President George Bush Addresses IPA and IBA at the "9th Annual Celebration of Success" held in Chicago December 11, 1999.

The following is a transcript of the President's speech:

John, thank you for the welcome. And all of you for that warm welcome.

I couldn't be more pleased to be here. I want to thank Dana and Shelle for arranging all of this. I've done a little homework on the company. But I must say I've never been greeted so warmly at a reception and photo op that just took place. And thank you for that very much.

I'm pleased to be a part of this 9th celebration of yearly success. I'm told that this is the 9th celebration. And let me note for the record that I'm honored to follow two of your previous speakers, both friends of mine--Jerry Ford, of course, who I respect so much, and who gave me the opportunity, when he was President, of going over to China and starting a whole fascinating new chapter in my life. And of course Bob Dole, a friend whom I respect very much.

For those of you with IPA, I am told by your leadership that '99 has been another tremendous year, which means we have something in common. Because it's been a very eventful year for my family too. It started in January. It really started in November, the year before on the same day. Two sons were elected governor, one of the second biggest state in the nation and other the fourth biggest state. Just imagine as a father and mother how you would feel.

I went over to Jebby's inauguration in Florida in January. Connie Mack the Senator from Florida said it would be a cold day in hell before we see another Republican governor in Florida. Well, it was about 30 below zero when we were over there that day, and he was right--the guy proved to be right. So that was a huge event in our lives as you can imagine.

And then in April of this year, the CIA headquarters in Langley was renamed in my honor, which to be honest had Barbara scratching her head a little bit. She said, "Why would they name a building dedicated to intelligence for a 75-year-old guy who likes to jump out of airplanes?"

She hasn't changed a bit. Despite this marital harassment, I did make a parachute jump in June landing on the front lawn of my presidential library at Texas A&M University. And it was my third jump, the second voluntary one. The other one was September 2, '44 when I just had to get the hell out of there. You know what I mean. It worked out ok.

And last month--this is very emotional for me and Barbara too--I took an 11 day, 8 city tour of Europe, including Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, Munich, Paris, London, and Stockholm. You name it. And as you might imagine, it was an emotional experience to be in Berlin to celebrate the 10trh anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. And it was an overwhelming experience. And to go to Warsaw to celebrate Polish independence and to be with the Polish leaders and then to be in Prague standing next to marvelously courageous poet Slav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the 7quot;velvet revolution." These are historic changes that took place in the world--not that I get credit or would try to take credit for it. But just think of how the world has changed in just the 4 years I was privileged to be your president. And to go there and see a unified Germany--to see these free patriots in Prague--it was literally overwhelming.

Lest I forget, as you may have heard, somewhere in between all of this, our oldest son announced that he was running for President. I guess that qualifies for big news. I don't know.

So it gives you a little idea of what life has been like since Barbara and I packed up our things, discouraged and hurt a little bit, in January of 1993 and moved back to Houston, Texas. To sum it up, life has been hectic. But if you are married to Barbara Bush, as I have been for 55 years in January, it's easy. I think I am married to the most popular woman in the United States, for one thing. And I will tell you, it's not easy all the time.

But we come home to Texas from the White House where you have all that marvelous attention and 8 years in the VP house, and 4 years in this majestic museum that is also a family dwelling for whoever is lucky enough to be President of the United States. We get home to Houston and the mayor greets us. And we feel like big deals climbing off that big Boeing 747. And we come to our house which we have rented, a little wooden house, and we go to say good night. There's Barbara, there's me and there's two dogs. And the next morning--this is a true story--I woke up out of habit. In the White House, you wake up at 5 AM and there's a guy who would bring you the papers, coffee and all that stuff. I woke up at the same time, reached out to push the button--there was no button. And Barbara said, "Get out of the bed and make the coffee yourself, Sir George." So out I went. It's easy.

The only real point of the story is that you should never feel entitled to something--if you are lucky enough to serve your country. You ought to view it as a privilege. You ought to view it as giving something back. You ought to say, "I'm a lucky guy." And we felt that way. And life has been very, very good. Since then we are spending more time with our family, and friends. We do a lot of travelling--trying to be what I talked about in the White House--trying to be one of those 1000 points of light. And so is Barbara with her foundation for literacy. And I'm the chairman, or I will be this year, of the great M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. We have our library up at Texas A&M, and it's marvelous. The other day we had Vernon Jordan and Howard Baker come to speak to the kids there.

And life is exciting, and it's really wonderful. We still try to be points of light--and I think I want to be that for the rest of my life. In addition to everything else we have been doing since leaving Washington, I've also done a little writing. And just to be clear, I am not writing a memoir about my life or my presidency. Barbara wrote the great family memoir, "Barbara Bush--a Memoir." And Churchill once noted that he did not fear how history would judge his legacy for he intended to write it himself. Well, I say let these pointed-headed guys figure it out and I'll go on living for the rest of my life in great happiness surrounded by family and family love.

I did finish, and some of you have it, called, "All the Best." It does not scream best seller like Barbara's book. But I might add that I resented Millie, our dog. Millie's book was on the New York Times best seller list for weeks--made a million dollars to fight illiteracy. And that didn't seem fair--the damn dog could not read a word. But as for Barbara, I'm happy to report that the mother of governors is doing well.

We went to a Washington dinner, the Alfalfa dinner last year. And Johnny Breaux, the Senator from Louisiana, said, "You don't see much of Barbara Bush anymore; she went home to breed governors." That's not what she's doing tonight, but she's in Houston.

I'm delighted to be here and speak before dinner, because if the broccoli comes in I'm getting the heck out of here. And I'm serious about it. Thank you very much. . . .

When I was invited to come here and help celebrate or honor the success of this company--that was a gimme, as they say in golf. It seems like a thousand years since I was out in the trenches making my own way in the business world like you guys. In a way, a part of me misses that. I got out of business in '66 when I went to the United States Congress--and haven't really run a business or built something in the business world since then.

But I miss it. I miss chasing the American dream--being where the action is; trying to make something better; trying to employ people, to add to the productivity of this country. And as each of you can readily attest, the entrepreneurial spirit is infectious. And once you catch it, you never lose it. And that's how I feel tonight, being here with you--this company that started not that long ago, and is making progress every single year.

I was asked to talk about the challenges we face heading into the next Millennium. And it's an understandable question. And to consider, as the 20th century winds to a close, the world has changed in profound ways, during this century, and we have achieved so much and come so far. That's why I am an unabashed optimist. Really, I wish I were 35 and not 75. I'm an unabashed optimist about the world your kids and all of you will be living in this new Millennium. I have no doubt that we will succeed ushering in a new century of more peace and prosperity.

They're not going to put the Soviet Union back together again. If we do the diplomacy right, China is not going to be an enemy--a competitor maybe--but a place where we can sell more and more American goods. So when I look around the world I don't have any of the fears that I had when I was a scared 18 year old pilot in the United States Navy--sent off to fight against the Japanese imperialism, or would have been fighting against fascism in Germany.

I don't have the fears when I was worried that someone would take a misstep, with one of the superpowers armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. That's not going to happen again. Nobody is going to put the Soviet Union back together again. So I am optimistic about the new century. I might add that it's the success of companies like this--is another reason why I am an optimist.

The next generation of entrepreneurial risk-takers are writing the next chapter of the American dream, or the Canadian dream--you've got some guys here from Canada. What started as a small company with 22 employees in 1991 has developed into one of the fastest growing companies in America--1400 people on board. In a very real sense, what you have been able to accomplish reflects what we have seen in a broader economy along the way--maybe not this spectacular of growth, but this concept of success and this entrepreneurial activity.

Indeed, according to the Small Business Administration, the number of small businesses in the United States has increased by 57 percent since 1982 to 25 million non-farm enterprises, where today it's estimated that there are over 16 million Americans who are engaged in some kind of entrepreneurial activity. In short, in the words of my predecessors, one of them Calvin Coolidge, remain true today: "The business of America is still business."

That's not to say business has not changed today, because it has. And small businesses and entrepreneurs have clearly led the way. As the SBA recently reported, with the resurgence of economic activity over the last two decades, small businesses and entrepreneurs have made a vital contribution to our economic growth in three ways: first, the bigger companies in established industries have learned from small businesses how to be more innovative, as they have adapted and downsized their operations—and you guys have been a part of that.

I was quizzing your leader here, how does it work? What do you do for a company? I used the example of my little drilling company, and he explained how you people can go in there and make things more efficient, give them more incentives for their employees, teach them how to keep people. It's vitally important in the growth of small businesses, and indeed, adding to the productivity of this country.

Secondly, while the larger companies have been transforming themselves to compete in the global economy, new start-ups have been booming and blooming. And as the IPA experience proves, small businesses that work hard to innovate new products and services don't stay small for long.

And then the third impact of small business owners on our economy is the opportunity and hope that is provided to millions of Americans of all backgrounds. As is no doubt the case here and in Canada, as we unleash the creative talents of our people and get government out of the way, good things happen.

And for many of you here remember, the economic difficulties the United States faced--and certainly as I faced as President of the United States--after the S & L crisis and other problems became a drag on our economy. And small business creation was one of the things that helped us emerge from that downturn and lay the foundation for the robust growth that we have enjoyed to this day.

Consider this one: between March of 1992 and March of 1993 small firms with fewer than 5 employees created more than one million net jobs and helped to get us back on track. And trade was another important factor in our recovery--and I will address this timely issue in a minute briefly--but the bottom line as I see it is that businesses like IPA are generating the kinds of jobs and opportunities that we need to stay strong, providing the kinds of innovative services and products we need to stay productive.

And one thing is sure. Keeping up with the ever-changing world economy is an ambitious task because every day we wake up to find a new world waiting for us. Every day it seems that the process of globalization picks up speed to bring us closer together with far-reaching ramifications, not only for leaders in your business but for leaders in government. Indeed, more than a third of humanity—a third—is now in the midst of privatizing what once were largely socialist or communist command economies until just a few short years ago.

In just the last decade we have indeed come far—a point seemingly lost on some of those protesters in Seattle. There's plenty of progress to be made. But I think some of those people missed the point that there is a huge job creation and a huge productivity increase in most of the countries, or many of the countries around the world. I think I would say we can't let up now, we've got to continue to support the process of opening markets to free and fair trade.

I believe that we can't listen to the naysayers who now cry the selfish sirens call of economic nationalism--calling us home to some kind of fortress America, which in my book is synonymous with economic defeatism. Together with protectionism, it is sending the wrong signal to the world: "Stop the world economy, we've got to get off." But what makes this retreat all the more bewildering is that over the last ten years, certainly since NAFTA was passed, we have seen how freer and fairer trade will help the economy maintain vigorous growth, even as much of the world economy has had problems. Indeed, the low unemployment rates we have seen over the past decade is the strongest testimony to the fact that Big Labor is out of step on this one--from the Left they are. The neo-isolationists from the Right are not getting it.

I remember--maybe the only guy in this room old enough to remember--the isolationism of the 1930's. And I think Ross Perot was wrong, God-bless him. There's been no giant sucking sound of jobs. The truth is there has been a net creation of jobs. Since NAFTA went into effect 18 million jobs have been added to the payrolls in North America—18 million new jobs. And the same thing is true in Canada.

There has been a huge increase in jobs in the trade between the United States and Canada--our largest trading partner--grown just tremendously. And the same with Mexico, even though Mexico had problems. And so I don't think we ought to listen to the sirens call of protectionism and isolationism. More trade leads to more jobs and more opportunities.

Of course, there are some companies which go out of business or ship jobs abroad. But if you look at the total creation, it is absolutely mind-boggling. Indeed, the Seattle fiasco notwithstanding, part of my optimism about the future is that we are not going to go isolationist, not going to go protectionist. I believe most Americans will recognize that our national symbol is an eagle, not an ostrich where we stick our heads in the sand. We are an eagle, we are soaring. And we continue to export as well as produce right here this entrepreneurial spirit that your company has and does so much to help others with. It is simply not natural to take this protectionist view.

believe it is imperative that as this post-cold war world takes shape, we get our act together and start sending clear signals to the world that we want to lead. You know it's so much easier not to have to be involved with some of the countries that are having difficulties. It is so much easier to say, "Let them figure it all out." My view is, we are a great country, blessed by a huge GDP, blessed by peaceful borders, Mexico to our South and Canada to our North, protected by two great oceans, and that gives us every reason to think we can isolate ourselves, but I think we have an obligation.

I grew up in a family—you've got an obligation to give something back. Don't just sit there. Go out there and help someone else. We've got an obligation to lead given the largess, given the wonders in this country. I hope that whatever happens in the next tenure of the president that we are going to see the United States—not be the world's policeman to go to every trouble spot, sending soldiers where the mission is unclear--but to continue to try to exert leadership that results in more democracy, more freedom around the world.

And this is the message we try to inculcate in just a hand-full of kids at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. I really believe public service is noble. Maybe some of your kids say, "Oh they are all corrupt, it's a terrible system." It isn't. When you look at it, there are some wonderful things about our system. And if good people sit on the sidelines and whine and complain, and don't do a darn thing about it, they get the kind of government they deserve.

And so our pitch to these kids is to get in there and get involved—you don't have to run for president, but help some other person. Sam Rayburn, the great Texas Speaker once said of a person, who wanted to start at the top—kind of a Donald Trump kind of guy—the problem with this guy is that he never ran for sheriff. And you got to think about that. You got to get down in the grass roots and you have to try to help and then you can make a difference.

And so we need good and decent people to get involved and get off the sidelines and roll up their sleeves to give something back to this country which has given them so much. For 35 challenging years, exciting years, I had my chance to give it my shot in what Teddy Roosevelt aptly called the arena. And I loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute of it.

I'd tell you what I really thought of the press though, but as Dana Carvey would say, "Not going to do it, wouldn't be prudent." Remember that guy, remember that fella. A lot of those Washington guys don't miss me, but Dana Carvey sure does.

As Lyndon Johnson said of his time in office, "I lived thoroughly every hour. I've known sorrow and anger, frustration, disappointment, pain and dismay, but more than anything else, I experienced the towering pride and pleasure of having had my chance to make my contribution to solving the problems of our times."

And as for me, we got some things right, and I know we could have done some things better. But my time to serve is passed and I hope it's not out of bounds for me to note: I'm out of politics now. I don't testify. I don't do press conferences. I'm on the sidelines. My heart's not totally there, but my body and my very being says, "Look, you've had your chance, and now it's somebody else's chance."

And I would reiterate how proud Barbara is and I am of our two sons who are willing to get into this political arena. And they are doing their part and giving their all. And if you put yourself in my shoes, I think you would understand what matters is family now for me. What matters is my faith, and what matters is my friends. And I think you have a wonderful way of making me feel that I have been among friends here tonight. Thank you.