Road to Uniqueness and Staying Connected – UQ Graduation Ceremony Speech

I had the honour of being the guest speaker at the graduation ceremony for the School of Economics at my alma mater, The University of Queensland, on 13 July 2022. This is an extract of my speech.

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You have now received your embossed paper that signified years of blood, sweat and tears. You have triumph over all-nighter assignments, exam stress and desperate attempts at understanding the practical application of indifference curves. Moreover, you did it through the COVID pandemic with sudden lockdowns, isolations and study from home. You are now graduates! Congratulations!

This is a major achievement and a milestone event in your life! This is also a fork in the road.

Road to Uniqueness

Many of you have been on the same path – going through high school, studying the same Micro and Macroeconomic subjects and now graduating together. From here, you will branch out and chart your own course. Without the constraint of formal education, you are now free to develop yourselves in your own way as individuals, leveraging your interests and abilities. It is time to pursue your uniqueness.

You develop your own uniqueness by seeking out your interests. Not knowing what to do after graduating, I stumbled into my first job in insolvency in the now insolvent accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. I knew little about insolvency or accounting but I was curious, interested and willing to learn. Over the next few years, I learned accounting & finance, liquidations & receiverships, administrating cocoa plantations and quarries. From there, my interests, curiosity and willingness to learn led me to a lot more interesting work – from international bidding for telco licences in India to setting up lottery business in the Philippines to running treasury for a Singapore casino resort.

While you may have your fill of economic theories, your learning journey has only just started. In line with human advancement, economic ideas, analytical tools and technology evolve.

You will learn new theories and analytical approaches to address the big issues of the day. During my university days, Milton Friedman’s monetarism and William Baumol’s contestability theory were the topical ideas in economics. Now we have Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler and their work in behavioural economics.

You will learn new technology as they evolve.?When I started work, I thought the facsimile machine was wonderful technology. Now we have emails and e-commerce. We have big data, machine learning and blockchain.

You will learn about your chosen industry, which may not be in existence today.

Most importantly, you will have to learn about you - your interests and what drives you. You will learn about your own uniqueness and pursue it.

You are well equipped to do it. While lecturers hone your technical knowledge in regression analysis and Capital Asset Pricing Models, you also developed other qualities along the way – ability to learn, problem solve, resilience, patience, and sheer stubbornness to never give up when the going gets tough. You will use these skills throughout your life.

Stay Connected

I graduated and left this university over 30 years ago, but UQ is always with me. UQ is there whenever I bring up my academic credentials. UQ provides me with branding, professional development (through alumni talks and seminars) as well as social and business network (through university friendships and the alumni community). Some senior management and distinguished individuals I know are old university friends. We met as mere students, bonding over shared trauma of exams and rushed assignments.

You are a part of this university and this university is a part of you. You are now part of a community of over 300,000 alumni and they are your source of contacts, mentors, friends and, potentially, jobs. Scattered globally, the alumni community is open to you, whether you are in Sydney, Shanghai or Santiago.

Stay connected to your university. It will provide you with camaraderie, support and guidance.

I wish you the best in your future endeavours. To paraphrase Karen Carpenter, “You have only just begun”.

Pursue your uniqueness, stay connected.

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KY Wong is Joint Managing Director of Tristar Capital Partners Pty Ltd, a Melbourne-based investment and corporate advisory firm.