Lloyd Blankfein’s Horatio Alger Story for New Graduates

Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive and chairman of Goldman Sachs, tried out a new role on Thursday: inspirational speaker.

In a commencement address to graduating students of LaGuardia Community College, Mr. Blankfein drew on his own journey - from a housing project in Brooklyn to the top of one of Wall Street’s mightiest firms - to offer life advice.

“My struggle to get to and through college turned out to be an advantage for me,” Mr. Blankfein said in the speech in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. “The disadvantages you have had become part of your personal history and track record, all advantages in your later life. So confidence is justified.”

The speech was the latest example of the public relations recovery that Goldman Sachs has undertaken in recent months. Pilloried in the news media and on Capitol Hill in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, Goldman and its leader have recently been making efforts to show their softer side.

In that vein, Goldman chose LaGuardia in 2010 as a partner in the firm’s 10,000 Small Businesses program, which aims to train entrepreneurs. In a statement, Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia, which is part of the City University of New York system, called Mr. Blankfein a “stalwart supporter of small businesses and community colleges.”

Mr. Blankfein, dressed in a black academic robe with a pink-fringed hood, slipped comfortably into an avuncular role on Thursday, delivering the message that life is unpredictable and success comes from persistence.

“What are the chances that a kid from the projects would run one of the great financial institutions in the world?” Mr. Blankfein said, a velvet tam and gold tassel atop his head. “You just never know.”

“You have the ambition, you have the smarts and you have the toughness,” he said. “So, turn the page on your biography - you have just started a new chapter in your lives.”

The Goldman chief recalled his upbringing in the East New York section of Brooklyn, where his father sorted mail for the post office and his mother worked as a receptionist at a burglar alarm company. Looking back, he said, it was a “world of unlimited opportunity.”

But at the time, he wanted to get out. The young Mr. Blankfein was accepted to Harvard, which struck him as an “intimidating place.” He felt “insecure,” he said.

He didn’t find his footing right away. After Harvard Law School, Mr. Blankfein went to work at a law firm but quit when he found he wasn’t passionate about the work. He eventually landed at J. Aron, a small financial firm that was bought by Goldman Sachs.

In tone, Mr. Blankfein’s speech was different from one delivered in 2009 by the No. 2 at Goldman, Gary D. Cohn, at the Kogod School of Business at American University.

“You are competing. Every day you are competing and every day you are playing to win,” Mr. Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman, said in a commencement address given not long after the financial crisis. “So remember, wake up every morning and figure out how to win.”

In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Blankfein emphasized the importance of loving one’s work. He has observed a certain passion in other chief executives, he said.

“While they may be wealthy and powerful, their passion goes beyond money and power,” Mr. Blankfein said. “I won’t stand here and tell you those are bad things. They can be pretty good, but only if you have a larger purpose in mind.”