Gov. Terry McAuliffe repaves old ground at William and Mary's Charter Day

Gov. Terry McAuliffe speaks at a ceremony honoring William & Mary Charter Day on Friday.

WILLIAMSBURG With a tale about fixing up an uncle's old truck in order to expand the reach of a teenage Terry McAuliffe's driveway-sealing business, Virginia's 72nd governor on Friday dared College of William and Mary students and staff to take a chance.

"I remember to this day, when I turned the key and that engine, big old junker, roared to life I'm 15 years old, and I drove that truck home down Interstate 81, past the North Syracuse State Troopers substation," the governor recalled.

"I was hitting the horn, I was speeding. I didn't have any driver's license, there were no license plates on that truck, but folks, I was an entrepreneur and I was on my way."

McAuliffe, speaking at the school's annual Charter Day celebration, said he tells top state officials they need to take chances, too, in order to achieve. He said later that he had repeated the tale of his jaunt down I-81 to Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police.

"He just laughed," McAuliffe said. "The statute of limitations has expired."

But he told the story at William and Mary to make two points, in addition to the one about taking chances.

The first point was not to give up, or accept setbacks. He had fixed up the truck when his uncle said he was too busy to haul loads of supplies when the young McAuliffe wanted to expand from working on driveways to working on parking lots. In the same way, he said, after his lost his first bid to be governor in 2009 he just picked himself up and started running again.

The second point was a theme of his campaign and his inauguration access to education.

The driveway paving business was how he paid his way to go to college.

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Gov. Terry McAuliffe repaves old ground at William and Mary's Charter Day