If Only Equal Opportunity Existed

They say in India these days, that when a man was not offered a job anywhere of the sort that he either deserved or was truly worthy of, he quit the last one he had, one far from deserving of him, to build his own empire. That empire was Reliance Industries and the man who built it was one Dhirubhai Ambani.

They also say in India these days, that when a humble Social Activist felt that the government was grossly neglecting the key social issues concerning the masses, he jumped into the political fray to first become Chief Minister of his State, then Prime Minister of the entire country, just so that he could reinvent the entire system, so that his people would be served better. And that would be one Narendra Modi.

Consistently competing for top spot on the world's best universities list, and often enough clinching that top spot, Harvard University was not able to challenge or occupy enough minds of two of its brightest students across a generational divide. As a result, one of the students, Bill Gates, dropped out before completing his education to start a company with his friend called Microsoft. The other, Mark Zuckerberg started an online networking site from his dorm room called Facebook and the quit then university without graduating to redefine how humanity interacts.

The examples of men like Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mark Zuckerberg and Narendra Modi (the most educated of the lot despite the most humble beginnings) fuel the belief that men can write their own destinies by creating their own opportunities, for themselves and others. Indeed, their stories are inspiring. Awe inspiring to be fair.

Then lets ask a question. How many graduates around the world who have passed out of at least decent universities with degrees completed full-time on campus with good grades end their lives each day because they got nowhere or they just simply got stuck? Has any government kept count? Would the UN keep such figures? Does society care to wonder? Some of them perhaps rising above overwhelming challenges of poverty, racial discrimination, broken families and whatever else not that stops a human being.

We all love stories that tell us of struggles from homeless to graduating from Harvard. Has anyone ever asked of anyone perhaps who may have graduated from Harvard, or a similar university, only to then disappear into homelessness?

How many of us know of students graduating from science, business and engineering faculties at leading universities to end up in jobs where they make and serve coffee, which whether or not was on the written job description, is a part of their daily job scope?

Let us rewind a little. How many children perhaps with potential to acquire, develop and utilise capabilities of the likes of Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates never got to go to school, never got to learn anything most people reading this will list as useful and lost their childhood to child labour, ultimately losing their adulthood?

Those that did get to school, how many of them in countries like India, despite doing really well for high school examinations, never got a university place in a course of their choice, while someone else with half their demonstrated academic performance did, because of either corruption or the country's notorious Affirmative Action system, where if you are from a "backward caste", never mind even if in the present day your father is filthy rich, or that casteism is against the country's constitution officially, you have a massive reserved quota of seats guaranteed for your "category" of students, that excludes others who have done much better on merit.

Now lets talk about those who do graduate, and lets limit the thought only to those who come out of the world's top 100 universities. And let us further limit the thought to only those graduates from such universities who did well academically, scoring distinctions. Is there a way to track how many such graduates never got an interview call from MNCs where their peers who did much worse in terms of grades did get jobs? You know, the MNCs which officially follow an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. Stated and declared. And is there a way for you and I to know for sure, how many of them never got those interview calls because of their gender, ethnicity, religion or political views?

When graduates from minority ethnic groups in Singapore, where I am, do not find employment fitting of their academic backgrounds or performances for a year or more, after graduating from universities that make the top list, with good grades, in large numbers, in proportionate comparison to numbers from the ethnic majority, it does warrant a thought, as to whether Equal Employment Opportunity is a reality, or a myth.

When you look at American companies operating in a multicultural Singapore, and see that certain departments at least are entirely filled or overwhelmingly dominated by a single ethnic group, where graduates in the field from certain minority groups aren't really that rare to come by, the question is warranted, as to whether Equal Employment Opportunity is real.

Then, lets look at the stage in life, after one does get a job, with a company of choice. Practically, in a job, one works for the boss, the immediate one. How many graduates around the world could there be who saw their careers end because they ended up working for a supervisor who was a bully on a power-trip, that never gave a fair performance review or appraisal? And then, when the subordinate sought a job elsewhere, the company never gave a fair review, but on the contrary, an unjustly damning one? To be honest, we do not have means to know the answers to such questions. And that isn't because the question is not fair or not legitimate. Of this reality, we need to be afraid. Very afraid.

Truth be told, not everyone has the start, the resources and the opportunity to be at the right time, at the right place, with the right people, to rise as did the likes of Bill Gates, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mark Zuckerberg and Narendra Modi. Mostly in our world, opportunity is given. And how opportunity is given, is too often a subjective matter rather than otherwise.

The question here, is not about shattered dreams. The question here, is about how much the world has lost out. Every time a child does not achieve his or her potential due to lack of opportunity, the world loses perhaps opportunity to gain from a Newton, Einstein, Gates or Zuckerberg. Every time a youth is unjustly denied a place in a college or university, the world loses perhaps the opportunity to gain from a Modi or an Obama. Every time a high potential graduate's career is stunted at the start, the world loses an opportunity to gain from what that graduate could otherwise have gone on to contribute to the economy or the future. Every time an employee with potential has his or her potential suppressed or is denied a promotion, the world loses ultimately, starting with that company not being able to tap the profit potential, that that denied employee has to offer. Killing the progress of one individual, to some degree, potentially stunts the progress of the world. And we will never know, how much precisely we may have lost, with each unjust failure.

And the question beckons, that should the progress of the world be contingent upon who is at the right place, at the right time, with the right people, to offer something to it's future? If we all have a vested interest in the world for our future generations, we need to think carefully, and objectively, about the answer.

Let's take an alternative view. Let's say that entry requirements for all universities were a simple pass on high school exams, with no affirmative action of any kind, and admissions were based on a controlled standard IQ test for all applicants. The applicant with the highest IQ score gets a place. Then, all the organisations in the world's agreed to do away with resumes and interviews, where they would insist upon relevant degrees or certificates in functional areas as basic criteria for hiring to fill job vacancies, and the hiring was done entirely, again on a controlled standard IQ test, where the applicant with the highest IQ score, gets the job. And then, all promotions, were based on controlled standard IQ tests amongst potential candidates for the promotion. Now, that would be rather fair and objective. It would also be utopian and idealistic. It is also a reality, that unfortunately for all of us, we aren't objective collectively. We humans, are a subjective lot. Even if this trait, of subjectivity, would be the cause for our extinction, it is hard to imagine, that we will foreseeably, collectively, truly desist from it.

Yet, lets just consider, what if all opportunities, as far as were possible, were given purely on the basis of IQ? Lets just presume we could be truly objective. Perhaps the big corporations would need to lay-off less workers having the greater intellectual horsepower at their disposals to avoid such needs? Perhaps there would be fewer corporations that run into the ground or be forced to sell out? Perhaps, loss, would be something far less in occurrence in commerce? Perhaps public services and governments would run better? Perhaps, we would deal with climate change better? Perhaps we would stave off the extinction of humanity for a much longer period? Perhaps may be a key word, and yet the answers to these questions may truly be, with a higher probability than not with logical thinking, very positive.

Where there is subjectivity though, logic is absent. And so too unfortunately, Equal Opportunity. This is not to mean that Fair Opportunity is absent everywhere, at every organisation and for everyone. This is to acknowledge, that Fair Opportunity has not been, is not being and will not be ahead, availed to everyone, everywhere, at every organisation, and that is damaging enough. And if Fair Opportunity is not available to all, everywhere and at every organisation, is Opportunity Equal? If equal, then by what measure? And hence I have come to conclude, that at least today, Equal Opportunity does not truly exist in our world. And off course I can only wish, that it did. And I also wish, that someone can and will prove me wrong.

The difference we can hope to make however, those of us who may have the opportunity to present an opportunity to another, now or ahead, is that if we see sense in objectivity, for the sake of our world ahead, for the sake of our descendants who will inherit it from us, we can choose to exercise objectivity, and fairness, in granting that opportunity. It is as much a practicality as we may hope for, even if never amounting to accomplishing the utopia of a meritorious society or true Equal Opportunity all around. Yet, perhaps, that may suffice, in rendering the future brighter, than it may otherwise be, at least to some degree.