Vice President Joe Biden urged Delaware State University's class of 2016 on Saturday to pursue personal happiness along with professional success.
According to the News Journal, as dark clouds lingered over the school's football stadium, the former U.S. senator told the graduates, "Ambition without perspective can be a killer when reality intrudes. And it will intrude."
Biden spoke about the deaths of his wife and daughter in a 1972 car crash and the death of his oldest son to brain cancer in 2015.
The 73-year-old also says that some of the happiest and most successful people he's known have valued personal relationships over professional accomplishments.
In closing he said the students must be willing to accept the risk of failure.
"Progress is never easy, but it is always possible."
