’ve been doing forever just a slightly different way because of who they are. So it really is our differences that make us stronger.”

Differences make the difference, Daly stressed.

“Try your hardest to be yourself. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but I tell you it will pay huge dividends not only to you and your family but to everything you do, all your work.”

Related:

Wholesale inflation impacting businesses all across Utah

Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson can be heard weekdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app.