Jost Stollmann

Wow, what a campus, a space, a community celebrating the ingenuity of the human mind.

Presiding Deputy Chancellor, Provost, Dean of the Faculty, Presiding Director, Chair of Academic Board, Members of the university executive, staff, family, friends and most importantly graduates, I am very honoured to have been invited to share this important moment. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land which the UTS campus stands on, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay respect to the Elders past, present, and emerging. 

I can see it in front of me. The stage of the world famous Kirov Ballet in Saint Petersburg, empty, where the defector and one of the greatest male ballet dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov, in the 1985 movie “White Nights” recaptured by the Soviets, explodes in dancing sequences screaming into the direction of his former lover prima ballerina: “Free, do you know what it means to be free”.

Education, skills and knowledge give you the freedom to live a considered life, one that you have chosen, one that is worth living.

We are here in a place of education and knowledge. Knowledge is the most fascinating driver of progress. The accumulated knowledge of mankind doubles every five years. It has the potential to liberate humans from the curses of hunger, poverty, disease and illiteracy. It has the potential to save the planet earth from its worst predator ever, us.

Today, we are celebrating your graduation. We acknowledge the efforts you have made in acquiring skills and knowledge. Bravo! Congratulation! Good on you! But what is next? Where to build your knowledge further or apply it in real life?

I like the concept of “Flow”, published in 1975 by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly,  a Hungarian-American psychologist from the University of Chicago, who analysed fulfilled artists and athletes to conclude that life satisfaction overall depends on one’s ability to challenge one’s talent.

You might have already experienced projects or challenges where you got fully immersed and energized, feeling an enjoyment that lets you forget your sense of space and time.

I am blessed to have lived largely such a life. I was 28, working in Chicago in my first job with the Boston Consulting Group, when I got fired. I considered this to be the end of my educational journey and with hindsight good career advice.

I found fulfilment in identifying real problems worthwhile solving that require a significantly new approach. I call it: “Bring new things to life”. To use an image of ice hockey, do not chase the hockey puck, rather be where the hockey puck will be!

Of seven real problems that I tried my luck on, I succeeded with three, failed with three, partly succeeded and failed with one.

All were great experiences of all types ranging from shadow minister for Economy and Technology enabling the first red-green coalition in Germany, to a circumnavigation with the family on our own sailing yacht visiting the most remote islands of the planet to the launch of Australia’s first digital bank challenging the bank oligopoly and providing fair and transparent banking to the small business community - all with heaps of learnings.

When you run out of learning, it is time to move on. In my view happiness and satisfaction derive from challenging one’s talents. I do not mean this in the classical career sense.

People are different with different talents and aspirations. One cares for terminally ill people in their last hour, others help youngsters to unfold their talents, again others create new insight or new enterprise.

I am a great believer in you making a hypothesis of what you consider to be the most urgent or greatest problem to solve, map the respective space as to the best minds, leaders, institutions, companies and then find your entry point.

Try hard, fail fast and adjust or change your hypothesis until you find your true professional vocation.

If you struggle to find the theme of your passion, immerse yourself in the community of people who want to reinvent the world, trawl in the world of science, innovation, start-ups and networking events and let yourself be inspired.

The Nobel Price Laureate in Literature George Bernard Shaw had this to say: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Man and obviously woman.

To each and every one of you graduates I wish the Best for whatever endeavour you chose to pursue.