Jim Carry receives honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa

He emotional while making his commencement speech to graduates of the Iowa's Maharishi University of Management

Hollywood funnyman Jim Carrey received an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from Maharishi University of Management Saturday.

The 52-year-old comic turned serious and emotional while making his commencement speech to graduates of the Iowa's Maharishi University of Management on Saturday. He talked about his personal life lessons, reported Us magazine.

"So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant," Carrey said to the students.

But when Carrey was just 12, his father lost that "safe job" and his family was forced "to do whatever we could to survive" in the aftermath.

"I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which, was that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love," Carey said.