Jenny Edwards

Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Friends, Graduates and your Families and Friends

It is particularly apt that we pay our respects to the original owners and custodians of knowledge of the land today because, although she is not Gadigal, The Business School is celbrating its first Aboriginal PhD graduate, Sonya Pearce.

My favorite animal is the tortoise. The reason is that for the tortoise to move, it has to stick its neck out. There will be times in your life when you have to stick your neck out. There will be challenges and instead of hiding in a shell, you have to go out and meet them.   Much to the chagrin of some of the people on stage behind me, I’ve been sticking my neck out for the last forty years and today they gave me an award for it.

You’ve already passed your first challenge by gaining a degree in Business, and for many, a second or even third degree, which while in Business may be on top of a first degree in a quite different field.  Many of you have faced further challenges by travelling to a new country, by studying while working or looking after a family. Business people play an important part in running the world but over the last few years, Business has not always had the highest reputation being held responsible for the global Financial Crisis, for example.

But neither doing well, nor failing is a measure of success.  Winston Churchill, like the tortoise, believed in sticking his neck out.  He said "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts."  The measure of success is what you think about what you've done. The way to be happy is to like yourself and the way to like yourself is to do only things that make you proud.

How many of you have an iPhone or an iPad?  When the late Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple was 17, he read a quote saying: "If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on him, and since that time, he looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer was "No" for too many days in a row, he knew he needed to change something.

The unexamined life may not be worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining. Make sure your life is worth examining.

By all calculations, the bee is aerodynamically unsound and shouldn’t be able to fly. Yet, the bee thinks he's a jumbo jet and flies to every plant he can land on to collect all the nectar it can hold. Bees are persistent creatures. They don’t know they can’t fly, so they just keep buzzing around.

Never give in to pessimism. Don’t know that you can’t fly, and you will soar. Don’t end up regretting what you did not do because you were too lazy or too frightened to soar. Be a bee! And soar to the heavens.

Follow your passion and your heart. You will need to find your passion. You will not find it in things or money or perhaps even in Business because the more you have, the more you will use that as a measure and would like to get more. The important things are those that fill you from inside. It will be grounded in people and in your relationships with them.

Look at your peers sitting next to you, your family and friends sitting behind you and your lecturers on stage. You will never be alone. You will go through times when you feel as if you are all alone, no one cares about you and that no one understands what you are going through. If your head is in your tortoise shell, you won't know that you are wrong. These people sitting around you care about you, can relate to your problems and are there for you whether you believe it or not. Trust people, go to them, they will listen and you will not be alone. Get to know your parents while they are still around. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your family and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Life is not about warming yourself by the fire, life is about building the fire. And generosity is the match... An old Chinese proverb says that if you want happiness for an hour, take a nap, but if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

Similarly the Irish have a saying, shrouds don't have pockets.  In the long term, making friends and bringing peace and happiness to others will stand you in better stead than making fortunes. Congratulations to you all on your achievements to date.  Now find something you can be passionate about, stick your neck out and use it to help make your mark on the world.

Eight months ago I developed a serious eye problem and was blind for a while.  Thanks to the excellent doctors at Sydney Eye Hospital, I now have some sight back but the drugs used have had a serious effect on my general health.  As a busy academic who was planning an active retirement, this came as a great shock.  It really brought home to me the importance of living each day to the full.  I am no longer able to see in the mirror each morning but I can still try to make a difference.  I urge you to do likewise.

May I again add my congratulations to all the graduates, especially my newest colleagues on stage, the PhD graduates.  It was a privilege to share the journey with many of you.